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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Night of the Demons 3 Review


Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After fleeing the scene of a crime, a group of teens hide out at Hull House with predictable results.

Review: After the surprisingly well made second entry you may have some hope for the third act, but don't be fooled. Part one had charm, the sequel had cool characters and effects, and the third movie has absolutely nothing worth noting while maintaining all the flaws previously discussed and adding more. I guess it was simply too much to ask that a franchise continue with good ideas even when it's plot is as basic as a haunted house on Halloween. It's not as if they took a mere step down in quality which would be understandable as it's a part three in a direct-to-video franchise, but they took a major plunge as this entry is significantly more pathetic and doesn't even have any decent gore or monster effects.

Essentially, there are a bunch of losers roaming around town when they stumble upon two girls whose car broke down and pick them up. The group stops at a convenience store and somehow ends up in a shootout with police leading to them panicking and holding up at Hull House believing no one will find them there. The plot is stupid right from the beginning as it's supposed to be Halloween and yet there is almost no indication of such. This was one of the main detractors from part 2, but at least there was a Halloween party at one point in that movie. Here, there is one character with a mask, the two girls dressed up, and they may mention Halloween a couple times and that's it! Once again, it's as if they forgot that the premise of this series revolves around the demons rising every Halloween. The characters are stupid, annoying, and nowhere near as fun as part 2; I should probably stress the stupidity more, because they make so many bad decisions you want to jump into the movie and stab them yourself. I get that they were attempting to channel the creativity of part 2, but they do not pull it off one bit. Angela is still there for some reason even though she was killed twice in the last film. Her makeup effects are mostly the same, but everything feels toned down especially on some of the secondary demons. Hull House looks like shit with a whole new set not even attempting to look like the previous designs or taking the time to make the place look remotely creepy. This wouldn't even be entirely bad if they weren't so idiotic as to include reused footage from the last two movies! Needless to say everyone is killed one way or another with emphasis on the Reggie character who is bleeding to death all movie long and no one seems to care. The only survivors are some chick and wannbe cool guy who escape through shenanigans and they defeat Angela by pulling her across the beloved underground stream we keep hearing about. It wouldn't have been so bad with these two surviving if it weren't for the retarded sidestory about them, pretty much, falling in love at first sight one day in algebra class. Setting aside that these two look like they're in their thirties, are you serious here with a plotline that moronic?! It just sounds so badly..."Oh yeah, that magic day in algebra class when I met my soulmate!" Come the fuck on!

You know it's not a good sign when the writer of this movie admits it was stupid. They couldn't even do me the courtesy of throwing in some hot chicks like the other movies. Why didn't they find a way to incorporate Halloween more into the plot? If you removed what little Halloween elements there were, just about nothing would change except the look of two demons. The one detective is kind of interesting, despite his cliche retirement approaching, but he adds almost nothing to the story when he could have provided a new dynamic. The acting sucks, the effects are weak, the set design was beyond lazy, the characters are annoying, the chicks are busted, and they couldn't even get Halloween straight. Suffice to say, the stupidity with this film is why they gave up on this franchise until the remake.

Notable Moment: When the one detective says he will show the convenient store cashier a magic trick and asks him to pick a card. The cashier pulls out a Miranda Rights card which was an amusing moment and somewhat clever.

Final Rating: 4.5/10

2 comments:

Unknown said...

While I like the first NOTD movies....the 3rd installment totally sucked all kinds of ass.
1. The Hull House in NOTD3 is very noticeably from the get-go NOT the same Hull House from the first two movies. I read somewhere that after the end of the 2nd movie and before the 3rd movie that the actual house used for the first two movies had got bulldozed, thus eternally erasing the Hull House we all know and love.
2. The plot and script and acting- THE ENTIRE FUCKING THING!- were all completely terrible, cheesy and as if the writers and directors just didn't even try to make the last installment to be THE best of the 3 movies.
3. Angela (played by Amelia "Mimi" Kinkade in all 3 movies) was very "plain" looking; the way she was dressed in NOTD2 is my favorite look of hers. In NOTD3, she had barely no makeup nor design, and the movie itself just felt like a piss poor attempt to milk the last few drops from the franchise.
4. The ONLY things that stand out to make this movie "memorable" are NOT GOOD THINGS AT ALL. The script, acting, plot, AND crappy jokes were utterly unbearable.
5. Even when watching interviews with Amelia Kinkade as she answers questions about the movies and her experience with them...you can clearly see it written all in her eyes and face and forced smiles that she wants to come out and say what a total piece of shit the 3rd movie was; it is highly noticeable that she wasn't given the ammount of creativity and freedom as she had in the first 2 movies to make each scene something that freaks you out and that actually looks completely convincing. She did this 3 movie for the same principle reasons that young college girls do anal porn reluctantly: THEY NEED THE MONEY BUT AREN'T EXACTLY THRILLED BY HOW THEY HAVE TO EARN IT!
6. NOTD4 was in the works (writing and planning-wise) a few years. prior to that fucking abominable 2009 reboot...but, being that the actual Hull House from NOTD1&2 had been bulldozed sometime after NOTD2 and before NOTD3, that pretty much fucked all hope of bringing NOTD back with full glorious vengeance; also, Amelia Kinkade (she played Angela in all 3 NOTD movies) declined to reprise her role as Angela Franklin. Can you blame her? NOTD3 fucked it up for everybody.

villainsrule said...

Believe me, I know, this movie is shit.