“Demonic possession is good for boosting low self-esteem and settling scores with old enemies, but unfortunately, it’s bad for your skin.”

With psychic, chat, and sex hotlines gaining popularity in the late 80’s, it wasn’t long before the “for entertainment purposes only” trend inspired a horror movie involving a 976 number. And that’s exactly what we get with “976-Evil.” Though the movie should’ve been titled “976-Awful.” This was a huge directorial dud from Springwood’s resident nightmare man, Robert Englund, who took a brief break from harvesting the souls of sleeping Elm Street children to helm this crappy little horror flick.

Things get started when a dweeb named Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys) starts playing a deadly game of Satan Says after calling what appears to be a harmless horoscope hotline. And with the help of his spiritual advisor from Hell, it isn’t long before he’s dialing up some good ol’ supernatural revenge against his abusers.

The mostly mid-twenties cast looks like audition rejects from any number of 80’s movies. First up we have a bathroom bully and amateur card shark who thinks he is “Duckie” from “Pretty in Pink.” Another guy at the poker game reminded me of Ivan Drago from “Rocky 4″ without the Russian accent, and about 65 lbs lighter, like he went on some kind of crazy all grapefruit diet. Spike (Patrick O’Bryan) is an “Eddie and the Cruisers” greaser-type and has a full-time job defending his wimpy cousin, Hoax, from the bathroom bullies at school. When this soft-hearted bad boy isn’t saving helpless geeks from being humiliated, he enjoys toying with his girlfriend’s, Suzie’s, emotions, and spends late nights gambling away his self-respect and personal belongings at high-stakes poker games. Suzie is a short-haired blonde cutie who dresses like she raided Cindy Lauper’s closet. This fashion-trendy girl just wants to have fun two-timing her boyfriend, Spike, and teasing us movie viewers by barely showing her little half-pints for the camera. Even though these characters had about as much appeal and depth as a scratch ‘n’ sniff sticker, the film does provide one colorful personality, an amped-up Bible-beater named Aunt Lucy (Sandy Dennis), who looks like a cross between “Mimi” from “The Drew Carey Show” and the demented cafeteria lady from high school, who worked or still works the lunch line. Her onscreen performance is so campy, you’ll want to stake a tent and roast some marshmallows.

Many of the deaths, like the one involving a neon pitchfork sign, had all the excitement and visual flare of an Amish fashion show. Kevin Yagher (”Sleepy Hollow”, “Mission Impossible 2″) was the effects supervisor on this production, but it didn’t look like he was doing much supervising. Unfortunately, we get several lame kills that had the energy of a weak cell phone signal, and were in desperate need of a blood transfusion. Next are a couple of failed cheesy poker humor gags involving a deadman’s hand and a pair of human hearts that were about as funny as being awakened at 3 in the morning by a drunk person calling the wrong number. The film’s only decent curtain call occurs at the very beginning, with a guy bursting into flames like the Hindenburg, after making the fatal mistake of not returning the Dark Master’s phone calls. Sadly, there were kills that felt tacked on in order to beef-up a skinny running time. An example is the death of a lady walking down a street who gets julienned by some flying glass shards after finding out that when you’re on the Devil’s calling plan, roaming charges are killer. Although the film has several misses in the kill department, there is one curtain call involving Suzie’s deadly dinner date with a group of spiders that almost hits the target. However it ended up being about as effective as using a toy cap gun at a skeet shoot competition. It’s a real shame, too, because if the scene had been handled by a director who understood how to film scenes of terror, the sequence could have caused a”heebie jeebee’s” reaction similar to the cockroaches segment, “They’re creeping up on you,” from the movie “Creepshow.” But, instead of grabbing a can of Raid, I was reaching for a Red Bull so I could stay awake during this mess of a bore-fest. And while we’re on the subject of misses and near misses, the film does have one truly cringe-worthy scene. It involves the newly possessed “Hell Geek”, a.k.a. Hoax, having a Freddy Krueger moment as he gives a bathroom bully a close shave using his supersized demon claw. Now, maybe director Robert Englund thought he was being clever but, the Krueger homage came off as stale and would make a dinner roll from the Last Supper found today seem fresh.

Also, this movie has absolutely no scares or suspense whatsoever. The only scary thing worth mentioning is where director Englund and crew filmed the crack house interior shots for the movie theater and high school bathroom. The locations looked so disgusting that I wanted to pause the movie and visit a free clinic to make sure that I didn’t catch anything. Seriously, a sewer pipe would think twice before backing up in any of these places. Then there is the issue of the film’s dial-up-connection-like pacing. I could be watching this movie, go into a coma for 5 years, wake up, and I’d still only be half-way through the movie. Unfortunately, what started out as a cool movie title and premise, quickly turned into an incoherent disaster of throw-away scenes, piss-poor acting, and amateur looking visual effects. And when the end credits began marching on screen, I was wishing that this number had been disconnected.

Don’t expect to find Miss Cleo, or anyone from the Psychic Frauds Network, manning the phones when you dial this number.

Roadside Attractions

- Killer icicle chandler
- Robo-caller from hell
- Hell actually does freeze over
- Supersized demon hands
- Reckless use of a moped
- Raining fish from the sky
- Electrifying death by neon pitchfork sign
- A severed hand
- A pair of human hearts
- Wheels of death Camaro

Rated 3.0 out of 10

Check out the trailer for 976-Evil

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WARNING: The trailer below contains graphic violence and nudity. But really what did you expect on Thanksgiving Day?

“Johnny’s new satanic twister floor game never did catch on at parties. Players kept ending up in purgatory.”

I’m dissapointed that the media never covered a particular subject this past election season that I felt was important. The problem of overcrowded prisons. If you don’t mind me getting up on my soapbox for a second, I don’t think they rehabilitate and we certainly can’t find enough room to build more of them. I think there’s a couple easy solutions for this though. First, build them on golf courses. Yeah golf courses with all their well manicured grass and rich people in plaid pants chasing around little white balls. They could really use a correctional facility next to the local country club. The lifers in solitary confinement or the trouble makers in cell block 5 could be the new caddys. It’s not only punishment for the inmates but it would keep those old rich guys on their toes thinking they might get a 9 iron to the back of the head or end up buried headfirst in a sand trap. As for rehabilitation, I think they should ship in some old Catholic school nuns to shape things up. They could parachute them in storming the golf course hills like para-nuns.  A old cranky nun with a long range wooden ruler and rosemary side arm is much more intimidating than a warden anyday and nuns can get the job done. Sure, in Catholics school You may have hated that old sister of the cloth running your math class but I bet you knew your Algebra. They are able to quite literary strike the fear of God into people and make an excellent prison guard to boot. Even a 250 pound harden criminal serving time for tearing the tag off a mattress pad would cry like a little girl when facing wrong end of one of those wood rulers. So be sure to write you local congress and ask for your new Catholic penitentiary golf resort. It’s time for a change.

Sister Gloria is one nun you don’t want to mess with in Night of the Demons 2. She’s like the Chuck Norris of Catholicism including the facial hair and roundhouse kicks. She’s also the head holy lady at a private school for troubled teens where the motto is “If you’re not screwed up now we’re not working hard enough.”  Much like Chuck Norris, Sister Gloria’s job consist of mostly trying to educate girls on woman’s health issues and keep teens from having sex. She’d have less to worry about if they just not build their co-ed dorms facing each other’s bedroom windows where the guys stock up on binoculars  and the girls are oblivious to the fact they have no window shades. The school also just happens to be a convenient drive to the old Hull house around the corner where a  demonized Angela made mince meat of some local teens a few years back. Angela’s body was never found and the urban legend peeks the curiosity of some of the students, one of whom happens to be Angela’s sister “Mouse.” She’s A uber-emo girl with a bowl cut hair-do and keen Amish fashion sense. Mouse believes that Angela still haunts it’s halls waiting for her guests to someday return, so some of the girls and school jocks think it would be happy fun times to kidnap Mouse and take her to Hull house for yet another Halloween party and fake virgin sacrifice. Apparently the rule of a successful halloween bash is if everyone dies at the first party, try try again. This time Angela isn’t content to staying on the property with her new guests so she crams her demon soul into a lipstick canister that one of the girls discovers in a bathroom. Yes, the exact same lipstick case from the first film that was ingested by a demon’s boob.  “Ewwww!”  

After a sinus vaporizing mist releases Angela from her lipstick prison, she shows us yet again she can still shake her money maker and puts on a  exhibition at the Halloween school dance.  It distracts people long enough for one of her newly converted she-demons to melt a dude’s hand with her mutant breast grip of death, a horrifying second base move for that horny guy. Meanwhile a  local dweeb with a cult book collection that he picked up on Ebay tries to warn the school’s priest that Angela is real and is out for blood. He even performs his own demon raising ceremony to prove it and nearly gets himself killed in the process. What made him think that the best way to prove the existence of a dangerous demon is by throwing them an open house party? That’s like proving the existence of sharks by wearing a wetsuit made of chum.

Angela starts converting over students to  her demon army via dry humping, french kissing, or decapitations, and not necessarily in that order. The result is more of a demon garage band than an actual army ..I only counted about 4 demons totals so they’re still short a keyboard player. Angela tells Mouse that she’s not as evil as everyone says and has a nice heart to heart talk convincing her to head back to Hull house in her demom-mobile. Angela apparently wants to get promoted to management in Hell’s HR office so she hopes that by sacrificing Mouse she’ll score some Beelzebub brownie points. As she gets prepped for the big ceremony, Mouse’s few surviving friends along with the school’s priest,  the assassin nun, and a dweeb armed with holy water squirt guns and water balloons attempt to rescue her. They end up fighting a decapitated point guard and a giant mutant anaconda instead. Not something they were trained for in Catholicism.

Much like the original Night of the Demons…the movie has a lot of tongue in cheek humor…literally, there’s a lot of ripped out tongues and cheeks continuing the fine tradition of gorey horrey fun. So always remember if you’re hosting a Halloween party in a creepy house and some satanic goth girl starts a dance show, don’t wait around for the encore. You should have learned your lesson from your first demon infested halloween party where everyone died.

Roadside Attractions

-1 Demon Snake creature
-2 failed virgin sacrifices
-2 lady liplocks
-Chin chomping
-Talking toilet bowl heads
-Multiple demon french kissing
-Lipstick possessions
-Reverse breast fondling
-Holy super soakers
-Basketball decapitations
-Holy water balloon fights

rated 8.4 out of 10 for the movie

I ordered the three bean burrito platter from Las Tres Amigos and my stomach had it’s own night of the demons. 

HAHA! hilarious the YouTube preview image is some dude in his underwear but really this is the actual movie Night of the Demons 2 and not gay porn.

“Always remember, Don’t Drink and Die. Coffins and beer don’t mix.”

I’m having Halloween let down. No more Halloween horror movie marathons, no more pumpkin carving, no more creepy decorations unless you count those weird inflatable Walmart santas already appearing on people’s lawns, and of course no more candy binges.  arents refer to it as ” safety testing” the  candy, but we all know it’s really just a excuse to raid those ankle biters for all the Kit-Kats they can find. As a kid halloween is amazing. You could dress as a mutant Hell clown and go bang on your neighbor’s door and they’d give you free candy. If I did that as an adult I’d get arrested. I can’t believe how expensive costumes have gotten either. I think next year I should make my son wear a garbage bag and then he can just tell everyone he’s a raisin. It’ll probably earn him a couple used batteries and kethup packets for treats but hey a little humiliation helps build character. Just look what it did for Charlie Brown. You just can’t put a price on that life lesson. So After all the spooky festivities have concluded it’s a tough 2 months wait until the consumer-tastic fun times of Christmas even though the malls started decorating back in September. Yeah I know Thanksgiving falls in there somewhere,  but isn’t that basically just a celebration of over-eating. Shoot, we do that most days anyways. Thanksgiving is just glutony with the added bonus of football and hanging out with your flatuate uncle from Topeka. I Say phooey to you Turkey day and a fond farewell to Halloween. Looking forward to seeing you again next year, but this time bring more Kit-Kats.

In Night of the Demons a group of teenagers have a pretty lousy Halloween, but highschoolers should really learn to not throw parties at haunted mortuaries especially on a school night. Judy and her baboon-like boyfriend, Jay decide to ditch the school-planned festivities and check out another bash hosted by the school’s resident goth queen, Angela. Angela, besides having a creepy joker like smile and a bleak fashion sense is also a chronic kleptomaniac. She shoplifts some party supplies at the local Burp n’ Go along with her tush shakin’ friend Suzanne played by none other than scream queen Linnea Quigly. The party’s final head count is about 8 people total, there’s some finger food and a Spencer gift disco light, so understandably the party fizzles out early. After standing around insulting each other for a few minutes they decide to throw a impromptu séance. Conjuring up ye old Bezzelobub on the haunted mirror hotline is always a good way to liven up any party. However the séance unwittingly unleashes some odorouse spirits into the house who search for the trampiest girls to possess and like moths to a flame end up in Linnea Quigly. It must be getting crowded in there, I suspect she had a couple demons in her already.

Suzzane passes some of that demon spirit onto Angela via an awkward lip lock, then Angela does a  spastic fireside flashdance for Sal, the Italian greaser. His everlasting Budwieser still can’t make her seem any more attractive  so he heads off to explore the rest of the house on his own. Some of the other teens have already split out early to various rooms to do the horizontal mombo. One couple even shags in a coffin thus making the killing that much more convenient for any nearby demons. It’s like getting free gift wrapping when you go shopping at the mall.  Two of Judy’s friends, Helen and Rodger who smartly ditched everyone earlier are still trapped in the house’s front yard surrounded by a never ending wall of doom. Like a couple of 80’s Eastern Germans they hunt the wall for an exit until Helen suddenly disappears  leaving a hyperventilating Rodger to go hide in his car. Meanwhile back in the house, a demonized Suzanne is trying out some creative ways to sample her Mary Kay cosmetic line and Angela who just snacked on a mullet fanboy’s tongue is gliding through the hallways on rollerskates hunting for survivors.  Rodger decides his car isn’t the safest place to hide when a mangled Helen gets shot put onto his roof so he hightails it back into the house. He and Judy  take refuge in the basement which is always the safest place to hide and Judy goes all McGyver-like with a make shift blow torch to fry her demonized friends. The extra crispy demonites chase them back outside as they try to scale the barbed wire wall like a poorly planned prison break. There’s been eye gouging, coffin dismemberment, tongue chewing, and  flame throwing so I’d already call this party a rousing success. Will anyone survive the night? Will Rodger ever live down being dressed like a gay pirate, and what will happen to all those delicious party hors d’oeuvres they left on the snack table? More creepiness  than outright horror with some great atmosphere and campy dialog, I’d consider this a perfect 80’s horror film, Retroman Steve says grab yourself a bag of Kit-Kats and get ready to party. 

Roadside Attractions

-Bovines with mullets
-Demonic inhalant mist
-Goth girls gone wild
-The amazing dissappearing lipstick trick
-Giant demonic easy bake oven
-1 homemade pipe torch
-2 demonic ankle grabs
-Illegal use of a sours balls joke
-Fireside go-go dancing
-Eye gouging
-Tongue chewing
-Coffin smashing
-Hors d’oeuvres of horror
-Barb-wire climbing
-Fresh homemade apple die

rated 10 out of 10 for the movie

Lessoned learned from this film, Mary Kay cosmetic should have a warning label “not be taken internally”

Check out the trailer for Night of the Demons