With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless others delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. From grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create.
It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
One full decade after John Carpenter’s Halloween kickstarted the slasher craze, writer/producer Joe Augustyn and director Kevin S. Tenney set about creating their own holiday set slasher, titled Halloween Party. The slasher craze had all but slowed to a trickle at this point, and Augustyn wasn’t really interested in creating another masked maniac. Instead, he applied the slasher formula to demonic possession. As the body count grew higher, so too did the number of antagonists. Though low budget, the production design, characters, cool demon designs, and a title change resulted in a definitive Halloween cult classic.
The premise is simple. Angela Franklin (Amelia Kinkade) and her best bud Suzanne (Linnea Quigley) decide to throw their Halloween party at Hull House, an abandoned mortuary with an ill reputable past. Sure enough, an evil presence awakens after a seance, and their group is trapped inside Hull House while demonic spirits prey on them one by one. Other than goody-two-shoes Judy (Cathy Podewell) being the obvious candidate to survive, Night of the Demons tends to eschew traditional horror rules.
There’s a bookending subplot about an ornery old man that hates trick or treaters to the point of harm, and the detailed journey it takes for the 10 or 11 partygoers to unite under the Hull House roof. It takes quite a while before the actual demonic part of the story really gets going. While that slow start might be tedious in other horror movies, it works here. That’s because of the Halloween and punk rock spirit. Goth queen Angela is a counterculture icon. Night of the Demons often tends to be many viewers’ first brush with Bauhaus. We’re reveling in the atmosphere along with these characters.
Of course, there are the demons, which were designed and created by special makeup effects artist Steve Johnson (Lord of Illusions, Blade II, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master). Johnson had already established himself as an artist, working for and along artists like Rob Bottin, Greg Cannom, and Rick Baker on major productions. But Night of the Demons was the first film that was entirely his own, his breakout film with his own effects company. Though the budget might have been a lot lower than films he’d previously worked on, he was determined to prove himself. First order of business was designing demonically possessed characters that didn’t look anything like the Exorcist-type that had become standard.
He found inspiration in Lon Chaney Sr. Namely, in Chaney Sr.’s ability to exaggerate his features to maximize the makeups and the scares. It was The Lost Boys that provided the rest of the inspiration behind the memorable demons. Or rather, it was while he was working on a makeup test for The Lost Boys -director Joel Schumacher ultimately decided to go in a different direction– that gave him the idea to stretch out the mouth by taping back the skin. Think demonic facelift. Add in creepy teeth and demon prosthetics around the eyes and cheeks, and voila. A new kind of movie demon was created.
Initially Suzanne, as the first to become possessed, was to spit bile. But the Exorcist’s Regan already cornered the market on demonic vomiting, so it was swapped out with the memorable lipstick moment. For that, Johnson created a whole chest piece for Quigley using gelatin so it’d look realistic. That also meant having to shoot it quickly before it melted once removed from the fridge. A fake gelatin chest and a trick lipstick. It was hardly Johnson’s only ingenuity on the meager budget; when Jay gets his eyes gouged out, that’s cherry tomatoes. Nothing pops and squishes quite like a tomato, right?
Between the demons, the killer soundtrack, fan favorites Suzanne and Angela, and a serious level of entertaining fun, Night of the Demons has become a Halloween staple. Moments of utter silliness are balanced out by moments of cleverness; spoiler- Rodger (Alvin Alexis) outlasting everyone because he’s the first and only to flee in absolute terror is a nice touch. Who could forget that killer animated title sequence, either? All of which to say, Angela sure knows how to throw a killer Halloween party.