A group of kids go to a Halloween party, only to have to face down a group of demons.

Emily and Nate Weaver leave the city for the rural comfort of Nate’s ancestral home in New Hampshire. There, isolated and haunted by inexplicable noises and horrifying visions, Emily discovers she’s pregnant while Nate is possessed by the homicidal spirit of his forbearers. In a house haunted by past victims, Emily learns that she’s the latest target in a murderous tradition.

Suspiria and Inferno are two of the most baroque and spellbinding pieces of art ever made. Dario Argento felt the time was right to finish his ‘Three Mothers’ trilogy with Mother of Tears, and the Italian Hitchcock made the decision to fly Adam to Rome to put down on paper what fans had been waiting a generation for. For budgetary reasons, the original draft was altered quite a bit and moviegoers were left with a flat and atrocious mess that was all violence.

After being schooled in the peaks and valleys of what the directing process can be, Adam decided it was time to make his own picture with the After Dark Horrorfest original, Autopsy. What would have happened if Dario Argento had directed Re-Animator? Autopsy answers that humdinger of a question as Adam takes ER and drops it smack dab in the middle of a J-Horror splat fest.

With remakes being en vogue, it was only a matter of time before Kevin Tenney’s 1988 classic, Night of the Demons, found its way to being retold for a new audience. Can Adam Gierasch side-step the sophomore jinx and make a rock ‘n’ roll hootenanny movie that he has dreamt about since he was a teenager?

Angela [Shannon Elizabeth] is throwing a killer party at the Broussard Mansion where years ago seven demons, who are too evil for the bowels of hell, were accidentally brought up from the depths by a seance conducted by a jilted lover. After being bit by the corpse of one of the hellspawn, a demonic plague takes over as a real life rave from the grave ruptures as a group of friends must do battle with a heterogeneous band of unholy succubus.

I hate to flog a dead horse, but horror in the 1980′s never tried to be anything that it was not as the flicks encapsulated a rebellious freedom. It is very difficult to bring back that free spirit and jubilant simplicity of Night of the Demons. Kevin Tenney’s original was trashy fun that used sex, nudity, and gore and mixed them with a small house party setting to create a Halloween classic.

The new Night of the Demons is running on pure adrenaline as the Tourette syndrome style of editing makes it very hard to make out the new demons as I had a difficult time putting them into focus and appreciating the new designs, which differ significantly from Steve Johnson’s make-up effects. What Gierasch does best is add a little more back story with a sepia toned opening that plays like a homage to the warlock chain-whipping prologue from Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond; another movie that was shot in Louisiana. The Italian flavor continues with the cobwebbed catacombs and skeleton remains that recall the cavernous ambiance of The Gates of Hell.

Fan boys rejoice as Linnea Quigley cameos long enough to duplicate her infamous butt shot, and Diora Baird takes on the lipstick scene as she pushes the cosmetic appliance into the nipple of one huge boob that, according to her Twitter account, is not hers, “What you see is just a prosthetic piece. That is obvious.”

Adam Gierasch’s Night of the Demons is a flawed affair that has its heart in the right place. It has a bombastic soundtrack that will have head bangers everywhere with a serious case of whiplash as they mosh to the sounds of a saucey carnival ride.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Starring Diora Baird, Shannon Elizabeth, Monica Keena, Bobbi Sue Luther, Jonathan Beach, Michael Copon, Tiffany Shepis, and Edward Furlong, the film “follows Angela Feld throwing the Halloween party to end all Halloween parties at the infamous Broussard Mansion in New Orleans, where dark events transpired almost a century ago. But when the packed party gets busted by the police, Angela and her friends Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex and Jason are the only ones left behind. Soon Colin and Angela make a grisly discovery in the basement and inexplicable events start to take place. With the mansion gates mysteriously locked, the seven find themselves trapped for the night…and soon they’re fighting ancient demons for their very souls.”

Source: DreadCentral

No word on extras, but until that news comes, feel free to re-read our interviews with Monica and Edward (here).

Killer Film visited the set nearly a year ago with interviews with Gierasch and stars Monica Keena and Edward Furlong. Look for those in our interviews tab. The films also stars Shannon Elizabeth, Tiffany Shepis, and Doira Baird. Also released are some new stills from DreadCentral:

Synopsis: Angela Feld is throwing the Halloween party to end all Halloween parties at the infamous Broussard Mansion in New Orleans, where dark events transpired almost a century ago. But when the packed party gets busted by the police, Angela and her friends Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex and Jason are the only ones left behind. Soon Colin and Angela make a grisly discovery in the basement and inexplicable events start to take place. With the mansion gates mysteriously locked, the seven find themselves trapped for the night…and soon they’re fighting ancient demons for their very souls.

Source: Arrow in the Head

KillerFilm: How did you get involved with NOTD?

Adam: My girlfriend and I, who I’ve written Mother of Tears, Toolbox, Mortuary with had a script called Schism that we were going to go out with, to see if we could set it up.  And while we were doing a test screening of Autopsy, my last movie, one of the producers of Autopsy came up to me and asked, “Would you be interested in doing a remake of NOTD?”  Now at first I didn’t hear the S at the end.  I thought it was Night of the Demon, by the wonderful director Jacques Tourneur, but they were like “no, no, it’s NOTD from the 80s”  I went oh my God, the one with the animated opening sequence, with the Evil Dead like, lets call it an homage.  So, for a second I had to ask myself, because my question to myself is always, can I do a good job at it?  So I came up with a really perverse sequence for it, really nasty, and I decided that I would pitch that scene to them, if they like it, and they still like me after this then I’ll consider it. So I pitched them the idea, and they were like, “okay it sounds great Adam.  We’d love you to do it.”  So I thought back to when I was a seventeen year old, lonely punk rocker. What kind of horror movie would I want to see?  I would want a Halloween, punk rock, demon, orgy of demoness.  With that I can have a lot of fun.

KillerFilm:  I am a huge fan of the original, but for some reason a remake of it doesn’t irritate me as much as I thought it would.

Adam:  A remake is always hard.  Because in a lot of ways it’s kind of a lose, lose situation.  No matter how good you do, in some eyes it’s not going to live up to the original, and some people are going to hate you just for setting foot on the sacred ground that is the movie your remaking.  And I think that this one is generally, very fondly remembered.  People have a lot of affection for it, but I don’t think that there is the same degree of the sort of worship that some other films have.  So it seemed to me that it might be safer.  I look at this a continuation of not just NOTD, but Demons, and Demons 2.  Anything with Argento is very close to my heart.

KillerFilm:  Speaking Demons and Demons 2, how was it working with Argento on Mother of Tears?

Adam:  He is a genuinely sweet and giving person.  Just getting that gig, and being flown to Rome, living there for a month, and writing a script with him and Jace was a dream come true.  This was me, Jace, and Dario all collaborating.  I’ve worked with Toby Hooper, and I’ve worked with Clive Barker, and that was awesome, but Dario was the person that I was like, nobody else has done this.  And living like that in Italy, it totally changed our lives, we’ve been back like three times, and we keep coming back.  Rome is one of our favorite places in the world.  Even now I say to myself, “Did I really do that?” cause I’m just a geeky punk rock horror fan, and the fact that I’ve had these opportunities is like holy fuck!

KillerFilm: How are you enjoying your experience in New Orleans?

Adam: I love New Orleans, I’ve been, well not here, but a little north of Baton Rouge in a little town called Jackson.  I shot a film there called Autopsy, and it comes out in January, and it’ll be a part of the 8 Films to Die For.  It is my homage to 70s’, 80s’ Italian horror films.  It’s got a little Dr. Butcher M.D., and if you look for them there are a ton of Eastern European horror references.  Call me if you spot them, and I’ll give you a gold star because they are right there.  It’s not subtle.  

Right after this Adam had to rush back to the set.  Check back for more NOTD interviews, and talk about this one in the comments section.