NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) Blu-ray Review

Night of the Demons (1988) d. Kevin S. Tenney (USA)

I missed a lot of the “classic” 1980s B-movies in their prime, only catching up with them much, much later on home video and at a more advanced stage in life. As a result, they don’t often carry the same sentimental nostalgia that they do for many other horror fans my age, although I have come to appreciate their cheesy appeal in a way that the younger version of me probably couldn’t have. When I finally took the plunge and rented Night of the Demons about 10 years ago, though all-too-familiar with its hag-adorned video cover art over the years, I found it to be “not bad,” with Steve Johnson’s exceptional makeup effects (in his first solo effort) balancing out the dumb-dumb characters and logy first act. After recently sitting through it a couple more times, in honor of Shout! Factory’s recent DVD/BR release, I have a much greater sense of appreciation for Kevin Tenney’s sophomore effort – it really is one of those special films that gets better with each viewing.

WITCHBOARD (1986) Blu-ray Review

Witchboard (1986) d. Kevin S. Tenney (USA)

Growing up in the 80s as I did, I have many formative memories of early MTV-era, where big hair and bodacious babes ruled the airwaves. And, like many a red-blooded heterosexual teen, I was gobsmacked in late 1987 by the sight of a certain fiery-maned, negligee-clad lass frolicking in, on, over, and around David Coverdale’s two Jaguar XJs in the video for Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again.” Even before the days of the interwebs, word quickly spread: the unattainable beauty in question was one Tawny Kitaen, and I missed many a class while waiting to catch a glimpse of her in a pre-YouTube era. (She’d already made a splash in the 1984 Tom Hanks movie, Bachelor Party, but I hadn’t seen it yet.) So, when I learned that there was a haunted Ouija board movie out there on the video shelves starring “that girl,” I made a point of tracking it down.