When I heard that Arow in the Head was invited to check out the
set of the upcoming remake of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS,
I got excited. The original NIGHT OF
THE DEMONS is one of my favorite old school horror flicks (The
Arrow feels the same), and I was curious to see where this remake
would would sit in comparison. I had
heard that Linnea Quigley was coming back for
a cameo, and that the house they picked for the remake was really creepy,
but besides those things I had no idea what direction this remake was going to
take. So I got my shit together, and
headed toward New Orleans.
The “Demons House”!
When I got to the parking area for NOTD crew members quickly
showed me the way to a small restaurant that the production had taken over.
The whole crew was inside eating, and talking about the scenes that they
were about to start shooting. Soon,
they introduced me to a set PA and all around nice guy, David, who was going to
act as a guide for myself, and other journalists that were on set that day.
So David lead the way to the beautiful looming, and yes, creepy mansion
that was the shooting location. I
immediately got excited! It was
extremely menacing, and yet beautiful at the same time.
David started off by walking us through each room of this awesome
location, and even showed us some prosthetics that were going to be used in some
of the scenes.
Is this seat taken?
It wasn’t long before the producers called for us, explaining
that they were about to take the first shot of the day.
This shot was an insert shot that looked pretty cool, but I wanted to see
some demons. We soon moved outside
so we could watch actress Monica Keena tackle a scene on the balcony.
This is when things started to get cool.
Not long after the scene on the balcony our friendly neighborhood PA,
David ushered us over to the video village, where director Adam Gierasch, and
the producers were setting up another scene for Monica.
When the prop department brought a shotgun to Adam for approval, I
couldn’t wait to see what they were going to focus their cameras on next.
It took a few minutes, and then we got to watch Monica Keena blast her
shotgun off! I was starting to think
that maybe this remake might actually get it right.
The crew was taking no prisoners, and Adam’s enthusiasm for the genre was
contagious. Also, from the scenes
we’d watched so far, the acting was really tight.
I predict some good fashioned loving will go happen in this room.
After a about an hour or so of working with the shotgun, we
headed into the foyer where to my surprise was an amazing looking demon
rehearsing for a scene. This is the
reason I was here, I wanted to see the demons!
Let me say that Drac FX hit the demon make-up right out of the park.
It definitely didn’t look like the kind of make-up effects you see on
most low budget productions. It was
an awesome throwback to the type of work I grew up on in the 80s.
I watched in anticipation as they worked on the scene with the demon girl
(who by the way had a smoking hot body), and I started to get flashbacks of late
night creature features that used to play on cable.
When this movie hits, even if it doesn’t live up to the expectations of
the original’s rabid fan-base, the demon effects rock.
It looks creepier at night!
Soon after this scene David led us to the trailers where we were
allowed to talk to some of the cast members for what would become very short,
but fun interviews. After the
interviews we said our goodbyes to David, and called it a night.
I went in to this visit not knowing what to expect, and also feeling a
little torn because of my fondness of the original movie.
But after meeting the cast and crew, watching a few scenes unfold in
front of my eyes, and seeing the killer demon make-up I’m ready to put aside my
feelings on the subject of remakes until after I watch NOTD.
Hope they keep this shot from the original in the remake!