Night of the Demon (1980 film)

Bill Nugent, an anthropology professor, is approached by Carla Thomas, a young woman whose father was murdered in the woods in Northern California. She suspects that his death was caused by a Bigfoot who, according to legend, resides in the woods in the region. Despite a number of disappearances and brutal murders–including the death of a young couple, the manual emasculation of a biker, and the butchering of two Girl Scouts–police have deemed the theory of a Bigfoot being responsible a hoax. Carla requests to accompany Bill along with four of his students—Roy, Pete, Gary, and Linda—on an expedition aiming to prove Bigfoot's existence.

They embark by boat along a river, and first camp on the property of an elderly man, Lou Carlson, who has claimed to witness the Bigfoot. Lou allows them to stay but is evasive when they attempt to speak to him. When one of the students, Roy, bribes Lou with alcohol, Lou suggests they seek out Wanda, a recluse who resides deep in the woods, and supposedly holds more information about the Bigfoot. Meanwhile, a hunter camping nearby is attacked and impaled by the Bigfoot on a jagged branch.

The next day, Nugent and his five companions visit the nearby town, where they glean from locals more information about Wanda: She is the daughter of a deranged preacher, Emmet McGinty, whose followers were rumored to engage in inbreeding, cannibalism, and human sacrifice. Emmet has since committed suicide. After learning of this, the group returns to the woods. That night, after the five have fallen asleep, they are awoken by the sound of chanting. Bill and Roy follow the sound, and stumble upon a Satanic sexual ritual involving Wanda around an effigy of Bigfoot; among the practitioners is a local sheriff. Bill interrupts the ritual by firing a gun, causing the cultists to scatter.

In the morning, Bill and the others find their boat missing, and large footprints left on the shore. After making plaster casts of the footprints, they push onward. That night, the Bigfoot attacks Linda and Gary while the two have sex, but they survive. The group eventually reach Wanda's cabin, bribing her with candy, but she has a nervous breakdown when the Bigfoot is mentioned. That night, Pete is attacked by the Bigfoot, who causes him to shoot himself with his rifle. The others attempt to locate Pete, but find he has disappeared.

Bill decides to hypnotize Wanda the next day, causing her to recall her abusive childhood: As a teenager, Wanda was brutally raped by the Bigfoot, an event her religious fanatic father, Emmet, witnessed in horror, convinced the beast was a demon. Emmet unsuccessfully attempted to induce an abortion by forcing Wanda to drink poison. Wanda eventually gave birth to the mutant half-human child, but Emmet killed it moments after its birth. In retaliation, Wanda burned her father alive in his barn, staging it to look like a suicide.

Hoping to find evidence of Wanda's Bigfoot child, Bill explores a cemetery nearby, where he digs up the skeletal remains of the infant Bigfoot, which appear to be more animal than human. The Bigfoot appears in the cemetery, and absconds with its dead spawn as Bill and the others fearfully barricade themselves in Wanda's cabin. Hours later, the Bigfoot hangs Pete's mutilated body on the porch before breaking into the home. Ignoring a dissonantly calm Wanda, the Bigfoot strangles Carla to death as the others barricade themselves in the kitchen. The Bigfoot breaks into the kitchen, where he disembowels Gary. Roy attempts to stop him, but the Bigfoot smashes his head through the window and cuts his throat on the glass, before impaling Linda with a pitchfork. Finally, the Bigfoot burns Bill's face on the hot stove, leaving him for dead.

Some time later, Bill lies helplessly in a hospital bed, having been found unconscious in the woods, his face horribly burned. When detectives inquire about Carla and the four students, all of whom are missing, Bill recounts his version of events to them. Both the police and attending doctors receive his story with disbelief, and the hospital psychologist deems him criminally insane.

Devon Bertsch of Digital Retribution wrote, "When the Bigfoot is off screen, it is admittedly hard to overlook the film's many, many flaws. Indeed everything that is not the Bigfoot is highly flawed, and even the Bigfoot himself looks pretty crap. The acting, script, FX and the often incongruous score are laughable, but add to the film's wacko charm."[10] A 2½ out of 5 was given to the film by Justin Kerswell of Hysteria Lives!, who called it "undoubtedly the best of the worst of the early 80s backwoods slashers".[11] Dread Central's Chris Haberman stated, "Is this a 'so-bad-it's-good' movie? No. This is one of those rare, largely forgotten films that was taken so seriously by its creators that it is difficult to imagine a large team of people reading the script, enjoying it, coming on-board, and putting in the time and energy to bring the terrible story to life. As such, this is an 'I-must-have-a-fever' movie, because most of what you'll see may feel like a hallucination" and "The film has plenty of problems, but I think the reason its supporters still stand beside this freakshow is that the film works hard to entertain. No matter how clumsy the dialogue and effects may be, these cats were trying to be taken seriously, and the result is too angry and depraved to be considered a lazy cash-in or mocking parody piece. The filmmakers' intention to make an earnestly mean and perverted film is undeniable, and that weird essence turns even the most absurdly executed set pieces into memorable mindfuckers".[12]

• Nash, Jay Robert; Ross, Stanley Ralph (1987). The Motion Picture Guide. 9. Cinebooks. ISBN 978-0-933-99709-7.
• Scheuer, Steven (1990). Movies on TV and Videocassette, 1991-1992 (15th ed.). New York City, New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-28801-8.

• Night of the Demon at AllMovie
• Night of the Demon at IMDb
• Night of the Demon at Rotten Tomatoes