From the siege of Ape Canyon to the 10-foot-tall bones found in Nevada and Azerbaijan, Bigfoot has been the most accessible cryptid in modern history. While Bigfoot has been nothing more than sweet conjecture formed from campfire stories, something about the burly beast has dug its claws into the hearts of humans all around the globe. The famed Patterson–Gimlin film found Bigfoot finally thrust onto celluloid, forever immortalizing it as one of the most divisive cryptozoological creatures. But it wouldn’t be until Robert F. Slatzer’s Bigfoot and Charles B. Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek that Bigfoot would truly find his home in horror cinema.
Enter: Jim L. Ball with a genre-defining, semi-historically accurate, WILD Bigfoot film.
Before becoming a certified video nasty, Ball’s story idea for Night of the Demon was nothing more than a rehashing of things that had been done before and better (Creature from Black Lake). And that’s exactly what transpired. As the story goes, director James C. Wasson was dismayed by the lively, comedic response by an audience to the film’s first screening. That’s when Ball had a brilliant idea…why not add gore? A few reshoots and additions would take Night of the Demon from being a carbon copy of better films to one of the most transgressive, gory, and haunting Bigfoot films to date.
Night of the Demon follows Professor Bill Nugent (Michael Cutt) and his group of anthropology students. The professor is approached by Carla Thomas (Shannon Cooper), whose father was mysteriously killed in the woods. Carla believes Bigfoot is the culprit of her father’s death, which corroborates the multiple mysterious, potentially Bigfoot-related deaths that have taken place in the woods previously. The deeper they descend into the forest, the stranger their experiences become: cults, Bigfoot/human hybrids, and terror abound. It truly is the night of the demon.
We start with the introduction of the face-bandaged Professor Bill Nugent, who is in the hospital and preparing to tell the whole bloody affair to the police and hospital staff. From there, we’re thrust directly into the film’s first ultra-violent sequence. Jay Thomas (Richard Fields), Carla’s father, is in the woods and preparing for his fishing trip. It’s quickly cut short when the red-visioned Bigfoot approaches and brutally rips his arm off. Muscle, tendons, and sinew dangle from his shoulder socket. As Jay falls over, his blood starts pooling in the deep, dermal-ridged track left by Bigfoot. It’s a simple kill, but one that acts as a beautifully bloody overture for what’s to come.
Films that utilize major reshoots based on test audience reactions find themselves in a tricky situation. How exactly can you add scenes in a way that doesn’t feel inserted after the fact, or keep the cohesion after principal photography was completed months ago? Let alone, how does a film on a shoestring budget do so appropriately? Thankfully, screenwriter Mike Williams crafted a screenplay that gave Ball the perfect opportunity for additions.
This previously bloodless film has many scenes where Professor Nugent sits his students around a campfire, regaling them with stories of Bigfoot’s murderous activities in these woods. Ball used these opportunities to intercut visceral scenes of violence within the professor’s stories. Not only does this addition make the film generally more entertaining, but it also ramps up the pacing. As much as I love this film, its regular scenes lack a motivating factor of pushing the story forward. It begins to feel as if the film had been written around the kills. Knowing this film’s backstory makes me wonder why the original film even got made.
How Night of the Demon portrays Bigfoot is one of the most multi-layered depictions of Bigfoot in the entire subgenre. Pre-Night of the Demon, Bigfoot was a one-note creature who simply stalked its prey and killed those who set foot on its land/invaded its personal territory. But Ball’s story and Williams’s script craft a version of Bigfoot that has feelings and emotions; it's a creature that acts on impulse and also thinks its actions through.
But, unlike most Bigfoot films of the time, Bigfoot isn’t the only villain, nor is it the main antagonist.
We meet Wanda McGinty (Melanie Graham) later in the film. Wanda is a reclusive agoraphobe who lives in the middle of the woods and reportedly has intimate information regarding Bigfoot. Wanda, at a young age, was thrust out of her home by her zealot father, Reverend Emmet McGinty (Barrett Cooper). Soon after being kicked out, Wanda is assaulted by Bigfoot, resulting in a Bigfoot/human hybrid. Emmet is truly the film’s antagonist.
But you’d be wrong to say Bigfoot and Emmet are the film’s only villains. Professor Bill Nugent is just as much of a villain as the rest of them. Wanda is incredibly reluctant to welcome Bill and his anthropology class into her home. In fact, she’s coerced by a piece of candy to let them enter. Once inside, the professor slowly whittles down Wanda; just because she isn’t saying no, doesn’t mean she’s saying yes. By the time the professor is tired of trying to learn what Wanda knows, he hypnotizes her. He’s weaponized what little trust he had built within Wanda and used it to get what he wanted. Having two humans mirror Bigfoot’s villainy is distinctly apt commentary that, sometimes, evil lurks in unassuming people.
That’s not even mentioning the Bigfoot/satanic sex cult!
While there are many layers to Night of the Demon–who is/isn’t a bad guy, and whether or not Bigfoot is justified in its brutal killings–it’s the kills that everyone (who has seen this film) gushes over. Bigfoot’s groin-ripping antics thrust Bigfoot into the slasher hall of fame. Whether it’s swinging around unsuspecting campers in their sleeping bags or using broken shards of glass to its benefit, each kill is more viscerally brutal than the last. Bigfoot has long been a cryptid that uses large sticks and rocks, along with its superhuman strength, to dispatch its victims. Night of the Demon creates a Bigfoot that rivals Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers.
Night of the Demon is a uniquely interesting take on the Bigfoot subgenre. It set a new bar, became a video nasty, and took nearly 25 years to get a fully assembled release. That’s one hell of a run, if you ask me. For fans of Bigfoot films, who haven’t seen this, Night of the Demon is a film that MUST get added to your watchlist. With incredibly gory kills, a wacky storyline, and a decent amount of nudity, Night of the Demon is soon to become one of your favorite midnight movies.
