Night of the Demons 2 (Film Review)

1994 Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith; Written by: Joe Augustyn and James Penzi
Starring: Merle Kennedy, Amelia Kinkade, Cristi Harris, Rick Peters, Jennifer Rhodes, and Christine Taylor
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 95 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10

Six years after a bunch of dumb, horny teenagers got ripped to shreds and possessed by demons at Hull House, a group of new dumb, horny teenagers are ready to do the same. This time, they're students at a nearby Catholic School, led by a priest who'd rather read Catcher in the Rye than the Bible, and a nun who might be tough on the students, but spends her free time practicing to battle evil with her crucifix-studded nunchuks. Students include another sweet, but not quite virginal female protagonist, Bibi, her boyfriend, Johnny, and the young sister of one of the previous film's victims, Melissa. Will this new crew be fresh meat on this Night of the Demons....2?
While the first Night of the Demons is a cult classic, it doesn't quite raise my needle. I like the goofy setup and some of the sillier details, but after a while, the bad actors stumbling around dark hallways grows tiring for me. The more vast setting of a school for this second entry piqued my interest, but when it's revealed that the dumb, horny kids from this film are going to head right back to Hull House, my heart sank a little. Thankfully, the movie doesn't rest on its laurels and degenerate into another "idiots walking down hallways" movie, but keeps things quirky and weird, while continuing to hop back and forth between settings.
There's also some sense of...morality? I found certain elements of this film surprisingly refreshing. How often does a movie setup a strict nun, and then let her become the badass hero of the film? Usually in a movie like this, the nun would try to be righteous and then falter in her faith and get ironically diced up by the demons. Not this nun! There's also a kid, Perry, played by Tremors' Robert Jayne, who is dead-set on proving to the film's over-secularized priest that demons are real and a threat. In some movies, this kid would get humiliated, and maybe the priest would be the good guy. Not in Night of the Demons 2! The kid grabs a supersoaker and balloons full of holy water and teams up with the nun to kick demon ass!
But what about the main protagonist, Bibi? Christi Harris might not be a great actress, but she's at least got charisma and screen charm, and the karate-kicking Johnny Moran is shockingly not irritating as her boyfriend, Johnny. I actually cared enough to yell at the screen at the end when Bibi, Johnny, the nun, and Perry are in constant peril. Yes, this movie is super dumb. But between the likable characters, crowd-pleasing moments, and loads of gooey, well-executed gore, it's also a lot of fun.