A cult classic 1980, though sometimes erroneously labeled as a 1979, horror film directed by James C. Wasson and produced by Jim L. Ball.
The plot involves a horribly scarred man recollecting how he ended up where he was to investigators, revealing he was an anthropology professor who took his students on an excursion to investigate bigfoot reports. Along the way, he recounts tales to them about how Bigfoot horribly mutilated multiple victims. They discover a reclusive mountain cult which worships the monster as a demon, and interrupt a ceremony in which the cultists try to offer up a crazy woman named Wanda as the beast's bride. Seeking Wanda, the group is told of her past as the bigfoot stalks the cabin.
Starring virtually entirely unknowns, the film is perhaps best known for appearing on the Video Nasties list. A not-unearned title given the very visceral and gory kills. The movie can best be described as a Slasher Movie with a bigfoot as the killer, right down to the monster using weapons on several occasions.
Night of the Demon (1980) provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Wanda's father, a horribly abusive asshole who tormented his daughter and stood by and did nothing as she was raped by the bigfoot. When she decides to keep the baby, he tries to poison her several times and then murders the baby in front of her just after she gave birth. Wanda locked him inside a barn and burned him to death.
- Camera Abuse: When Bigfoot rips off a victim's arm, the blood splatters all over the camera.
- Crippling Castration: One story has a biker pull over to relieve himself in the woods. Bigfoot grabs his crotch and tears his genitalia off, leaving him to bleed to death.
- Downer Ending: Every member of the expedition is killed except for Professor Nugent, who suffers severe facial burns courtesy of Bigfoot. When Nugent tries explain what happened to the authorities, he's deemed criminally insane.
- Gorn: To the point of frequently interrupting the narrative flow just to get more gory.
- Groin Attack: One of Bigfoot's victims is a biker who, while peeing out in the woods, has his genitals ripped off by the creature.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One unlucky student gets impaled through the back when the Bigfoot gets ahold of a pitchfork. Likewise, a hiker in his sleeping bag is spun around and thrown off a cliff by Bigfoot and impaled on a nearby tree limb.
- Improvised Weapon: During the final confrontation, Bigfoot uses the freshly-pilfered guts of one of his victims as a flail.
- Infallible Narrator: Nugent's retelling of the film's events and flashbacks somehow includes things like other characters' dreams.
- Just Ignore It: Wanda in the final attack. After keeping them from using the only gun the students and their teacher had, she calmly sits down and knits as the Bigfoot breaks in and slaughters the group of outsiders.
- Monster Misogyny: Played straight but also zigzagged. The bigfoot terrified and raped Wanda, but it and her did form a relationship of sorts after. The bigfoot sees her as its mate and protects her from outsiders and the cultists, and Wanda kept the students from shooting it during the attack.
- Novelization: Written by Brad Carter for the film's 2021 home video release on DVD and Blu-ray, it's a rare example of a movie getting a tie-in book long after it has come and gone from theaters. It was originally included in a set with the Blu-ray, but was eventually offered for sale on its own.
- Overcrank: Virtually the entire finale from the moment the bigfoot bursts into the house to the final attack is down in slow motion.
