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A SIMPTE
GARGRASH
WORDS / INTERVIEWS l\4ikelJ Koven
I M A G E S S e v e nA r t sP i c t u r e s/ K a l e i d o s c o pFei l mD i s k i b u t i oAnD D I T I O N A L I M A G E S S i m o n eB a r g e t z e

'Unfofiunatelu
mo$tofthotime| ilas
thing,
she
tnore
mcAngola
doing
Illiraftethl
nsodt0hG0nsst
didn't
Because
I didthalwn0le
anlm0ls.
her.'
nartl0r
all claimed shock and dismay that such a rumour
would exist about Bargetze. All three had nothing
but the highest praise for her.
screenmuch more than she is given
Lowry comments that, o'Shewas great, actually. She
credit lbr. GZ tried to interview her for
was a real trooper. She endedup, at the end ofthe
this present article, and although a time day, playing several characters, becauseshe was the
and date was arranged, she stood us up. one who could accept the make-up. They [the special
We contacted her again to try and get
effects make-upl were very harsh on the actors; the-v
some kind of validation on this rumour
had a tough time with it. And Simone, becauseof
before this article went to press, to
what she is and what she can do was able to step in
which the stunt performer did respond, and help out as much as possible.We were flying
albeit briefly: according to Bargetze,
her with wires, and full demon make up-whole
she still hasn't been paid for doing the
body make-up-she was great. I didnot have any
reshoots,her credit on the IMDb only
problem with her at all.o'McKay echoesthis praise
lists her as 'stunts' which effectively
and claims to not have any knowledge. "A gag order
underplays her contribution to the film, on Simone? No. This is the first I've heard of it.
and her pictures in Angela make-up are Why would she even think that? Simone did a
blocked. Bargetze also confirms that
fantastic job.I loved working with her and I canot
she was under a "gag order", to which
wait to work with her again."
she "can't say anything" further.
These comments completely contradict Bargetze's
We put these accusationsto several of
claims.They claim, as doesGierasch,to be unaware
the Night of the Demons key personnel:
of any bad feelings between the two parties. So,
Harvey Lowry, the co-producer largely what's going on here? The key to this mystery, I
responsiblefor the effectsmake-up, and think, can be found in an email sent to GZ from
After GZ ran its piece on Night oJ'the
Bargetze back when the first Night of the Demons
Demons,we received word that Simone therefore the person who would have
had the most day-to-day contact with
article was being prepared. In that emailoBargetze
Bargetze, the stunt double who plays
apologisesfor her poor English, noting that this is
Demon Angela (as well as severalother Bargetze; Greg McKay, the film's
primary producer, who would have
neither her first nor secondlanguage.According to
demons) in the film, had been
been responsiblefor most of the
her, it is the suppressionof her personal photos
effectively gaggedby the producers
from the shoot, in which it is perfectly obvious that
from talking about the film. According personneldecisions;and Adam
it is her, and not Shannon Elizabeth (who plays nonto Bargetze,the producers also tried to Gierasch, the film's director and, with
his wife Jace AndersonocoDemon Angela), which appears to be at the centre of
suppressthe photosof her in demon
screenwriter, who would have made
this controversy. In that earlier interview, Bargetze
make-up, which appeared to give
the artistic decisionson the shoot. Thev was asked about her relationship with Elizabeth, the
credenceto her claims that she is on
ocroBER
2oro/ 8Z/ s6

ack in GZ 49. we ran a

feature about the remake of
Kevin Tenney's1988horror
fifm. Nrgftt of the Demons.
We emphasisedthat, while
the basic plot had been
retained about a group of
kids who summon demonsat a
Halloween party, this remake was
taking the story in a different direction
altogether. To date, despite one festival
screeningback in 2009,Night ofthe
Demons has been another victim of
Distribution Hell, Some may argue
that GZ has already spent enough
spacepromoting yet another remake
of an original which wasn't such hot
shit to begin with. So why, late in 2010,
would we revisit a movie we'd likely
ignore in the first place?

miscommunication on both sides.Everyone I spoke

with about the film praised Bargetze and all said
they'd love to work with her again, so myth bustedl

usual 'what was it like to work with'

kind of question, to which she replied,
'oUnfortunately
most of the time I was
there doing the Angela thing, she
[Elizabethl didn,t need to be on set
anymore. BecauseI did that whole
part for her. But the few days she was
there with me, it was a real pleasure.,t
Remembering Bargetze'slack of
confidencein English, a big
miscommunication seemsto have
occurred. When Bargetze says she did
the whole part, it does not mean that
she replaced Elizabeth; she is referring
to those sceneswherein she is playing
Demon Angela. What Bargetze appears
to have been trying to say is that
Elizabeth never played Demon Angela,
it was always the stunt personosbody
in the make-up; a point further
supported by Lowrl'.
But then, if this is all just a
miscommunication issue,rr.hv
were her photographssuppressed?
The answer is suppliedb1.Gierasch.
'oI think at
the time. xe rranted to not
let the audienceknon that other
peoplewere playing the demons.We
didn't want peopleto sar. ,Oh. that's
somebodydifferent.' Simonedid a lot
more than just plal Demon -{ngela.
W e c o u l d n ' lh a r e d o n ei t u i t h o u t h e r .
She was just an a\r'esomestunt person
who was in make-up a /arl So.to be
honestoshewasn't just Demon
Angela.'oThe suppressionof
S u b s c r i b ea t h t t p : / c : - e : : - :

:: _< snoD

Bargetze's photographs then appears

to have been motivated, not by an
attempt to diminish her contribution to
the film, but to try and keep some of the
mystery and magic alive for Night of the
Demons' audience.In this era of instant
information and over-documentation,
where backstagephotos can be instantly
blogged remotely, you can't blame a
filmmaker for trying to sustain some
mystery about his film.

But not all is happinessand puppies in the wake of

Night of the Demons and there are others lurking in
shadovrslrith axesto grind. Joe Augustyn.the
writer of the original film, was not consulted or
includedin the remake,which has resultedin some
hurt feelings and resentment,According to
Augustvn, "From what I was told, my original
contract guaranteeing me the first right to write any
sequelwas not forwarded to Greg McKay when the
original executiveproducers closed a deal with him.
Itrs pretty obvious that none of the principles [Jeff
Geoffray, Walter Josten, Kevin Tenney, Greg
McKayo Adam Gieraschlwanted me involved as
they all wanted to claim the remake as their own."
I tried to push Augustyn for some elaboration on
this, but was rebuffed with a simple o,nocomment".

The filmmakers seemlargely unapologetic.McKay

notesto me, o'Joe'sa great guy and I'm the one who
dealt with him. We used his characters, but we
changed the story somewhat. He did a great job on
the original, but we were going in a different
direction in the remake." Gierasch elaborates...1'm
not shocked,but I alsodonotknow what role he
would have wanted to play. lt was one of those
things where you ask yourself, do you want to
include evervonewho worked on the original? And
Finally, the suggestionthat Bargetze,s
contribution to the film was diminished I hate to say it but, no, not really. I wanted to do my
can also be largely rubbished.Bargetze own movie. And Kevin [Tenney] knew this as well.
Everyone is very attached to the original films. And
c l a i m st h e f i l m ' s . p o w e r st h a t b e '
I knew the one thing I couldn't do was copy that.
(she's vague as to who is actually doing
these things to her) ,,denied [herl credit And we wanted it to be a very different film. I didn't
want the comparison,and if I'd stuck closerto the
on lMDb." While it is true that on
original, the two would have been compared. Now,
Night of the Demons, lMDb page
theyorequite different. Now, as far as Joe Augustyn
Bargetze is only listed as 'stunts', she is
is concerned,all I can say is I hope he likes it. He,s
given a more specific credit in the
free to get in touch with me. He was the original
actual film itself. McKay, while we
were conducting this interview, double- writer. I would have been more than happy to speak
with him. And I am still."
checked the credits on the film itself
and confirmed to me that, ,.She is
One of the few people from the original film to be
credited on the finished film as
'Angelaosstunt
included in the remake, in addition to Tennev as
double', so it should be
one of Nrg&l of the Demons' producers. is Linnea
very clear to the audiencethat she is
the Demon Angela", let alone any of
Quigley in a cameo appearance,who played
Suzannein the original. In the sameway that the
the additional cast members she
remake wanted to avoid slavish adherenceto the
doubled in make-up.
original 1988film, the producersdidn't want cameo
overload either. Gierasch notes to me that,
Bargetze's complaints ^bout Night of
the Demons appears to be something of
"Originally [Linnea Quigley'sappearancelwas not
in the cards.I succumbedto peer pressure.
a tempest in a teapot and many of the
Everyonewas asking me if Linnea was goingl|
issuesshe raisescan be dismissedas
ocroBERzotot E7t st

HtP0st0
'llllho's
l{infiadefl
Amelia
Aslar asI [now,Amelia
nilRy
hasliueda uGrU
life,andis nowt rct
p$Icnis.
lo
I didn'Iu{ant
Grammc mouieuith
[s I said,I really
Grmso$.
wantsd
it t0standonits
own.ilndlinneawa$an
cxs$[ti0nt0 mal rulG.'

lililillilillililllilllillililllilillil
I
'"'Mfficffi,,,ffi

ffi''

to be in the movie. Finally I said,

'OK! Sure! Put her in the
movie!' When you seethe lilm,
you'll laugh. It's a funny
cameo.tt
Not everyonewas laughing,
however. Amelia Kinkade, the
actresswho played the original
Angela, sent the following
commentto GZ through her
agent: o'Theylthe remake
producersl never tried to contact
her even for a cameo and it hurt
real bad!" I noted this to
Gierasch. whose immediate
responsewas "Whoos Amelia
Kinkade?" When reminded,
Gierasch went on to say, "No, it
never came up. As far as I know,
Amelia has lived a very happy
lif'e, and is now a pet psychic
I
lwww.ameliakinkade.coml.
didn't want to cram the movie
with cameos.As I said, I really
wanted it to stand on its own.
And Linnea was an exception to
- r *r
that rule." McKay takes this
ooWhen
you do
point even further.
cameos,it takesthe audienceright out
of the story. If we had given [Kinkadel
a cameo,the audiencewould say,
'Wow, there's Angela from the lirst
movie.' And that just wasn't the goal.

The goal was to tell a story. Should we

have had a cameo?Yeah. And we did.
It was Linnea and she did a great job."
Nuff said.

Gierasch and Anderson have written fbr a

number of stalwart horror icons,penning
three films for Tobe Hooper: Crocodile (2000);
The Toolbox Murders (2004); and Mortuary
(2005), and are currentlv working on a project
for Clive Barker. They were also two of the
writers on Dario Argento's mess-terpiece,
Mother of Tears,and I couldn't resist the
opportunity to talk to Gierasch about working with
Argento. Needlessto say, with a lilm as
disappointing as Mother of Tearsand given that
Gierasch is a remarkably knowledgeableguy, he is
under no illusionsto what we all think about this
film. "We sat down and wrote Mother oJ'Tearswith
Dario, which was an absolutely amazing experience.
And when we left, we thought we'd done our job.
We thought the script was really good. And, you
know. the movie is a 'Dario movie'. And my feelings
on it are, if anyonehas major leaguecritiquesof it'
not that they're illegitimate, but go back and watch
the earlier ones.Tell me if thosesameissuesin this
aren't the sameissuesin the earlier ones.With
Dario, he has such a distinct style. You're either
with him or you're not. I certainly view him as an
inspiration visually, like in Autopsy IGierasch's
directorial debutl,"
Gierasch's debut lilm,,4rtopsy (2008) is a pretty
good neo-slasherin its own right. So what about, in
Mother of Tears,that fucking evil monkey? "We're
sitting there one day, in this apartment in Rome'
and Dario says,'l have a new characterI qant in
this movie.It's a monkey.' A monkey? So DD

ocroBER
2oro/ EZ/ 58

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I'm thinking about Creepersl

Phenomenaand just how big a
monkey is he thinking? 'Smaller
monkey, smaller monkey.r Jace
especiallyjust loved that idea. And the
draft that we wrote after that just had
so much monkey in it, It was
absolutely increditrle. And Dario and
his brother Claudio were pleading
with us to take like half the monkey
out. The monkey was like chasingher
through the train terminal and
evervthing. lt still warms my heart
when I seethe movie with a big
audience,and the monkey comeson
and the whole audienceclaps and
laughs. The monkey is the monkey,
You either like monkeys or you
dontt."
The final, and no lesscontentious,
issuewe discussedwas Holllrvood's
current lack ofimagination in horror
cinema. Remake, after remake, after
remake. McKay confirmed that the
idea for remaking Night of the
Demons came out of his efforts to
securethe rights to remake another
Tenney frlm, Witchbo(trd. You know
Hollywood has lost the plot when in
this culture of remakes, they start
remaking movies which weren't really
any good in the first place.
Rewatching the original Night of the
Demons recently, it just underlines
that the I 980s was a bad decadefor
American cinema in general, not just
for horror. Tenney's original film is
like the Top Gan or Dirty Duncing of
the horror genre; films which have a
loyal following and are thought of
nostalgically, but really aren't very
ocroBER201-0
/ BZ/ 60

good in the first place. But then again,

maybe that's the point; remakes
rescuegood ideas from bad films.
For Lowry and his Drac studios, the
main reason for remaking Night of the
Demons was to demonstrate the
improvements in special effects makeup in the intervening 22 years.
"We stayed true to the original story,
but we went all out on the visual
effects.Some of the make-up processes
that we developedrecently are just
night to day from what was possible
back then. The guys who did the
original film did an incredible job
with what they had. Some of the
things we pulled off in this show just
weren't possiblethen."
According to Gierasch, "Remaking
Night of the Demons wasn't a hard
choice.I asked the producers if I could
do some peculiar things in the movie
that were not in the original-pitched
them this absolutely ruild scenewhere
two of the charactershave anal sex
and then turn into demons. And they
said 'good'. So I said, 'Then I'm your
director.' If vou lvant me to do demon

anal, I'm there every time." But getting back to the

politics of Hollywood's vapid culture of remakes,
Gierasch is absolutely unapologetic."To me,
remakes are just retelling a story. There are a lot
of peoplewho are really puritanical about remakes.
And I just think John Carpenter's The Thing
kicked the assof Howard Hawks' version.
Christopher Lee's Hammer Draculas,I don't see
anything wrong with those movies at all. I could go
on. I mean, there are bad ones,and I'm hoping
Night of the Demons isn't one of those. I just don't
believe that being puritanical about remakes or
sequelsgets you very far. I think the most
important thing is to be as creative as you can, and
to have as good a time as you can while making it."
And with that, Gierasch had one last trump to play,
informing us thatNigft/ of the Demons is actually
getting a theatrical releasein the UK in September
belbre its releaseon DVD in October. "lt is getting
a theatrical releasein the UK around September
200or something like that. You absolutely will get
to seeit on the big screen.I love it when people say
direct-to-DVD to me, and I can say, 'Well, it
dependson where you are.' Even in America we're
doing enoughscreeningsso that peoplewho really
want to seeit will be able to. 35mm, by the way. No
fucking bullshit digital projection. You get to seea
real moyie,"
Here's hoping it'll be worth it. MK

rv,gf,tof the Demonsis released on 15

ll
Septemberand is reviewedon page 31.