Hey there, fellow horror geeks and monsterphiles! Prometheus here with a special Valentine’s Day edition of FRIGHT FIGHT FRIDAY! Today is round # of our EVIL SPIRITS bracket, THE HULL HOUSE DEMON (Night of the Demons) VS THE KANDARIAN DEMON (Evil Dead)!
If you’re new to the series, every Friday (mostly…) I pick two of our favorite horror movie baddies and to face off against each other. I have devised eight-man brackets, each with its own theme. The winner of each bracket will move on to compete for the coveted title of FFF’s ‘King of the Monsters!”
The fun doesn’t end there, though! When that’s all said and done and we have our king, I will comprise a HERO bracket. The winner will battle our king in a one-shot, epic battle to end it all! Click here and type in FRIGHT FIGHT FRIDAY to catch up on past fights! (The order of the brackets so far… ICONS, ALIENS, CLASSIC, HUMAN, EVIL SPIRITS.) Let’s take a look at today’s competitors. As always in the semi-finals, intros will be shorter because the fighters have already been introduced at length in their prior fight!
THE HULL HOUSE DEMON
From the film Night of the Demons, the Hull House Demon is a nasty son of a bitch that inhabits its victim and turns them into violent maniacs. If that sounds a bit familiar, don’t worry… I’ll get to that later. Based out of the Hull House, an old crematorium/mansion that was abandoned for well, being fucked up. There are several demons unleashed in the film, but we will only be dealing with the main one. This demon isn’t the most powerful in the bracket, but it’s certainly one of the most violent, making up for it.
THE KANDARIAN DEMON
The main antagonist of the Evil Dead franchise, the Kandarian Demon is extremely powerful. Unleashed by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, this thing has the power to create deadites out of almost anything. Including dead bodies, skeletons, trees and plants, and even inanimate objects, such as dolls. Oddly though, they can not possess vampires. What’s a Deadite, you ask? It’s a person, or object, that has been inhabited by evil spirits controlled by the Kandarian Demon. There can be many at one time and the demon works them like a puppet, if you will. Deadites are extremely aggressive, manic, overly dramatic, and downright fucking hilarious. (Except in Evil Dead 2013. They… were not hilarious.) Oh, and to kill one you have to either dismember its body entirely, burn it’s body completely, or bury it alive (unless you happen to be in possession of the Kandarian Dagger, of course) and we’re not even talking about the actual Kandarian Demon yet. But hey, all they really want is to feast on your soul…
FIGHT
Blood covers her face, chest, and hands as she staggers up the stairs. The music is loud, and the people are louder as she makes her way into the kitchen.
“That can’t be true. There’s no way.”
“I’m telling you. Why do you think this place was shut down.”
“Because it’s in the middle of freaking nowhere.”
“Nope.”
“You’re just trying to scare me, and it isn’t going to work Patrick.”
“Look it up. It’s public information, Janet. To this day they say the place is…”
“Oh, my God! Lacey, are you OK?” Janet, shocked at Lacey’s physical condition, drops her bottle of beer. It falls to the floor, shattering instantly and causing everyone else in the room to look. “What happened? Are you… OK?”
“Um, Janet…” Patrick interrupts. “I have a feeling Lacey isn’t home right now.”
A crowd gathers as Lacey looks around the room, her eyes are wide and empty. Her skin is pale and sickly.
“Patrick, I swear to God, this isn’t funny.” Janet looks at him angrily. “How did you get Lacey in on it, huh?”
“Janet, I…”
“No, seriously. What did you do? Come up with this whole elaborate plan just to scare me? I mean, come on. What did you guys, call each other and plan this out days ago?”
“Janet…” Patrick tries getting a word in, but she isn’t having it.
“I hope you enjoyed your stupid joke. You know, at midnight, it’s going to be Valentine’s day and maybe I’ll go spend it somewhere else.” “Ohhhs,” and “awe shits” come from the gathering crowd as she goes to walk away, but Lacey steps in front of her…
Across Town…
It was almost midnight and up until now, everything had gone perfectly. The restaurant he booked, the wine he chose. Hell, she even laughed at all his jokes. It was a near-perfect night and impeccable opening to what would hopefully be an epic Valentine’s Day weekend. He had only been dating Tiffany, who he liked to call Tiff (at her behest), for a few weeks, but he was crazy about her.
They say sometimes you just know, and boy did he. So, he’d decided to go all out. Of course, the cabin in the woods was a surprise. She was a nature girl, so it was a sure bet.
“Where are we going now, Brad? What’s this big surprise?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
“Really, you’ve done quite enough, already. I just want to hang out.” She looks down at the Teddy Bear in her hands and chuckles again at the balloon in it’s little hand. Happy Valentine’s Day, it reads.
“Good. That’s exactly the plan.” He turns onto a dirt road and Tiffany smiles.
“You’re not a serial killer or anything… are you?” She looks at him jokingly.
“I wasn’t the last time I checked.” He pulls the car in beside an old, wooden cabin, and turns off the car. “What do you think?”
“Is this for us?” She gets out of the car and shuts the door.
“For the whole weekend.” Brad exits the car and follows her as she walks up to the door.
“All ours?”
“Yup.”
Tiffany leans in and gives him a kiss. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
Opening the door, she walks inside, ignoring the question. She lets out an ear-splitting scream, loud enough to make the bats roosting in the rafter fly off into the starless night. She didn’t know which was worse. The sight of the mutilated girl, lying on the floor in a pool of coagulated blood, or the thick, palpable taste of copper mixing with the rotten stench of death. She becomes dizzy, and nauseous, expelling her expensive dinner all over the dirty cabin floor as Brad rushes in to see what’s wrong.
“Holy fucking shit…” He leans over, immediately following suit and throwing up on his fancy shoes.
“I…” Tiffany manages to get back on her feet. Her face is pale and sweat is beading on her brow. “I can’t… I need to get out of here” She rushes back out the door and once again, throws up next to the car.
Brad gathers his composure, the best he can, and takes a look at the girl on the floor. A chainsaw lays next to her. Hair and small pieces of flesh are stuck in the teeth. Even if this was someone he knew, he wouldn’t be able to tell. She was completely unrecognizable.
There was a second body on the floor. A man, much older. A detective badge sits on his exposed hip. As Brad walks toward him, the body begins to twitch…
Outside, Tiffany leans against the car, taking in the fresh air. She felt hot and was still fighting the urge to faint. “Brad, come on. I want to get out of here. Now.” A strong breeze blows against her face. It was colder than the rest of the air and seemed to be going against the wind. She looks around, her heart beating a mile a minute. “Brad, seriously… let’s go.”
Another gust of wind, much stronger this time, blows her head back...
Back inside, Detective Perroni’s body twitches again, then jerks violently as if having a seizure.
“What in the fuck…?” Brad backs up, a few steps at a time as the detective sits up. His movement is jerky and unnatural, but eventually, he gets to his feet, laughing hysterically. His eyes are white, with no pupils at all. His face contorted into something that looks like it might have been human, at one point. He runs outside, knowing it might already be too late.
Upon opening the door he’s greeted by his lover. Her face is emotionless and distant. Her eyes the same white color as the man inside. Her arm is extended toward him in offering. Blood is dripping from it, and when he realizes why - his mouth forms the word “No…” but no sound comes out.
“Be my Valentine,” she says to him, as he stares in disbelief at the mangled, bloody heart in her hand. A fist-sized hole in her chest confirms it’s her own. Behind him, the cabin door bursts open as Detective Perroni, in Deadite form, comes barreling through. This snaps Brad out of his momentary shock and back to reality. He knocks his beloved Tiffany to the ground, rushing past her, and to the car.
He wastes no time getting in, sitting on the Teddy Bear he gave Tiffany only a few hours ago. He mindlessly tosses it on the front seat as he starts the engine and peels off, screeching the tires. With the pedal to the floor, he flies down the dirt road as fast as he possibly can, his sanity is becoming thinner and harder to hold onto. He looks over at the Teddy Bear he’d tossed aside. It was sitting perfectly upright in the passenger seat. Suddenly, his sanity was much, much thinner.
Meanwhile, Back Across Town…
Lacey, infested by the Hull House demon, pushes her hand through Janet’s chest like a hot blade through warm butter. It pops through her back as Lacy wiggles her bloody fingers, then just as quickly, removes her arm, leaving a wound you can practically see-through in Janet’s chest. Patrick watches as his girlfriend's lifeless body falls to her knees first, then onto her face.
A stampede of drunken teenagers fight their way to the door as Lacy takes out as many as she can, biting Patrick on the throat and ripping out his jugular, then snapping the neck of another. She screams in rage as she tears through the flesh of a third.
She follows the crowd out into the street, thirsting for more blood.
As Brad tries to focus on the road, he can’t help but think that the damn Teddy Bear is staring at him. He knows that’s ridiculous, but with everything that’s happened tonight, was it really out of the realm of possibility? Of course, it’s also quite possible he’s entirely lost his mind. He looks over at it once more. This time, it turns its head and looks back at him.
“Holy shit!”
The Teddy Bear springs to life, jumping for Brad's face. It grabs on and bites Brad repeatedly, ripping off chunks off flesh each time and spitting them out. Blood leaks into his eyes, causing them to burn and blurring his vision. As he struggles with the evil Teddy Bear, a woman runs out into the road, unnoticed.
The car jerks upon impact. Brad rips the stuffed children’s toy off his face and throws it out the window. “Son of a bitch, what now?” He looks in the rearview mirror. His heart sinks when he sees the woman lying in the middle of the road. She had to be a teenager. He was already responsible for one death today; he wasn’t about to make it two.
He gets out of the car, overridden with guilt. “Are you OK?” He walks to her slowly, keeping his eye out for that son of a bitch Teddy Bear. “Miss?”
She sits up suddenly, her face twisted and deformed into something out of a nightmare. Her entire body is stained in blood, her teeth yellow, jagged, and broken.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”
Lacey stagers toward him, a large, sick smile on her face. He backs up until he hits the hood of the car. She’s closing in fast and as she gets close, the evil Teddy Bear leaps from the top of the car, clinging to her face. She tears it from her face and rips it in half, throwing it on the ground.
As Brad tries to get into the car, a strong gust of cold wind slams against his face. His eyes turn white and protrude from the sockets. His face instantly shifting into something a little less human as his body twitches and convulses. Spinning to look at Lacey, deadite Brad growls, “I will feast on your soul, for that.”
He runs toward her, tackling her to the ground. Lacy flips him over and bites down on his neck. Then headbutts him in the nose, breaking it. Then again, and again. Blood splashes against her face as she bashes her skull into him several times, breaking his cheekbones as well. As Brad stops moving, a strong gust of wind blows hard against the trees. She laughs maniacally as she sits on top of him. The only sound coming from the woods around them.
Lacey reaches down, feeling something on her leg. A vine is wrapped around her ankle. She pulls on it, but it only tightens its grip. Suddenly she is jerked from Brad's dead body and into the woods. Another vine violently wraps around each of her wrists, then her other ankle, holding her down to the ground. Another one wraps around her head, keeping her from lifting it.
As she lay on the cold dirt, a final, thicker vine wraps around her leg. Still infested by the Hull House demon, she struggles to get free but every time she fights, the vines get even tighter. Slowly, the grotesque vine makes it way up her leg, spiraling around her thigh and then…
KANDARIAN DEMON
I’m assuming you have all seen Evil Dead and know what just happened. If not, you can probably figure it out. I’ve said it before, and I stand by it now. The Kandarian Demon is no damn joke. The list of things it can do goes on and on.
I also need to point out the fact that the Kandarian Demon hasn’t shown it’s true form in either of its fights. It hasn’t had to. Maybe Pazuzu will be enough of a challenge to warrant a physical appearance…
There’s just no way the Hull House Demon takes down the Kandarian Demon. I played out several scenarios. Several. None of them ended well for HHD. If I’m being brutally honest, in my opinion, all of the demons’ from “Night of the Demons” seemed like generic deadites to me. Maybe it was more of a homage to Evil Dead than a blatant rip-off. All I’m saying is if it walks like a duck...
That’s it for now folks! What do you think out there? Yell at me in the comments and check back next week for our EVIL SPIRITS BRACKET FINAL! PAZUZU VS THE KANDARIAN DEMON! Place your bets now! All bets are, of course, final. Until next time, keep on geekin’ on, my friends!
Joshua “Prometheus” Scafidi
