Night of the Demon
Night of the Demon is a 1980 American creature feature directed by James C. Wasson. It is one of the 72 films on the Director of Public Prosecutions' video nasties list, and it was successfully prosecuted for obscenity.
Bigfoot tears a man's genitals off. That is the scene, that is the film, that is why it was prosecuted.
Sign in to track what you have survived.
The one where Bigfoot tears a man's genitals off, which is the scene, the reason it was prosecuted, and essentially the whole of its reputation.
An anthropology professor takes students into the woods to investigate sasquatch sightings. What follows is a framing device in a hospital bed, a series of flashbacks, and a body count achieved with unusual enthusiasm given the budget.
It is technically poor throughout: the sound is inconsistent, the creature is a man in a suit filmed too clearly, and the pacing between kills is dead.
James Wasson made nothing else of note.
Successfully prosecuted, and one of the very few DPP titles where you can point at a single shot and say with confidence that is what did it.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
DPP 72 · successfully prosecuted
Rate this film
No ratings yet. Score it on the five axes and yours will be the first.
Sign in to rate this and add it to your shelf.
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
Cocaine Bear
A black bear ingests a fortune in dropped cocaine and goes on a rampage. Loosely, very loosely, based on a true event.
Friday the 13th
Copied Halloween without any of the craft, added Savini, and proved the formula worked anyway.
Alligator
A baby alligator flushed down a toilet grows huge on discarded lab animals in the sewers. John Sayles wrote it and it is a delight.
Motel Hell
A folksy farmer makes the best smoked meat in the county. The secret is people, planted in the garden up to their necks.
The Cabin in the Woods
A machine for explaining why every other film on this site is shaped the way it is.
King Kong
The first great monster film, and Willis O'Brien's animation still has more personality than anything rendered.
- Next in Backwoods / Hillbilly: Motel Hell (1980) →
- Next in Creature Feature: Contamination (1980) →