Synopsis
Scream and you're dead!
As an initiation rite into Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four pledges must spend a night in Garth Manor, twelve years to the day after the previous resident murdered his entire family.
1981 Directed by Tom DeSimone
As an initiation rite into Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four pledges must spend a night in Garth Manor, twelve years to the day after the previous resident murdered his entire family.
Une nuit en enfer, Noche infernal, Noite Infernal, Helvetesnatten, 冲出猛鬼城, 冲出猛鬼街, Pekelná noc, Адска нощ, Helvetin yö, Mia nyhta stin Kolasi, Heljar Nóttin, Piekielna noc, Адская ночь, Paranoia, Scary Castle, Une nuit infernale, 地狱之夜, 헬 나이트
This was one of the few early 80's slasher films that I never saw for whatever reason. This film, Curtains, Silent Scream and The Boogey Man are the biggies that I missed back in the day.
Anyhows.... finally watched Hell Night. Enjoyed it. A few very inspired scenes/shots... the reveal cut of the killer at the end of the bed... and the frustrated teen (Vincent Van Patten) raiding the back room of the police precinct.
Scream Factory Blu-ray is jammed with extras. And they do a good job with the 4K scan of the best surviving archival 35mm film print. (so that means the negative is lost... very sad. Preservation/archivism is so important. Indie films can still be easily lost.)
Too bad actress Suki Goodwin never made another film.
Haunted gothic castle roaming 80’s Slasher with a decent enough villain and an awesome ending, unfortunately so much of Hell Night is bogged down by a lack of tension and slow pacing—especially in that second act.
Happy that this hit blu a year or two ago and I was interested in revisiting this but alas... it still didn’t do much for me—I wish I could cut 15 minutes from this movie (and Linda Blair—who I love and respect but I just can’t with her character in this). Still though, there’s some ok stuff in here... and I love that last 10 minutes—a truly fun ending that feels wasted amongst all the filler.
Bummer.
A slasher starring Linda Blair and set inside a spooky old house sounds like something I would absolutely give a 4-5 star rating right? But no, le sigh, it’s only a 3 star deal and that’s mostly due to parts of it being so so so boring. There’s way too much talking between these teens and they just aren’t that interesting. Like the blond surfer guy wanders around the house in his boxers for half the movie and either take them off or put all your clothes on k, stop being a cock tease.
Still, Linda is super adorable and the kills are pretty fun so I still come back to this every once in a while in spite of the talkiness and unacceptable lack of male nudity.
When you start an 80s horror with a bomb Halloween party, blood red title font and a glorious opening song you've got my attention! I have been familiar with the poster art of Hell Night for many years and was always curious the movie itself. 80s horror has a way of delivering top notch artwork but it doesn't always equal the viewing experience. And once again thats the case here.
While a little slow and tame Hell Night delivers a fun and charming ride through supernatural horrors and 80s cheese. Some college pledges are initiated by staying in an old mansion overnight. Too bad the mansion was a scene of a family massacre years before! It isn't long before the…
#SlasherSaturday
Watching this, I was really hoping Seth was going to be the final girl. I should have know it would be the one and only Linda Blair though. (When the film first started, I thought for sure it was Stevie Nicks 😆). This was a pretty fun 80’s slasher complete with some cheese dialogue. A couple decent kills, but this kind of left me wanting for more in that department. Great poster though.
Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 2
1. Linda Blair and Neve Campbell in Scream
2. Neve Campbell and Kevin Bacon in Wild Things
Not a very good slasher, since it lacks a lot of the genre's best qualities (a memorable killer, inventive kills/gore and nudity). It does take place at an atmospheric location however, which is always fun.
I still had a good time watching this with Michelle, despite it being a lesser movie.
35
In theory, a mix of William Castle movies and an early-80s Slasher film sounds like an instant classic, but Hell Night has about 25 minutes of filler added to an absurdly slow pace. By the time anything interesting happens, you're already checked out. Boring. Cool setting, though, and the intro/opening song is fantastic.
We have forgotten how to watch Hell Night because we no longer have available to us important material co-factors in the creation and contemporary reception of Hell Night not the least of which are totally quaaludes. Hell Night is gloriously manifest maybe-peak-quaalude-cinema heavy-duty inertial real-time slow-motion creeping-as-if-you-are-almost-sleeping towards inevitable danger/mortality which is some grumpy dude with insomnia/ptsd understandably hella upset that a torch-bearing mob of frat bros direct-deposited rando kids in his living room or wherever whereupon the important life lesson of polydrug rock-paper-scissors jack daniels covers the cocaine which covers the jack daniels while quaaludes keeps everything chill if chill is kind of a sultry extended heave wave through space in bra & panties & high-humidity hair that isn't going to…
Well, hi there.
Finally got around to check out this 80s classic horror film.
Four college pledges are to spend the night in a deserted mansion as an initiation. Unfortunately they soon have to come to the realization that it's not as deserted as they thought.
Ohhh, this is fun! Linda Blair starrs alongside of Peter Barton, aka. pretty boy Doug from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter who are just so sweet in this. Denise and Seth are three things only: horny, horny and horny but still likeable enough to root for.
Initially I thought this took place on Halloween but it seemed like just a random costume party? Well, guess I didn't need to save it for spooky…
Cinematic Time Capsule
1981 Marathon - Film #59
”Help! There’s been a murder!”
“What fraternity are you with?”
This slasher film’s runtime is in desperate need of some serious slashing.
“Son, you kids have been getting away with murder all night long.”
Now, with another TIFF under my belt, I gotta play
#SlasherSaturday catchup
(Target date: September 9)
I mean, once you’ve seen GHOSTHOUSE... HELL NIGHT - which fairly preceded it - is a far-off second fiddle. GHOSTHOUSE is a hard act to follow in terms of haunted house goodness!
I have some notes:
Hillsdale in this one is supposed to be the rich neighbourhood, but I spent my early years in a far down the road surburban project called Hillsdale, and it might have been called Hicksdale. Just sayin’. It made me chuckle, Hillsdale being hoity-toity.
I like some of the characters... Like Linda Blair’s ineffective doll of a character and the rich foreign student with a proto-IPod, a gram of…
It’s got the window dressings I’m drawn to for this kind of soft-schlock (Linda Blair is the belle of a haunted mansion fraternity costume ball?!), which is probably why I keep thinking “maybe this will be the time I’m in the mood for this?”—nope! I got Ghoulies’d again! It’s a snoozer with great poster that’s tricked me into watching it every 4 years. Extra star bc Linda seems to be having a good time. Minus a half star for that embarrassing monster makeup, looked straight of a 60s Corman picture. Actually, I’ve reversed course while typing this—maybe I just have a crush on regional theater Frankenstein and I’m just trying to run away from my feelings 😰
[OkGOREberfest ‘23, Day 25 #60]