Synopsis
Tonight their screams will fall on dead ears
A football star throws a party for his friends. Two insane killers escape from a nearby asylum on that same night, and in their efforts to elude authorities, wind up at the party.
1987 Directed by Allen Plone
A football star throws a party for his friends. Two insane killers escape from a nearby asylum on that same night, and in their efforts to elude authorities, wind up at the party.
Night Screams: Ospiti in Trappola, Gritos de miedo, Nacht des Grauens, Nuit de terreur
"Night Screams" is a 1987 slasher film directed by Allen Plone. Honestly, it's fine as it has a bit of campy disposition in the beginning of things, almost with a Troma-esque like delivery with some escaped convicts. Additionally, the opening of the film is a lot of fun as well, but then you hit about 30 minutes into the thing and it's a bit of whatever until we get to the end. Also, I don't see the merit in spending all day writing about it. It's fine.
I am eternally grateful for Vinegar Syndrome digging up these obscure and lost in oblivion slashers for the 5 of us that absolutely love them. Night Screams is one of the many grainy/barely visible films I watched on YouTube never thinking there would one day be a snazzy 3 disk 4K release whaaaaa??? So what's underneath the thick layers of static distortion and incredible poster art??? Give me your hand and let me take you on a stroll through the Z grade slasher zone.
A football jock who's mad that he's a football jock, vicious criminals on the loose and a full empty house where it all collides in a whirlwind of bloodshed and teen tom foolery. But that's not…
NOTE: I watched the version on the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray that removes all the footage from different movies that was added to pad the running time.
Exactly what I hope to see when I pop in a slasher I'd never heard of: Sure, it might be standard from a plot perspective (Mid-30 high schoolers have a party), but it's filled with weird details like two bros who can't stop giving each other high fives, hilarious line readings ("You're a horny bitch, and everybody knows it!"), and a kill every ten minutes. Even the lamer bloodless murders have very funny build-ups (She drove off the road, ran into a field, and then hid under an abandoned elevated car? Uh-Oh!!) The score is, thankfully, off key synths and bargain bin 80s jams.
Plus, two murderous escaped convicts hang out in a basement, one of which is called Snake, who quotes Shakespeare.
Like the restless dudes in this vintage regional slasher, I'd rather go fix a sandwich or pop in a VHS copy of Graduation Day and some classic Seka porn than attempt to score with these lame chicks. The bonus clips helped pad the running time and compensate for other shortcomings. Sweetheart Dancers had some rad moves though.
4.4/10
Some 38 year old high school jocks throw a party that’s crashed by psycho-religious, homoerotic escaped convicts…but it’s padded out with footage from ‘Graduation Day’ and some softcore footage edited in at random? Sure? Why not! Great hair, great outfits, great kills, lots of excessive tit washing, the soundtrack bumps… I can and have done worse. I wish the “original cut” (the “too short” version without the random padded out footage) was also on the 4K disc…I feel like that’s the version to watch.
[OkGOREberfest ‘23, Day 3/#4]
Night Screams has plenty of night but not nearly enough screams! I tell you for a poster like the one this movie has, I had pretty high hopes but the poster is probably the best thing about this one.
There’s a scene near the beginning of people watching a movie and it’s Graduation Day and we are treated to some inserts of that movie for no particular reason, but it does sort of set the tone for the rest of this bizarre little slasher.
The kills are actually pretty good, there just aren’t enough of them to make the movie great and there’s lots of time in between those kills with weird characters talking and not night screaming!!!
Not awful but not great, I’d say this is strictly for slasher completists and people who have nothing better to do with their free time than watch shitty movies. Oh wait, that’s me!
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We are almost there! The Pussy Fund
Watched the Vinegar Syndrome UHD Blu-ray of the original theatrical cut, the other cut without the padded scenes coming from two different unrelated films is included as an extra Blu-ray.
"Night Screams" is a slasher flick made in Wichita Kansas at the tail end of the slasher boom. It's not the worst slasher out there, some worse ones were shoveled out in polished releases by Vinegar Syndrome as well, but it won't be on any slasher fan's top 10 list either.
In the film's prologue a couple watching TV are killed by an unseen assailant who seems to be someone close to them. It's followed by a scene where a psychiatrist declares the murderer to be cured from his/her psychosis…
Two nutbars deemed sane and freed from a psych ward rampage across town before finding college-bound students enjoying one last fling.
Ho-hum slasher that likely predates its actual release by several years. Jocks argue amongst themselves and their girls at a house party. A loon fancying himself an army sergeant and his lackey quietly pick each off. Tame kills include a hot tub electrocution, kicked car jack, face grilling, and the poster's suffocation. Its twist stretches believability even within the subgenre's norms.
At one point everything halts to feature a cabaret dance routine for over two minutes. The end credits are ten minutes of clips recapping what we just saw. Then there's ample filler from Graduation Day (1981) and softcore…
largely routine regional slasher that has a flair for solid kills (the grill death is a highlight) and unsubtle nods to genre films that came before it, including characters explicitly watching Graduation Day, but its runtime is mostly comprised of coeds flirting and arguing, even if they eventually do get killed off (some not soon enough) — worth watching for the hot tub scene alone where some suave lothario pulls a rubber duck out of the crotch of his shorts to impress a lady
Joseph Ziemba of Bleeding Skull once wrote in his blurb for Don’t Go In the Woods:
“Approximately three-hundred-thousand slashers were released in the 1980’s. All of them are worth your time.”
I think about that sentence a lot.
On its surface there’s nothing really that special about Night Screams. It’s not a stone-cold classic like Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Halloween II or Friday the 13th.
It’s not over-the-top violent and scummy like Pieces, New York Ripper, Nightmares in a Damaged Brain or Maniac.
It won’t melt your little sausage brains out of your head like A Night To Dismember, Ogroff, Devil Story or Criminally Insane 2.
And it doesn’t have the sheer, teenage ambition of Day of the Reaper, Long Island Cannibal Massacre or Splatter Farm.
But. It does have some solid, unique kills, a hint of regional charm and at the end of the day, you’re watching an 80’s slasher. That alone is something special.
"I heard the end of your nose is the same shape as the head of your dick"
Night Screams is forgettable but the music that plays during the opening credits kicks ass.
Sort of a drag from beginning to end with a few moments I thought for sure were going to pick it up only to drop the ball. It's two psychopaths ruining the worlds most boring house party while most of the attention is on a bunch of girls fighting for/over the depressed football star majority of the time, sadly.
The mansion setting holds more mean spirited and pointless conversations between high schoolers than it does senseless, brutal murder. The few kills at its disposal are decent (the face…
I drove through Kansas once. It's flat. Like this film. A dull and confused but comically absurd stroll through Wichita. Has a weirdly excessive and over the top sort of vibe that occasionally leans into Troma territory. Brief moments of exuberant wtfuckery that unfortunately fade too fast and then become few and far between. That cafe scene, perfection. Everything else, meh. Fast forward 80 minutes and just watch the credits. The whole film is recapped as a wild montage that will make you wonder if you were watching the same movie. This is what I get for not watching Jaws.