Hell Night

Year: 1981

Director: Tom De Simone

Written by: Randolph Feldman

Threat: Psychopath

Weapon of Choice: Gate

Based upon: Original

IMDb page: IMDb link

      Hell Night

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish Outfield's reviews
I've never much cared for Linda Blair. As a kid, I was forbidden to see The Exorcist, and I haven't really seen any of her other works. But I liked her a lot in Hell Night, enough to wonder why tyranist kept pointing out how fat she was.
This film was produced by Irwin (say his last name out loud, it's fun) Yablans, and had a lot of dialogue and character development, at least for a while. The cast was good, with fresh, handsome '80s faces, this time each in a distinctive costume (which I appreciated, since I could always call them by their costume name instead of being forced to say, "you know, the brown-haired guy who isn't getting any"). I liked when the guy got his head turned all the way around, but hey, I always like that. Oh, and one character is impaled on the sharp points of a gate–also cool. The blonde English chick was real attractive too.
I liked the story of this film. It has been done to death, but I don't care. To me, a group of people trying to spend a single night in a haunted house is right up there with the all-time classic stories. I especially enjoy the hazing and fraternity elements of this version. Having gone to a parochial school where the men wore veils and the women wore burlap sacks, I feel I missed out of some of these great college hijinks, so I got a thrill out of seeing the bad frat folks setting up fake bodies and taped screams.
The ending was the only part I found lacking. There seem to be three stock endings in horror films: Good triumphs and all is well, Good triumphs but Evil may/shall return, and Evil triumphs. But here was a fourth: Good triumphs, then spends the rest of its life screaming and tormented due to the experience. Carrie ended that way, as did Texas Chainsaw, to a certain extent. In the case of Hell Night, the ending came either a minute too late, or came a second to early, freezing on the survivor's face as the credits rolled. I really can't explain it, can I? A good thing I'm not getting paid for this.
Best Scare: There was a cool part where the killer rose up from under the carpet. It wasn't really scary, but it looked great. There was your standard guy-stands-right-beside-a-doorway-and-is-suddenly-grabbed-by-the-killer moment that, oddly enough, DID scare.
I'd Recommend It To: '80s slasher fans.

The tyranist's thoughts
Mid-way through the Holiday 2000 Horror Film Festival, I realized that we were renting a lot of movies that were firmly entrenched in the second tier of popular horror flicks. Movies that had recognizable names, but that nobody had ever declared good enough that they became canon. It's a funny thing to realize. Especially when you're staring down a Linda Blair who has lost all innocence for you years earlier in a little film that is in the top tier of horror.
Really not a bad movie at all, this one follows the formulas pretty well. It is a (for lack of a better term) Greek horror flick focusing on that act now considered evil above all other acts, hazing. In this case, the pledges must spend a night in the supposedly haunted mansion. Not a bad little task. Of course, pranks are planned to scare the pledges but then the mansion turns out to really have mysterious occupants.
A few inexplicable details in this one, but it is really pretty fun. My favourite detail was that there were hundreds of kids at the pledge party and only four pledging that night. Hmmm. I guess it simplifies the plot a ton. There are some nice death effects though and a couple of really creepy moments even though things are pretty predictable.
Linda Blair isn't half as bad as I make her our to be, but there is something lacking in her performance. Maybe one too many horror films too early in her career. Still, check it out if you are into this kind of horror movie, it deserves its position on the second tier and is really much better than most movies of its kind.

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex skull
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity skullskull
Characters forget about threat skull
Secluded location skullskull
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skullskull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door skull
Camera is the killer skull
Victims cower in front of a window/door skull
Victim locks self in with killer skull
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls skull
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start skull
Cat jumps out
Fake scare skull
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse skull
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness skull
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead skull
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading skull
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives skull
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots skull
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?