Hell Night (1981)

At first glance it seems that Hell Night is just cashing in on the success of proven box office draws, that being, Linda Blair's name from the Exorcist and the slasher genre which was doing so well at the time that Hell Night was made. However for a "wannabe" film Hell Night is very well done. The premise of the film is set up nicely and there is enough suspense and cool death scenes to make the film enjoyable. The problem is that after seeing the movie and witnessing the obvious talent behind the camera you realize that Hell Night could have been so much more then it is.

Hell Night has several good things going for it, a creepy mansion, creepy tunnels beneath the house and an eerie killer. All three are under used. The mansion and tunnels are rarely seen. The people in the house don't go exploring and when we finally get to see the tunnels, which are mentioned a few times to wet our appetites, we are quickly ushered out of them. The problem here is the film makers focus on realism. Realisticly if you were told to spend a night in a creepy old house would you explore the place? Probably not, ditto for creepy tunnels, especially if you discover evidence of someone/thing living there. Perhaps with a bit more imagination and/or bigger budget the house and tunnels could have been explored a bit more. As it is they are still a good source of suspense.

Finally we have the killer. The killer is used quite well and is really eerie looking. The problem is that a couple of interesting things are mentioned and shown about him but we don't learn what exactly is going on (you have to see the movie to know what I mean). It does provide for some interesting conversation after the movie is over but I think the film would have been more enjoyable if questions had been answered.

Hell Night is a little slow moving and doesn't keep it's pace going once things start to happen and Linda Blair's acting is atrocious, but that aside Hell Night is a nice addition to the 80's slasher flicks. Good suspense, creepy locations and some nice scares earn Hell Night a 7 out of 10.

Fmovies: What impressed me the most about this "slasher" movie is I honestly cared about the characters and felt bad when they died! That never happens with me & horror movies-- usually the characters are annoyingly lamebrained oversexed fools and I can't wait for them to get axed. HELL NIGHT has much going for it, including an amiable atmosphere, enthusiastic & easy-going performances (especially by the Boom Mic, who I thought deserved an Academy Award for his brief but frequent appearances), decent sets (including the outdoor ones, a bit reminiscent of The Shining), and villains who I swear looked straight out of SCOOBY DOO. (Not that that's a BAD thing, but it's just not too scary.) I honestly thought the script was well-constructed and funny and character exposition was given in an unobtrusive but helpful way (i.e. Linda Blair working as a mechanic.) There is absolutely nothing new or groundbreaking in HELL NIGHT, but it's a sterling example of how to polish up an old apple and make it look appealing and new-- and taste good. (Sorry for that awful metaphor...) Contrary to what others might tell you, Vincent Van Patten really grew on me, and I loved that surfing scene. He's my boy! Rating: 7/10.

Even thought it's rated R (presumably for a little gore and an incredibly chaste sex scene), Hell Night is great entertainment for the family during the Halloween season. It's constructed like a fun theme park haunted house. There are cobwebs, secret passageways, and all sorts of things that go bump in the night.

Linda Blair leads an appealing cast of sorority and fraternity pledges who are forced to stay the night in the spooky Garth Manor, which was the scene of several unsolved murders years before. Several pranks ensue, but the pledges soon come to realize that maybe they aren't the only ones there.

More concerned with atmospherics, scares, and characters than gore, Hell Night was a bit of an anomaly at the time and still is. With the entire cast dressed in period clothes, the film has a timeless feel and looks more like a Hammer film than a typical teen slasher. This helps elevate the film and it's aged a lot less in the ensuing years than its contemporaries.

Blair is especially good as the sweet natured Marti and the finale is about as pulse pounding and satisfying as slasher films get.

A must see!

Hell Night fmovies. Group of coed's for pledge night have to spend the night in a manor that local legend says a father went insane and murdered all of his family. The lone survivor, his deformed son, is rumored to be haunting the premises living in the underground tunnels and killing off unwelcomed visitors. Guess what, the legend is true as the coeds start to disappear one by one.

Spooky teen slasher builds up a good amount of atmosphere and delivers suspense instead of the usual nudity and gore. It also takes the time to build up characterizations for some of its characters. Linda Blair ( a highly underrated actress) turns in a very appealing, strong & sexy performance and is supported by a better then usual cast, including Peter Barton. The finale is especially exciting.

Rated R; Violence.

Linda Blair stars as one of four college pledges who must spend the night in the creepy old mansion(reputed to be haunted, with a murderous history) in order to join the sorority and fraternity. Seniors plan to pull pranks on them for fun, but discover to their dismay that "reputed" turns out to mean "factual"...

Surprisingly effective thriller may not be original, but has good performances and direction, which create characters you come to care about, and a genuinely spooky atmosphere, especially when it moves underground. Scary and (reasonably) smart, this one stands out from the usual "slashers" of the period, and results are above average, with a memorable ending.

Linda Blair, everybody's favorite head-tolling girl, stars as an extremely cute college girl named Marti. Together with 3 other students, she's locked overnight in a haunted mansion as some sort of fraternity initiation rite. The house used to be inhabited by a family of weirdoes (figuresÂ…) and the deformed son is believed to still dwell around in the tunnels underneath the mansion's basement. While the other fraternity members are playing pranks to increase the eeriness, the real killer comes to interfereÂ…

Of course, you can't really refer to this 'Hell Night' as being a good film. It's an 80's slasher, produced in-between two 'Halloween'-films. The only reason of this film's existence is to raise more money, so you can't be too demanding for plots, logic or credibility. In it's own specific category, this is a more than decent film. I can name you over a thousand similar films that are worse but only a few that are better. It's amazing what a competent director (Tom DeSimone – specialized in 'Women Behind Bars'-flicks) and a devoted cast (Linda Blair!!) can achieve. There are quite a few suspenseful sequences in Hell Night and the gore is not exploited for once. The settings are decent but sometimes underexposed, which is a bit of a shame. Overall, this a lot more tolerable than the average flick in which teens are slaughtered by the dozen.