Rating: 
Summary: Lets go back into the haunted house about 67 times....
Review: "Hell Night" is an irresistible guilty pleasure from the early 80s slasher cycle, and one of the handful that actually still holds up (for instance, "Friday the 13th," "Prom Night" and "Terror Train" now seem about as suspenseful as "My Fair Lady").
Though the story is lame--pledges spending the night in a haunted mansion--the execution (sorry) is smart: "blood-dripped" font in the opening credits, trap doors, secret passageways, a hedge maze, catacombs under the house, a convincing monster, appealing actors, a really creepy "legend" that sets the story in motion, and even a little surprise twist regarding the antagonist. I love that our heroine Linda Blair is in Victorian garb (complete with heaving bosom), being chased around the old Victorian mansion. Nice touch. Ditto the scene of the fraternity arriving with torches, a la the "Frankenstein" villagers (in fact, the monster even looks like a leaner version of DeNiro's take on Shelly's creature).
I was struck, on my first viewing in almost 20 years, by how instense this movie gets. The last 20 minutes are quite nerve-wracking. I remembered the "rising carpet" scene vividly from the original release, and it still gives me chills (you should definitely let smart aleck little kids watch this--it will scare the hell out of them).
I'm also struck by how many shockingly bad decisions people in this movie make--like going BACK in the house 2 and 3 times, fully aware of what is waiting inside. It gets a little ridiculous after a while, though if you are watching with a group it makes for some lively discourse (Of course if they just hid outside in a bush until dawn, like you or I would do, there would be no movie).
There is a fun, light-hearted commentary included on the DVD. Always a pleasure to listen to funny anecdotes and about what a gentleman the guy playing the monster was, while watching people get their heads cut off.
You need this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Night of Hell
Review: A group of college kids undergo an initiation test by spending the night in a creepy house where a man killed his wife, three children, and then himself. The upper classmen attempt to scare the freshmen by various means, but each of them is bumped off one by one. You will have to watch the movie to see how it ends. The movie is excellent, Linda Blair gives a superb performance, the quality of the DVD is outstanding, and there are plenty of extras.
Rating:
Summary: "Hell Night" lots of fun.
Review: Admittedly nothing original here-four fraternity/sorority pledges must spend the night in the local "haunted house", where a family mass murder happened twelve years earlier. Before you roll your eyes you might want to take a peek at this. Linda Blair and the other three pledges discover that that massacre had left a survivor-a demented creature none too pleased to find these party animals in his house. Great haunted house atmosphere, lots of scares, and the film is able to carry itself with minimal blood and no sex or nudity. So it can be done. The DVD offers trailers and commentary by Blair, director Tom DeSimone, and producer Irwin Yablans (Halloween). I recommend this overlooked film for fans of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Alpha Sigma Rho doomed / 80's classic horror
Review: Entertaining little movie by the executive producer of Halloween you can see the style evident in this. The story four college students are rushing Alpha Sigma Rho Frat/sorority on hell night. They have to spend the night in Garth Manor mansion that has been shut down for 12 years because story has it Raymond Garth slaughtered his family here 12 years ago. Except little deformed Andrew Garth who slipped through the cracks and apparently doesn't like any visitors. In true 80's slasher fashion the head fraternity brothers have to try to scare them to death one by one there killed off. The acting isn't the greatest except Linda Blair but it's 80's horror. The film is quite suspensful the way the cinematography and music is handled very well. More of a messing with the mind jump out of your seat horror film than typical blood/gore slash films in that decade. One of my favorite 80's horror films I own the DVD & special features are good. You can't be a fan of 80's horror films without liking this movie. Recommend to fans of
Terror Train
Funhouse
Halloween
The Burning
Rating:
Summary: Remember HELL NIGHT?
Review: From Irwin Yablans, the man behind a certain movie titled HALLOWEEN comes HELL NIGHT. Released in 1981, the film was riding the wave of the popular teen slasher pics so big throughout the 1980s. What many of those films lacked, and HELL NIGHT possessed was a truly scary story. The young coeds in this picture are Academy Award nominee Linda Blair, cute Peter Barton and the frequently lensed Vincent Van Patten. Thrown together in a creepy mansion for intiation, suddenly folks start dropping off like flies. You won't find a great deal of gore in this picture. The director is so great at his craft, its not necessary. What is present is just enough to be effective. The screenwriter and the director work hard at creating an atmosphere that helps support the plot. Overall, they are quite accomplished in this. Of course there are the "usual suspect" moments of dropping the keys, the car not starting and the ever so annoying practice of GOING BACK IN THE HOUSE, but DiSimeone's deft direction makes it all effective. Both the "creepy house" theme and the "killer on the loose" are well balanced elements in this film. This presentation on DVD is superb! The DVD package graphics are lifted from the memorable original film one-sheet, which is replicated fully inside. (If no one remembered what HAPPENED in the movie, this graphic of Linda Blair clutching on to the gate is hard to forget!) The creative menu screen is a surprise and the chapters are carefully selected and succint. The widescreen presentation is impeccable and the sound track has a dimensional feel even in mono. The commentary track with Blair, DiSimeone and Yablans is quite informative, if not always enlightening. Watching HELL NIGHT was remembering that not all films had to be gory like FRIDAY THE 13th to be eerily effective. As the 80s progressed, horror filmmakers lost sight of this. This is definitely a keeper. Just enought fright for a fun Friday night!
Rating: 
Summary: Linda Blair proves herself in another creepy movie
Review: Hell night is a classic of early eighties horror. Less on the gore and nudity of it's peers but more on mood and genuine scares. It is a simple plot, a few kids have to spend the night in a haunted mansion to get into a sorioity house. But after the typical blood shed at the start it slowly uses the house in an un-nerving way, dark corridors, secret passageways, scary basements. Scoobie Doo was never like this!
Rating:
Summary: Hell Hath No Fury
Review: Hell Night is a predictable "slasher" film, complete with just about every cliche invented for, and working against the genre. And yet, as I say that, I could kick myself for enjoying the film as much as I did anyway.
As part of the initiation rite into the Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four pledges must spend a night in long desserted Garth Manor. As legend has it, twelve years ago to the day after the previous resident murdered his entire family. The pledges, led by Marti (Linda Blair) and Jeff (Peter Barton) ignore the rumors that the mansion is haunted by a crazed killer. Soon as you might expect though, one-be-one, members of the group mysteriously disappear.
Director Tom Disimone uses every trick in the book to try and rachet up the tension and the fear factor, the problem is that Randy Feldman--who would later write the serviceable actioner Tango And Cash--is filled with one contrived plot point after another and that gets in the way. The film is not at all scary...Horror movies don't have to be all like Halloween or Scream, but Hell Night lacks any jolts or cool stuff to make it fun. The dialogue is over the top even for the genre--which I guess explains why Vince Van Patten as Seth and Kevin Brophy as Peter never look anything but like a deer in the headlights the whole time. Capitalizing on her role in the Excorcist, Blair is the film's true saving grace, putting everything she's got into Marti.
The DVD gets an extra star for its audio commentary. Blair, DeSimone, and producers Irwin Yablans & Bruce Cohn Curtis make for a solid track, that's actually better fun than the film itself. As strange as that may sound. The theatrical trailer, a couple of TV spots, and a look at the concept for the theatrical poster are here as well.
If you have seen a lot of horror flicks, there's not much that will shock and delight you with Hell Night. Followers of Blair may want to take a peek for sure. All others as long as you don't raise your expectations you should be fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Not hell to watch-heaven.
Review: Hell Night is definitely an above average horror flick and one of the best horror films ever made, although it is a little dark through some parts and hard to make out what is happening.
The story is that to be initiated into a fraternity and sorority, four people have to stay in a reputedly haunted mansion.
The legend goes that a family used to live in the mansion but the father went crazy and killed his whole family, except Andrew his son, who is now living in secret at the mansion. I don't know what he eats but I couldn't imagine him going to the local supermarket.
There is a neck twisted around so the victim can see his backside here,a decapitation there. One guy goes to the toilet and comes back to bed and finds his girlfriend missing and finds the head of another woman in the bed. This same guy later on manages to climb over the gate of the mansion (the president of the fraternity warns them if they try to climb over the gate to watch their ...) and he goes to the local police station. But it comes to no surprise that the police officers don't believe there have been any murders and threaten to throw the guy in jail for the night if he doesn't leave immediately, if not sooner.
He steals a shotgun from the police station and also steals a car, almost while the owner is driving it and heads back to the mansion.
... It is pretty obvious that they copied Friday the 13th and Halloween when it comes to the hard-to-kill aspect.This movie was made when horror films were in their prime and they knew how to make them, and this one is no exception.
Peter Barton stars in this who went on to star in Friday the 13th the final chapter and also stars the excellent Linda Blair who is worth renting or buying this movie just for her in it. She is in her prime and she is certainly eye candy for the guys.
Rating:
Summary: A Lost Slasher Classic...
Review: Hell Night is one of the creepiest slasher movies to come from the 80's. It makes great use of its setting-a creepy old mansion on a hill. The story, for the record, revolves around a College fraternity pledge night in which a small group of pledges (including Linda Blair) are forced to spend the night in the creepy old mansion called Garth Manor. Garth Manor is a place with a history, as your typical horror movie plot line would have it, exactly twelve years ago to the night, the Manor's previous resident murdered his whole family. As the pledges' night rages on with booze and sex, one by one they are stalked and murdered by a mysterious figure. The murderer this time out is actually rather surprising and refreshing, Hell Night is a definate cut above the majority of 80's killer flicks. There are some teriffic moments and some genuine suspense. Imagine a spooky house story crossed with a slasher on the loose and you have Hell Night, guaranteed to give you a shock or two.
Rating: 
Summary: Very dissapointing.
Review: Hell night staring Lind Blair could of had potential but the film just had to drag on and on. The story line was horrendous it kept me bored for the rest of the film, it started with a wild college party you know the kind of parties that have a wet t-shirt contest so both the fraternity and sorority dicide to have a pledge where four students have to spend the night at a haunted mansion since it is halloween. Linda Blair who is wearing a sexy french maid costume and who's career hasn't gone anywhere does not take her clothes of, thats to bad because I could have given this review an extra star.
Anyway since there wasn't any nudity and violence or gore I had to suffer through the bad acting and bad special effects. The mad person or monster that lives there atempts to kill the 4 students and other kids who were there to prank them, so one of the students tries to escape by climbing the big gate to get some help but you'll figure out what will happen next since this film is very predictable, only recomended for hardcore Linda Blair fans.
|
