Tags:
Film: Hell Night
Year: 1981
Director: Tom DeSimone
Writer: Randy Feldman
Starring: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten and Peter Barton
Review:
This is a film that I first learned about through the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia. It also is one that pops up on horror movie podcasts I listen to. It gets discussed now and then, but not often. It went on a list of movies to check out. This was selected to be covered by me and my co-host over on Side Quest Podcast as we had never seen it. I did know coming in that this featured Linda Blair and was a slasher film, so that intrigued us.
Synopsis: four college fraternity and sorority pledges spend the night in a deserted old mansion as part of a hazing ritual during hell night, where they are stalked by the only survivor of a family massacre from the mansion’s sordid past.
We start this a party. This is a preceding to what is in the synopsis. The party is at the fraternity with the president there being Peter (Kevin Brophy). His second in command is Scott (Jimmy Sturtevant). They have something planned and they’re working with May (Jenny Neumann) who is the president of a sorority. The pledges are Marti (Blair), Seth (Vincent Van Patten), Jeff (Peter Barton) and Denise (Suki Goodwin). They’re led to Garth Manor where they must spend the rest of the night.
The past that is brought up is that Raymond Garth, snapped 12 years ago and killed his family before killing himself. They were a rich family. For whatever reason though, he and his wife’s children were coming out deformed. It was said that not all the bodies were found. Peter locks the pledges inside of the gate and they have six hours to stay in the house to pass the test.
It is from here that they break up into couples. Marti and Jeff go off where they talk about their socio-economic standings and grow a fondness. The other two go up to a bedroom to hookup. They’re not alone though. Peter, Scott and May sneak back in, but they’re not the only ones here. There are tunnels and passages in this house, there seems to be something even scarier lurking there.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start is that this has a lot going for it. We are getting an early teen slasher, coming out after the original Friday the 13th and being the same year as its sequel. I’m not sure all the rules were fully formed yet. It works for me having this group get trapped here, there is a plan to mess with them and things go off the rails from there. I do have issues here as well.
Now I’ve already started into the positives so let’s flesh out more there. I love the setting. This old mansion that has been abandoned is good. I would even consider this falling into old dark house narratives due to the tunnels and almost catacombs being under the house. This feels like a house that would belong to the people from like the 1930s and 40s, but since they passed away, it has fallen into disrepair. The local legend feels like Friday the 13th Part 2, but since it is the same year I’d reason they were in production at the same time. Even having this trio come back to mess with the pledges is something else that I can appreciate.
I want to shift slightly then to talk about our four characters that are in the house. This does well in making them distinct to the point where I know enough about them. That makes me invested in seeing what happens. Marti is from a working-class background. Her father is a mechanic and she’s picked up how to do things from him. She also is only joining the sorority because of an offer she couldn’t refuse. Jeff is rich but doesn’t want to be judged for that. Seth is a surfer guy. Denise is a party girl who is British. I’ll even say here that Blair, Van Patten, Barton and Goodwin were all solid in bringing these characters to life.
I’m then going to switch gears to talk about filmmaking. Now I’ve come to realize doing more of a deep dive into horror that I’m not the biggest fan of slasher films. The highs are great, but there seems to be a drop off from there. I tend to judge them on having good characters or good kills. You need one or the other for me to enjoy the movie. I’ll say that we do have the former. Now this is a slow burn like you expect from this sub-genre. The problem though is that this is too long. It doesn’t need to be 101 minutes long. There is too much filler that could be trimmed to make it run tighter. We also don’t get all the kills on screen, which could be either budget or censors. That’s not to say we don’t get good effects when we see them or the aftereffects. I’d even say that the soundtrack was better than average as well. I do want to say that this is made well enough, I just have issues there.
All that is left then is a few other things I wanted to discuss. I do like Brophy, Neumann and Sturtevant as the three members of their respective organizations there to mess with the pledges. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a Halloween movie, knowing that Hell Night sometimes is the day before. I think this is more in line with Greek life having ‘hell week’ or just one night to haze pledges. It was also confusing though since this was a costume party. Marti is red riding hood, Seth is Robin Hood, Denise is a flapper and Jeff looks like he’s a rich guy from the old west. The last thing is the movie alludes to using this mansion to haze the pledges all the time. My question then is if that is the case, why is this the first time they’ve been attacked by who is doing it? I just think there are a few things that need to be ironed out for this work to be better. It is a shame though due to all the things that worked for me.
In conclusion, I still thought that this was a solid slasher film. We have a great setting with this abandoned mansion that’s fallen into disrepair and has a history. The ‘old dark house’ stuff with tunnels and what not is great. I thought that the characters we follow are likable. The performances help there as well. There is good filmmaking here with the setting, cinematography, framing and when we see them, effects. The problem is that this runs too long and there are too many things that need to be fleshed out. I still would recommend this to slasher fans. It isn’t great, but I’ve seen worse for sure.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10