40 years ago today the horror flick Hell Night was released in theaters and a cult classic was born! It was a fun chiller starring horror icon Linda Blair and it spookily combined slasher flick with haunted house movie! It was also one I saw on opening night, 8/28/1981, at the Oritani Triplex in Hackensack NJ! Hell Night was directed by Tom DeSimone from a script by Randy Feldman! Stream it for free on Tubi!
HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY HELL NIGHT!
A group of college kids are in for a hell of a night locked in a haunted house in Hell Night!…
Hell Night is a fun 1981 slasher that finds a group of college pledges spending the night in a haunted house as part of their initiation (Full Review HERE). It’s a good representation of the type of horror movie made back during that era and now with the added nostalgia, it’s aged very well. Scream Factory has resurrected this long sought after and unavailable flick and given it their star treatment. It comes in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack and with a host of extras
As for the feature…
The picture is a 4K remaster from a 35mm print and is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, preserving the film’s theatrical dimensions. There is some grain in the picture and a few lines here and there, but for a low budget film over 35 years-old, this is a great looking disc. The colors are vibrant and the picture has some nice contrast, especially in the shadow filled night scenes. The sound is in DTS-HD mono and it sounds just fine. Again, this low budget flick is from 1981, so don’t expect 7.1 surround sound. The menus are simple, fun and easy to navigate, which is the usual for Scream Factory’s releases. Overall a nice restoration of a cult classic and it brought memories back, having seen it during it’s theatrical run in a theater.
Now on to the extras…
The extras consist of some wonderful new interviews with cast and crew, who are all too happy to talk about this sometimes overlooked movie. We have interviews with star Linda Blair, leading man Peter Barton, producer Bruce Cohn Curtis and writer Randy Feldman. We then get some fun one on one conversations between actors Vince Van Patten and Suki Goodwin and then Kevin Brophy and Jenny Neumann. We also get a look at the design of the film and an examination of the death scenes with various crew members and a return to the original location. Follow that up with the usual trailers, TV spots, radio spots and photo gallery and you have a really fun and informative disc giving a low budget cult classic the respect it deserves!
As a film that has nostalgic resonance with me, I can’t express how great it is to see this little flick get such royal treatment! The disc arrives from Scream Factory on 1/2/18!
I haven’t done a double feature in a while and what better double feature than these two Mark Lester action/exploitation flicks!
CLASS OF 1984 (1982)
Class Of 1984 is a good old fashioned exploitation flick, and it knows it! Story finds idealistic music teacher Andrew Norris (Perry King) entering the crime and gang ridden Abraham Lincoln High School with the intent or doing some good. He immediately runs afoul of the most vicious gang in the school run by the charming but demented Peter Stegman (Vince Van Patten). The more Norris challenges the gang, the more they push back. Family, friends and biology lab animals are all caught in the crossfire as this feud escalates into a war and a peaceful teacher is pushed to the brink of savagery in response to Stegman and company’s increasingly cruel…and personal…attacks. Will anyone survive?
Sure, one could argue that Norris is a fool for putting, students, friends and his pregnant wife (Merrie Lynn Ross) in harm’s way by taking this gang of creeps on, but this is a sleazy exploitation film and co-writer/director Mark Lester knows it and delivers the goods. We let it slide that Norris continues to antagonize these vicious punks even though they let him know early on that they know where he lives and they are not going to relent. His crusade to rid the school of these deviants gets a lot of people…and cuddly lab animals…hurt, including a vicious attack on his pregnant wife, but Norris continues till they drive him over the edge and then, the real fun begins. Even back in 1982 this flick, that Lester co-wrote with Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play) and John Saxton, created controversy with it’s portrayal of violence, prostitution and drug dealing all perpetrated by high schoolers…and then the violent and bloody revenge exacted on them by one of their own teachers. It’s over-the-top portrayal of a school run by delinquents may actually seem more appropriate now with what is happening in today’s school and far less likely such a film would have gotten made today, even on an exploitation level. It’s violent and while over-the-top, it takes itself seriously and is an effective and brutal action flick that isn’t afraid to go places that are considered taboo, maybe even more-so today. Great movie…no. Damn effective exploitation flick…hell, yes!
I wouldn’t say the acting is great, but the cast all take their roles seriously. King is convincing as the idealistic and somewhat naive teacher who thinks he is going to just walk into a troubled school and clean house. He also is convincing…and a little scary…once that good man is turned into a vengeful savage whose vengeance may almost be crueler than the actions of those he’s seeking revenge upon. Van Patten is very effective as Stegman. Charming and crazy and totally living in a moral vacuum due to a rich mother who has blinders on to his heinous actions. Not her baby, absolutely not. He is vicious and cruel and will stoop to the lowest levels to maintain his iron grip on “his” school. Van Patten nails it. We have veteran Roddy McDowall, who is a teacher who prefers to look the other way, but snaps when drawn into Norris’ crusade. McDowall always gave his all, even in a sleazy film like this. We also have a pre-“Alex P. Keaton” Michael J. Fox as one of the few good students left and another person Norris’ obsession gets hurt. Rounding out the main characters, Ross is fine as the sweet, loving loyal wife who we know from the start is there to be victimized and those scenes are brutal and added to the film’s controversy.
This is an exploitation flick through and through. It steamrolls right into controversial topics and does so with a bloodthirsty gusto at times. It never pretends to be anything else but what it is. It’s effective and relentless and even has some legitimate suspense and chills in its portrayal of a good man drawn into a personal confrontation with complete trash. An effective B-Movie that still resonates in today’s world of violence in schools. Title song “I am The Future” is performed by Alice Cooper.
-MonsterZero NJ
Rated 3 and 1/2 (out of 4) saw blades…ouch!
SPOLIER WARNING: This trailer does show some scenes which reveal key moments!
(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
Eight years after his controversial but profitable exploitation flick, Class Of 1984, Mark Lester co-wrote and directed this follow-up which shares similar themes but goes further over-the-top by adding elements of Terminatorand Escape From New York. The film takes place in the future—or what was the future when it was made—where youth gangs have gotten so out of control that the police establish “Free Fire Zones” around schools where they will not enter and it’s up to the Department of Educational Defense to use their own private security force to establish order. They also have collaborated with a robotics company called Megatech to create cybernetic teachers to educate and discipline these unruly students. Unknown to Principal Langford (Malcolm McDowell) the devious Dr. Forrest (a spooky Stacy Keach) has used combat robots as prototypes for these new teachers. Now it is the teachers whose methods of discipline are out of control and it’s up to former gang member Cody (Bradley Gregg) and the principle’s spirited daughter (hottie Traci Lind) to stop these automatons before more of their classmates are slaughtered.
Sequel is more of a straight-up B-Movie action flick than an exploitation flick, like 1984 was. But like that flick, the film knows it and dives straight into it’s over the top story and just runs with it…like a good B-movie should. First off, Lester earns B-Movie high marks by casting exploitation icon Pam Grier, 80s movie bad guy Patrick Kilpatrick and B-Movie veteran John P. Ryan as the three cybernetic teachers who turn killing machines. They add a lot of personality to their villains. The action in the film is decent but unremarkable, but Lester saves the best for last for the finale when the surviving gang members take on the three combat robots in the halls of Kennedy High. It’s this last act where the movie really comes alive and is at its most fun, as the teacher’s reveal their true T-800 nature and the high school hallways become a bloody war zone. This film, obviously, has a bit more of a sense of humor than Class Of 1984 and doesn’t get anywhere near as cruel or vicious, though it has a few violent moments. Lester moves things along quickly and while it lacks its predecessor’s intensity, it has fun with its premise by flipping things around and having us rooting for the delinquent students this time. It’s not a great movie and under-performed at the box office, but overall, it’s a fun little B-Movie though, not quite up to Lester’s work on Commando.
The cast are fine, it’s obviously veterans like Grier, Ryan, Kilpatrick, Keach and McDowell who stand out with their over-the-top performances as robots, mad scientist and the principal caught in the middle, respectively. Bradley Gregg does make a sufficient anti-hero with an Edward Furlong-ish quality. He could have had a bit more of a presence as a supposed former gang leader, but he does well with portraying a young man who wants out, but is pulled back in. Lind is an adorable and very feisty leading lady. She sadly is demoted to damsel in distress for the finale, but she gives her Christy a lot of spunk and fire for the rest of the flick. I had a huge crush on her back in the day and while I like her here, I still like her Alex in Fright Night Part II better. Alex had a bit more fight.
I like this flick. Not as strong as Class Of 1984, but it is still a fun B-Movie action flick that just goes with its silly story. I did see it in a theater—I think it was the Hyway Theater in Fair Lawn, N.J., another cool place to see B flicks like this—and had fun with it. I still enjoy it now, even though 1999 has long past and we don’t have cybernetic teachers…that we know of. It’s an entertaining little movie from a director who made a career of fun flicks like this and was never afraid to take his stories and run with them. A fun time and a worthy second feature to the first flick. As said, it performed poorly at the box office, but must have done well enough on home media as there was a second sequel, without Lester, that went direct to VHS in 1994. Also stars Near Dark’s Joshua John Miller as Cody’s brother.
Hell Night is a cheesy 80s slasher flick that has gained a bit of a reputation over the years and a bit of a cult following, too. It was another flick I caught on one of the grind house screens at the Oritani Theater in Hackensack, N.J. and while it was fairly entertaining, I don’t remember being all that overly impressed. I recently had a chance to revisit this slasher and there is definitely some entertainment to be had and the 80s nostalgia added some fun to a flick now revered by some as a cult classic. If you’re a fan of 80s slasher flicks, it’s definitely worth a look and is undeniably a good time.
The story takes place on “Hell Night” a night were fraternity and sorority pledges are initiated to prove their worthiness to join their organization of choice. To enter the Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four co-eds, Marti (Linda Blair), Jeff (Peter Barton), Seth (Vince Van Patten) and Denise (Suki Goodwin) are tasked with staying overnight locked inside Garth Manor…a creepy abandoned mansion where twelve years earlier Raymond Garth murdered his family and then killed himself, though local legends say deformed son Andrew escaped his father’s wrath and still roams the grounds. Of course Alpha Sigma Rho president Peter (Kevin Brophy) has had the place rigged and he and cronies, Scott (Jimmy Sturtevant) and May (Jenny Neumann), sneak in after our four are secured inside and plan to scare the wits out of them with scream emitting speakers and ghostly projections. But there is always some truth behind urban legends and someone on the grounds wants prankster and pledge alike dead… and in gruesome fashion. Will any of them survive Hell Night?
As directed by Tom DeSimone, Hell Night has its entertainment value, though is not perfect. It is a rather slow paced and by-the-numbers horror, at least in it’s first two thirds. For the most part victims can be spotted a mile away, as basically they are the ones who wander off, or are left alone, so there is little suspense in the ‘who’s gonna get it’ department. The film follows the 80s slasher formula with little diversion or surprises and the script by Randy Feldman does have it’s share of holes…like why didn’t the ‘killer’ off Peter and company when they were initially inside the house rigging their pranks earlier? Despite the creepy old house locations, the film has the look and feel of a 70s TV movie and, at 101 minutes, is at least 10 minutes longer then it needs to be. It takes about a half hour before we get our first kill and it is about an hour in before things start to pick up. It’s then that director DeSimone starts to give us some atmosphere and a little suspense, as our surviving co-eds are engaged in a fight for their lives in the catacombs beneath the spooky old house and through it’s maze-like hallways. It’s the last act that delivers a good deal of what fun and action the flick has, with the first two acts moving very slowly and most of the kills being fairly routine, when the somewhat two dimensional characters are being slaughtered. There is a nice electronic score by Dan Wyman to add a little 80s flavor and the make-up FX are adequate enough to make our villains creepy.
The cast are all adequate enough for an 80s horror flick. Blair and Barton being the hero and heroine are fine, though don’t get really animated till they are running and screaming for their lives. Blair especially perks up in the last few minutes as her role of final girl intensifies. I don’t consider that a spoiler as she has star billing and is the only person featured on the movie poster, so I think that part of the story is fairly obvious from the get-go as to who our final girl will be. Suki Goodwin is cute and hot as the saucy, sexy blonde, but as all horror fans know, saucy, sexy blondes rarely make it to the last act. Van Patten is your typical horny frat boy and Brophy your typical elitist, fraternity douche. Jenny Neumann and Jimmy Sturtevant fill out the cast as Brophy’s lackeys and killer fodder.
So, overall, Hell Night can be an amusing watch and it does have some nice nostalgia, especially for me, since I got to see it with friends in a theater where movies like this should be seen. While it is very slow to really get going, the last act does kick in gear and deliver some nice action and a little suspense. If today’s audiences are patient enough to get to that point, then they should be satisfied with what the last 40 minutes delivers. Maybe not an outright classic, but if you are a fan of the 80s slasher era, it deserves a look and will probably entertain you just fine when all is said and done…and sometimes that and a few brews are all one needs in a movie.
UPDATE: The flick is now available from the awesome folks at Scream Factory! Here’s my Blu-Ray review…LINK!
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