Review of Hell Night (1981) by Tom H — 08 Oct 2009

Hell Night is the story revolving around that age-old tradition of college frat parties/initiations. At this particular college, four recruits (including Linda Blair and Vincent Van Pattern) must spend a night at the infamous Garp Manor where a the Garp parents raised some nasty and disturbing children.

According to legend, the entire Garp family was killed save for one that supposedly roams the house. Once things get going, the 4 recruits are in the house having fun, while fellow friends stand outside playing spooky pranks on them, which quickly comes to end when a vicious Mongoloid comes out from hiding and starts tearing the kids apart in some surprisingly vicious and gory ways.

Hell Night could serve as a direct inspiration to a film like Hatchet. It's fun, decently scary, and violent as hell, making this film an excellent treat. In fact, I'm almost ashamed of myself for having not seen this movie sooner.

Some of the unfortunate cons of the movie include the lack of nudity (especially when the women in this are incredibly hot), and the consistent appearance of the boom mike throughout the movie (hell, it should have been given a film credit).

I would have also liked more clarification on the "ghost" in the movie. Was that part of the pranks or was it an actual ghost, and if so, why the hell wasn't it shown more or incorporated into the story better? Either way, this is a great underrated gem from the 80's.

Fun movie.