Compass International Pictures, 1982. Anchor Bay Entertainment, 1999. Produced by Irwin Yablans and Bruce Cohn Curtis. Executive Producers, Joseph Wolf and Chuck Russell. Written by Randy Feldman. Directed by Tom DeSimone. Starring Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton and Jenny Neumann.

    By Stephen Pytak 

     Neat '80s slasher film which works really well for a few reasons, 
one being the director gives us cool action scenes with flair.
     This is not an over-the-top splatter movie. And even though the girls
are hot, there's no nudity. So if that's what you're after, look elsewhere.
This is a thriller with neat scares in a haunted-house atmosphere, with
some good actors. The plot may not be the most original, but the director
and the cast carry it off very well.
    (If you haven't seen this gem, stop reading and go rent it. There are 
spoilers ahead.)
     The story follows four college pledges, "Marti (Blair)," "Seth (Van
Patten)," "Jeff (Barton)," and "May (Neumann)," who are forced to
stay in a creepy mansion with a history, Garth Manor.
     That's explained by one of the leaders of the frat as the four are 
led inside. Basically, the couple who lived in this place were strange. They
they had four children who suffered deformities and other physical 
ailments: "Morris" the mongoloid, "Suzanne" the hideous, "Margaret" the
blind, deaf and mute, and "Andrew" the gork.
     The dark history of the place was sealed 12 years earlier, when the 
patriarch decided to kill most of the lot. And there are rumors that a 
survivor -- the gork -- still haunts the grounds.
     After the history lesson, the frat lock the four pledges inside. The only
way out is through a 15-foot-high fence topped with razor-sharp spades.
It's padlocked. They're instructed to spend the night -- roughly six hours --
in this crypt in order to become members of the frat.
     The four leads are likeable. I liked the conversations between Marti, 
a blue-collar daughter of a mechanic, and Jeff, a rich kid who said the
only reason he was there was because his father suggested he join a
 frat to make friends. It came off kinda real, real enough anyway.
     As soon as they settle in, stuff starts to happen. Sometimes it's their
college friends tripping switches to crank screaming sound effects and
to unleash illusions. Sometimes, it's an EC Comics-inspired maniac
butchering anyone he comes across.
     In a few ways, "Hell Night" reminded me of John Carpenter's
"Halloween (1978)." It tried a few of the same tricks, and didn't do
a bad job with the execution.
     The director attempted a new twist on the killer under the sheet trick,
and SUCCEEDED! This is an example of what I said above about action.
Stuff kept happening, either off to the side or in the background, whether
our heroes were aware of it or not.
     With a similar approach, we learn there's not just one killer running
around, but two.  Now, it doesn't happen the way it did in Wes Craven's 
"Scream," where the maniacs step out from the shadows and start 
gabbing on about their motives (or lack thereof). Instead, we watch 
one of our heroes blow away one of the ghouls (probably the patriarch,
Raymond Garth). Then a few minutes later, that hero is killed by the 
other (gorked-out Andrew). It comes off kinda cool actually. 
     "Hell Night" has a wild ending, where Blair becomes the final girl.
Her character even uses her skills as a mechanic in her efforts to escape. 
And there's a neat scene with a car, the tall fence and an impalement. 
     This is one of Blair's better films. It's easier to sit through than, say, 
"Exorcist II: The Heritic (1977)."
     Barton would later turn up as "Doug" in "Friday the 13th: The
Final Chapter (1984)." He was the guy singing "Tangerine" in the
shower...well, until Jason interupted him.