Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Michael_Elliott Hell Night (1981) ** (out of 4)Early entry into the 80's slasher craze has four college students being locked up inside an old mansion. The gate is locked so that they can't get out and on their way into the mansion they are told about the legend of a family massacre and the one person who was never found. Sure enough, before long they are being stalked and killed by a maniac.Tom DeSimone's HELL HOUSE is a rather well-made film for the genre and it was released rather early on so there are some original moments here, which is something that was missing from a lot of what would follow. The film appears to have been influenced by various Gothic horror films of the 1980s as the director is clearly going for some atmosphere and not just a bunch of cheap thrills and gory deaths. With that said, for me HELL NIGHT just doesn't work because it's just too routine in way too many ways.The biggest problem I had with the film is the fact that there really weren't any interesting people in it. The four college students are extremely boring and there's not a bit of energy or life in any of them. Usually these slashers at least give you characters that you like and could hang out with but these four are just boring and everything dealing with them just doesn't have much fun. I'd argue that the killer himself is rather routine and he just doesn't stick out in an overly crowded field of killers.For the most part I thought Linda Blair and Vincent Van Patten were good in their roles. The death scenes aren't the most graphic that you're going to see but there is a little blood for fans of that. The final chase lasts way too long and at 101-minutes the film also drags in spots. There are a lot of scenes with the characters just sitting around talking and it takes way too long for this train to get moving and by the time it does there's still just not enough going on.

Uriah43 Once a year at a specific college the fraternity known as Alpha Sigma Rho hosts an initiation for their new pledges which consists of them spending the night in an abandoned mansion called Garth Manor. Supposedly, a crazed man named Andrew Garth murdered most of his family and then committed suicide. However, of the five family members only three bodies were found. The implication then is that at least one of the family members is still alive and residing somewhere in Garth Manor. Of course, nobody takes this seriously and because of that the four pledges by the names of "Marti Gaines" (Linda Blair), "Seth" (Vincent Van Patten), "Jeff Reed" (Peter Barton) and "Denise Dunsmore" (Suki Goodwin) are locked up inside the estate of Garth Manor until dawn. To further add to their discomfort, the president of Alpha Sigma Rho by the name of "Peter Bennett" (Kevin Brophy) has devised all sorts of tricks which he and some fellow fraternity members plan to use to scare them as much as possible. What nobody counts on is a demented and deformed member of the Garth family still living in the manor with homicidal intentions toward everyone on the estate. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a passable 80's slasher film which started off well enough but seemed to lose its focus around the half-way point. Although it might sound strange to say about a slasher film, there was just too much violence during this particular time and as a result it became almost tedious. Be that as it may, it still wasn't too bad as far as slasher films go and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

megoobee College kids (ie: killing fodder) locked in a spooky house where they need to stay as part of their initiation into their fraternities/sororities. Nice premise, now where could they have gone with the story? They could have been presented it as a straight ghost/haunted house flick which they didn't. They could have did it as a whole-hog over-the-top slasher gore fest which they didn't. They could have presented it as a parody which they didn't.What they decided to go with was a TV style, watered down lame excuse for a horror movie. I mean come one, Freddy, Jason and Michael were slashing up the screens in Hollywood during the 1980's and this is the best they could do?There is no suspense build up, the kills are quick and unsatisfying. We all know the elements of good horror/slasher movies. So let's do a recap of what Hell Night had:Scary? - No. Gory kill scenes? - No. Creative death scenes? - No. Suspense? - No. Great last scene where the protagonist has to rise from the brink of death to defeat the killer? - No. Gratuitous nudity? No. Sorry, this movie has none of the usually elements needs for a good horror/slasher film. The action was slow and plodding, you could tell Linda Blair just was there for a paycheck. If you want to see a good horror flick, keep looking as this isn't the one.

ivegonemod This was OK, and really only because I happen to be a semi-fan of clean slasher flicks between 1975-1982. No nudity and no sex scenes, and very little profanity; that's how I roll.There's action here, but most of it is boring and stupid. The kids are just so insipid at the sorority and fraternity. The Garth house overnight kids were the best of the bunch, but Linda Blair is a bit slow. I kinda liked Seth; he shouldn't have come back, he should have just let those idiot police officers lock him up for safety.What happened to Denise anyway? Did I miss it? The other guy in the house (not Seth) is a fool. He's seen dead people and one girl go missing, and yet when he spies a light in the garden from the upstairs window, he has to go investigate and thinks it is smart to leave Linda Blair's character behind, telling her not to worry. Uh, why not fool? She doesn't say that, she just whines that she doesn't want to be left behind. Then why don't you follow his stupid butt stupid? Lots of other idiotic things go on here.