Bereamic Awesome Movie

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Sam Panico Ken Hughes directed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mae West's Sextette. Did that prepare him for this Western take on a giallo?As the last child is picked up from a daycare center, Anne is menaced by a man clad in black leather, wearing a motorcycle helmet and wielding a traditional African kukri. He or she chases her to a merry-go-round and spins her into being decapitated, her head found the next morning floating in a bucket.Judd Austin (Leonard Mann, star of many Italian productions including The Humanoid) is the cop who wants to solve the case, which takes him to the night classes at Wendall College. This isn't the first murder with a severed head being found in water and it seems like there may be a serial killer. But who could it be?It turns out that many of the murdered girls all went to the school and were all involved with Professor Millett. Or maybe it was Gary, the mental busboy. Or it could even be Miss Griffin, the administrator of the school. But surely it isn't Eleanor, Millett's live-in love and a starring role for Rachel Ward.There are the bones of a great slasher here. There's a girl in a diving suit who gets decapitated and we see her head fall into a turtle tank. There's a head that was used to make some soup. There's even a head in the toilet.What it does need is just a little bit more gore and plenty more style. It's competently directed and the mystery is decent, but imagine how this film would have played out with just a little more panache. I'm not saying it's a horrible film. I'm just saying that it could be so much more.

Stephen Abell If you like slasher films then this one may take your fancy - it has an added bonus of having a decent mystery interwoven into it.However, this movie suffers from what I call "The Fugitive" syndrome. I was looking forward to the film due to loving the series, however, in the first section, they introduce a character at a party. It's at this point I thought "He" did it... and he had. It's best, in a mystery, to not flag the villain in such an obvious way and that's what happens here, though they do try to muddy the water to confuse the audience.The other stumbling block is that there's no real tension. The director, Ken Hughes, goes for the thrill route, which isn't a bad thing as it gives the audience the adrenalin rush, it could have been better had there been a build up to the rush.This starts in the first sequence when a teacher's aid is tormented by a helmeted attacker. This is done by having the aid spun around on a round-a-bout while her assailant brandishes a knife, making stabs each time she passes.In the morning, the aid is found decapitated in the school playground and the police investigation gets underway. There are plenty of suspects ranging from the lascivious male lecturer at the "women's only" night school, Vincent Millett (played by Drew Snyder) to the Dean of the school, Helene Griffin (played by Annette Miller), who is aware of Millett's extracurricular activities; however, she's more annoyed that he's getting more "bed" action than she is.For the most part, the acting is of a high calibre, though it's Rachel Ward as Elenor who lets the film down. This is the main drawback of the film. Since she's one of the main characters her wooden acting, that makes her character two-dimensional and unbelievable, really hampers the flow and feel of the film.If you didn't figure out The Fugitive then you might like this film as the mystery is pretty well handled and the twist at the end is a brilliantly thought out one, which follows matters mentioned in the film. If the Ruth Avergon story were in book form I'd be hunting it down right now as the story is the thing which makes this film.

lost-in-limbo Probably best recognised for being the debut feature for of the ravishing British actress Rachel Ward, but "Night School" deserves a little more credit for that lone reason. I wasn't expecting it be as good it was, but while it's your by-the-numbers mystery psycho slasher it managed to resourcefully up the suspense and intrigue in some well presented set-pieces. The usual revelation behind it all doesn't come as much as a surprise (where we seem to be quite ahead of the clueless detective/s scratching their heads), along with the second twist (which is even more foreseeable), but then it ends with a neat final one which seems to be a mock send-up of the typical shock closing. "Don't you ever take your job seriously". I'm kind of surprised by its middling to poor reputation, as I found it more than competent than its 80s crop. Good atmospheric, authentic locations are masterfully framed by cinematographer Mark Irwin. His expressively flowing camera stages some inventive frames and effectively helps building up the tension before the initial shock. He films the ominous looking killer (decked in black leather and bike helmet) quite well. Director Ken Hughes' slick touch lets it flow, nailing the terrorising tension with a real sting to its tail. Hughes style kind of reminded me off Hitchcock, but the modern unpleasantness is evident (slicing and dicing with ritual decapitation on mind, but little is seen) and lurking within is a sneering sleazy undertone. The black and white story remains interesting, due to the solid performances (Leonard Mann, Drew Snyder, Rachel Ward and an amusing Joseph R. Sicari) and particularly sharp script. Brad Fiedel composes the score in an understated manner, but it eerily works. A modest psycho slasher offering.

slayrrr666 "Night School" is an entertaining slasher if only slightly flawed.**SPOILERS**Following a series of gruesome murders, police detective Judd Austin, (Leonard Mann) is assigned to search a local school that has a connection with the most recent victim. Meeting up with teacher Vincent Millett, (Drew Snyder) and his assistant Eleanor Adjai, (Rachel Ward) they provide nothing important in the case. Determined to crack it, he stays around and finds that they're a couple, which the Headmistress Helen Griffin, (Annette Miller) disproves of. As more murders are committed, each one following the same pattern as before, he becomes convinced that something is going on. Following up on a seemingly insignificant clue, he is able to solve the case and races to stop the killer from committing more murders across town.The Good News: This is a surprisingly decent slasher attempt at times. The film's most effective when its at its stalking moments, which are really well-done. The opening murder on the swing-set is a novel use for transforming an everyday object into something of terror, with the ironic twist that the killer displays in toying with the victim before the fatal blow is outstanding. A later sequence inside an aquarium's dressing room is marvelous, with the initial moment arising when the killer begins alerting the victim to their presence with the noisy clatter of banging a machete against a chain-link wall, which gets closer and closer and tipping off the victim, before the surprise attack is launched and a really terrifying exchange leading into the shower is quite effective, leading to one of it's great gags with severed heads that is one of the best ones. The severed head gags are played up throughout, which is the killer's habit of leaving the heads in a body of water. That is played up with terrifying results in a diner sequence, where the impact is alerted with the discovery of a mass of hair, and then a systematic search of the kitchen area leads to a marvelously fun time as several areas of where the head could be hidden are explored, followed by the actual appearance given in a fantastic fashion that is quite chilling. Most of the stalking moments here are top-notch, mostly due to the imposing figure, which is dressed head-to-toe with black leather biker gear and helmet which hides the identity. It even tries to pull out a little bit of erotica, with the best being a really impressive moment in a shower where two decide to engage in a display of body-painting with red gunk while in the shower, which is memorable and highly creative, given previous story connections. The last big effort is that fact that there's some rather sly black humor. Some, hopefully intentionally, funny lines about severed heads are a hoot, and a general fun tone about the detectives helps make this one of the more fun entries in the genre.The Bad News: This one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws with it. The killers big unveiling is not much of an event as there are not enough credible suspects, and too many things throughout the film have pin-pointed them anyway. There's also the fact that this one doesn't really have a whole lot of kills in it, which really lower the body count significantly. That also brings up the fact that it really doesn't have a lot of gore in it as well, since all the big impact moments are cut away and the severed heads are seen later, indicating the death blow. That really cuts away from the big impact, as the gore is cut away and the impact never shown, simply the aftermath and that leaves a really bad impression in the film. That also comes into play with the really big problem in the film, the really irritating police-procedural story. This one really takes a large amount of the film's running time, hardly ever does anything noteworthy beyond that, and completely overlooks the most obvious realization about who the killer is. That is the big fault with it, as well as the fact that it takes away time from the body counts when they're all done in spectacular fashion. Along with the dryness from the gore, this one is mostly hurt by the really imposing police-procedural story and is why this one suffers, if only slightly.The Final Verdict: When this one is on, it's got a lot to really enjoy about it, though it really needs more to be a more complete entry. An uncut version is preferred, but if not found, then only slasher die-hards would enjoy this one, while those who don't care for the genre won't find much to restore them with this one.Rated R: Violence, Full Nudity and Language