Hell Night

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a girl starts to scream hysterically looking upwards to the camera. During a massive college party, Peter Bennett, the president of the Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, decides to make four pledges: Marti, Jeff, Seth, and Denise told to stay at the historic Garth Manor until dawn on hell night as part of their initiation. Peter and a group of others, along with his friends Scott and May, bring everyone together and tells them about the sordid history of the estate as they walk while he leads them. Peter explains in a long monologue that 12 years prior, the owner and great-grandson of the founder and gold prospector, Raymond Garth, strangled his wife Lillian to death and then proceeded to murder three of his children (Morris, Suzanne, and Margaret) due to their severe deformities. After the carnage, Raymond hanged himself. However, the police never found the body of the youngest Garth child, 14-year-old Andrew. Legend has it, Andrew witnessed the murder of his entire family and may still be living within Garth Manor.After the pledges get set up in the house, Scott and May assist Peter in attempting to scare them with mechanical devices and sound effects until they are quickly murdered one by one by unseen assailants. May gets violently dragged into a pit and decapitated. Scott has his neck broken on the roof by a large, bare-handed man. Peter discovers Scott's body hanging from a wire and runs to escape without telling the pledges, but is attacked by an unknown assailant. He escapes, but gets lost in a garden labyrinth (a la The Shining) and runs into yet another assailant who impales him with a scythe. The audience realizes that there are two killers.Meanwhile, Marti, Jeff, Seth and Denise discover the sound devices and bogus effects throughout the house set to scare them. After Seth and Denise have a sensual moment together, Seth excuses himself to go to the restroom, and a large, deformed hand covers Denise's mouth. Seth returns to discover May's severed head in the bed and runs away hysterically freaked out. As Jeff confronts Seth, they quickly decide to escape and seek help as Jeff and Marti stay behind. Seth tries to climb the spiked iron gate, but stabs his arm on a spike and falls down. Jeff suggests that he take off his boots and try again. Seth agrees and manages to scale the gate. But he promises to return. Seth runs back to the frat house at the university, pounding on the door for help around but no one is there.Jeff and Marti search the house and discover Scott's hanging body with a rope outside a window. Jeff decides to go outside to look for the others and discovers Peter's corpse. As he runs away in horror, the camera focuses on Peter's hand. the gate keys grasped tightly. Jeff informs Marti that the others have been killed so they decide that it must be Andrew Garth, but are unsure.Jeff and Marti lie in wait in a bedroom armed with a pitchfork, a mysterious shape comes up from the floor under a large rug to attack them. Jeff impales it with the pitchfork and it falls into the hole in the floor. Angry at the death of his friends, Jeff decides to go after it. Marti follows. As they walk through an underground tunnel under the house, they discover dead bodies posed at a table with rats crawling on them. They discover Denise's fresh corpse among the bodies. Suddenly, they see a disfigured man heading towards them. After a chase down the tunnels, Jeff fights him but is knocked down a stone flight of stairs, and injured. He and Marti escape through a hidden exit.Meanwhile, Seth arrives at a local police station. After being disgruntled with the police who think he is pulling another Alpha Sigma Rho prank (out of his anger) Seth steals a shotgun from an abandoned office and tries to find any remaining pledges at the frat house. Finding no one except some drunken revellers who leave, he then suddenly carjacks a man without hurting him in the parking lot and manages to return to Garth Manor as a promise to his friends. Seth sees a figure run past him at the front gate of the Garth Manor as he arrives back. Following along the gated fence, Seth finds a bent out bar of the fence where the figure sliped through and enters the manor grounds.Suddenly, Seth gets attacked by a man, and after a long scuffle, he shoots him to death with the stolen police shotgun. Obviously, Seth doesn't realize that there's another killer in the house when he enters and calls out for Jeff and Marti. As they tell Seth the others are dead, an arm suddenly grabs him from out of the shadows and quickly drags him away. A gunshot is heard and only the shotgun appears sliding across the floor. As Marti decides to go for the gun, the other killer leaps out to grab her. Marti escapes as he chases them upstairs to the bedroom. The Garth killer then kills Jeff by throwing him out a window after he helps Marti out safely.Marti makes her way through the garden labyrinth and discovers Peter's dead body. As his body falls on top of her, she sees the keys and has to pry them from his hands. She makes her way to the gate (unaware about the secret opening in the fence a few hundred yards down from the front gate), opens it and hot wires the stolen car Seth had left by the front gate. Driving away, a hideous face appears from the roof as the killer has leaped onto the car. Marti screams as the glass shatters and a large hand tries to grasp her throat. As she tries to escape, Marti backs into the front gate, bending it. As the car skids, Marti fights off the assailant and punches down on the accelerator as she speeds towards the gate, the killer looks in horror as the gate violently impales him. He spews blood, writhes in agony and dies. A stunned Marti shouts out and hits her head on the steering wheel sounding the horn as it fades out and the battery on the car dies as well.In the morning, the body is still on the car. Marti awakens slowly to the light of dawn and manages to get out of the car. It is assumed she's the only survivor. She walks toward the camera in a daze as the end credits roll.

Tags: cult, horror, murder, prank

Review:
When the seemingly innocent rite of passage turns deadly, these college students will do anything to survive Hell Night." Hell Night is a fun way to waste a couple of hours, a definite popcorn flick which isn't a bad thing, the cast are clearly having fun with they're roles, Suki Goodwin, as Denise, is a scream; providing the film's main comedy moments without really grating.
Linda Blair is also as effortlessly likable as you'd imagine, as the slightly tomboyish girl (with the handy mechanic skills).Hell Night never fails to be entertaining,It's the fun early 80's slasher flick - designed for retro thrills, fun scares and popcorn munching.
It takes itself seriously enough to stop from descending into self-parody funny to talk about innocence in a film where a bunch of people get carved up in creative ways, but HELL NIGHT is a perfect twilight genre example of the slasher flick before it descended into self parody and rapidly shrinking budgets..
Hell Night, much like Friday the 13th and Halloween, is a horror movie that has, for me, stood the test of time.From the creepy setting to the scary villains, and horny, screaming college kids, this one has it all.
In fact, most of the characters didn't even realize a psychopath was on the loose until late in the film, when it was really too late.The setting was really milked for all it was worth by the director, with scenes not only throughout the creepy mansion, but a number of them below the house and within the extensive grounds.
The whole film has a fun, festive tone, and there are some pretty spooky scenes and the atmosphere was perfect in a classic, haunted-house horror kind of way.
Back to 'Hell Night'...I thought everybody gave really good performances throughout...Linda Blair and Vincet Van Patten standout the most.
While the other fraternity members are playing pranks to increase the eeriness, the real killer comes to interfereOf course, you can't really refer to this 'Hell Night' as being a good film.
Linda Blair stars as one of four college pledges who must spend the night in the creepy old mansion(reputed to be haunted, with a murderous history) in order to join the sorority and fraternity.
Seniors plan to pull pranks on them for fun, but discover to their dismay that "reputed" turns out to mean "factual"...Surprisingly effective thriller may not be original, but has good performances and direction, which create characters you come to care about, and a genuinely spooky atmosphere, especially when it moves underground.
It does provide for some interesting conversation after the movie is over but I think the film would have been more enjoyable if questions had been answered.Hell Night is a little slow moving and doesn't keep it's pace going once things start to happen and Linda Blair's acting is atrocious, but that aside Hell Night is a nice addition to the 80's slasher flicks.
What then follows is the usual slasher sort of stuff, with the kids inside getting sliced and diced along with the ones outside, who were just trying to make their new frat-mate's stay a little scarier.Linda Blair, now all grown up since her role in The Exorcist, takes the lead role and does pretty much what you would expect the heroine to do.
"Hell Night" has the key elements for a slasher film : Horny teens, a stalker (at times I thought it was something like an ape), gore, and a scary score.
"Hell Night" is one of the most impressive slashers of the time period.**SPOILERS**Participating in a fraternity initiation, Marti, (Linda Blair) Seth, (Vincent Van Patten) Denise Dunsmore, (Suki Goodwin) and Jeff Reed, (Peter Barton) are gathered together by fraternity leader Peter Bennett, (Kevin Brophy) for it's annual ritual.
Going through the house, they all start to realize that the story involving a serial killer who had murdered his family is real and they try to leave before anything happens to them.The Good News: This one is a really interesting slasher.
Another film to appear just after the dawn of the slasher frenzy with producer Irwin Yablins himself taking part after producing the film that pretty much signalled the birth of the afforementioned genre.Anyone with a likeness to horror should not be scratching their heads to work out the identity of this masterpiece.Linda Blair had become a firm association with exploitation horror (and sleazy action films)after her successful potrayal as a bile vomiting head turning demon chick in "The Exorcist" so it's very neat to see her here playing a voluptuous well to do "Innocent" fraternity pledger facing her initiation night in a haunted house.Along with her for the ride are all the other cliched types...The Horny anything goes foreign girl,the tough as nuts jock,and of course,the well to do "Innocent" guy of the situation,One from the misunderstood side of the tracks..(A neat little exchange of dialogue on the issues of misunderstood upbringings takes place,before the slaughter with the two well two do's.)What unravels during the course of the pledgers indoctrination makes for some geniuinely scary and atmospheric thrills haunted house/slasher style..A mysterious presence who may be the topic of myth is also in the wailing halled mansion too,with murder on it's mind.Although some of the suspense scenes are so long and anti climatic, There is a decent amount to recommend about Hell Night.The murder scenes do not look as poorly done as previously indicated and there are some pretty neat little action/battle scenes between the two male heroes and the mysterious presence.Of course the horror film cliches are ever present,the heroine who falls down for no good reason during a chase,a seemingly invincible killer with no explanation as to why a pointblank shotgun wound does not effect the killer slightly and why the silly twits in mention always roam off alone and act surprised when their is no response to "Who's there?" But these are standard puns for horror films and anyone who watches these films and picks the absolute dirt out of them does not appreciate the films face value..."TOTAL UNREALISTIC CHEAP MINDLESS FUN" and for the most part....That kinda fun is cool...There is one scene in this film that made me JUMP out of my chair,hopefully upon seeing the scene,you'll guess which one it was too.
Could be too that faces like Linda Blair and Vince Van Patten were noticeable faces in genre films and guest-filled shows like The Love Boat back then, and there's a fondness that I know I have for those fun times.Like Hell Night or don't, but it definitely deserves its respected place in the history of thrillers..
The movie has been done before and yes done better but it is Linda Blair that makes this horror/slasher movie work.College kids must stay a night in a haunted house.
What starts out as a prank turns into full horror as the legend of the house being haunted by a killer comes true.Some nice camera work as well as lighting and acting make this an above average horror/slasher flick.
Even thought it's rated R (presumably for a little gore and an incredibly chaste sex scene), Hell Night is great entertainment for the family during the Halloween season.
Linda Blair leads an appealing cast of sorority and fraternity pledges who are forced to stay the night in the spooky Garth Manor, which was the scene of several unsolved murders years before.
An all-grown-up Linda Blair leads the cast with her charming girl-next-door presence, while pretty-boy Peter Barton ("Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter") plays her good-guy boyfriend.
The film had its share of gore, but it wasn't gratuitous, like some modern "horror" movies, i.e. Hostel, which is more like torture porn and not a true horror flick.What happened to good old fashioned scary movies, like The Thing, Halloween, The Shining, Hell Night, etc.?
Marti (Linda Blair!), the chubby, innocent one, Jeff (Peter Barton) the gentlemen, Seth (Vincent Van Patten) the fun one, and Denise (Suki Goodwin) the sexy British one, all want to join Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity and its sister sorority, but they first must spend the night at an old mansion while three tricksters (Kevin Brophy, Jimmy Sturtevant, Jenny Neumann) scare them silly.
However soon a crazy murderous ape-like mutant comes to crash the party.From the director of Bad Bad Boys, Erotikus, Good Hot Stuff, and Wet Shorts comes HELL NIGHT!It's one of those super fun horror movies.
One of the most beautifully photographed horror films of the 1980's is HELL NIGHT, an under-rated, atmospheric thriller starring Linda Blair and a cast of characters light years more interesting than the cardboard dolts of the SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER variety.
(Not that that's a BAD thing, but it's just not too scary.) I honestly thought the script was well-constructed and funny and character exposition was given in an unobtrusive but helpful way (i.e. Linda Blair working as a mechanic.) There is absolutely nothing new or groundbreaking in HELL NIGHT, but it's a sterling example of how to polish up an old apple and make it look appealing and new-- and taste good.
Linda Blair stars in this, and Hell Night was a very good slasher film.
A fine, actually scary little B flick with a fab B cast: Linda Blair, Peter Barton and Vince Van Patten, all battling a creepy, grotesque mutant out for blood in the film's obligatory old dark house setting.
Four students have to spend the night in the dark old mansion called Garth Manor only to be murdered by a deformed killer.Tom DeSimone's "Hell Night" is a surprisingly decent horror film.There is a little bit of gore and a nice amount of atmosphere,unfortunately the film is too darkly lit to be completely enjoyable.Still "Hell Night" offers some shocking scenes that will make you jump,but overall isn't scary.The acting is actually decent and the direction by Tom DeSimone is well-handled.The film has a dark,almost Gothic feel,which I liked.So if you like low-budget slasher films you can't go wrong with "Hell Night".8 out of 10.Highly recommended..
But surprise, surprise..."Hell Night" is one of the best slasher films to come out of the 80s, along with "Friday the 13th," "Prom Night," "Terror Train," "He Knows You're Alone" and "Halloween II." The plot is simple: Alpha Sigma Rho is having a blast with their new pledges.
Underneath the mansion, there is a disfigured maniac who doesn't enjoy having unwelcome guests in his house.Like I said before, "Hell Night" could have been your average slasher film.
The killer was weird and creepy, and although "Hell Night" was a slasher movie, it had the elements of a wonderful haunted house tale, like the 1958 schlock classic "The House on Haunted Hill." Garth Manor reminded me very much of that house, only "House on Haunted Hill" didn't have the scares that this movie did.
"Hell Night" is a nifty little haunted house-style/slasher romp that puts movies like "Graduation Day" and "Girl's Nite Out" to shame.
"Hell Night" from 1981 has all of the elements of a horror movie from the 80's it's got a house with a past, teens and college students with raging hormones who want sex, and murder one by one with like one character living.
Hell Night is a decent early 80's slasher, starring a mechanically inclined Linda Blair.Each year the local fraternity and sorority hold a Devil's Night bash together; using it as an oppourtunity to haze their pledges.They demand that they stay overnight in an abandoned mansion, where a man went mad; killing his wife- and two of three of his deformed children- before hanging himself.
Although not nearly as effective as Carpenter's classic, this routine shocker, directed by Tom DeSimone, still manages to deliver a few classy moments and a couple of decent scares, particularly in its final frantic moments, and is worth persevering with to the end.A rather chubby Linda Blair plays Marti Gaines, one of four college pledges who must spend the night in deserted Garth Manor, rumoured to be the stomping ground of Andrew, a deformed freak who, twelve years earlier, witnessed the slaughter of his family by his father.With the gates locked behind them, the foursome make their way to the manor house, where they encounter a variety of scary practical jokes that are being orchestrated (via remote control) by fraternity head Peter and his pals, who are hiding in the manor grounds.The spooky fun stops for everyone, however, when Andrew proves to be not only very real, but also rather insane.
After murdering the jokers lurking outside his house, the twisted maniac heads inside to continue the killing...For much of its running time, Hell Night offers very little in the way of originality and decent scares, with its teens indulging in the usual and predictable shenanigans before the deaths begin: the promiscuous characters (Vincent Van Patten as surf dude Seth and Suki Goodwin as party girl Denise) drink alcohol, do drugs, and have casual sex, whilst virginal Marti and good guy Jeff (Peter Barton) look for a place to sleep (but not together, of course).
The freaky killer is also rather unoriginal, lacking the inventiveness of a Freddy or a Jason: his victims are dispatched via decapitation, hanging and stabbing, and most of the death scenes are fairly bloodless when compared with other slashers of the day.Fortunately, however, it is worth tolerating the clichéd antics and rather humdrum murders for the exciting finalé, which features a thrilling chase through underground caverns, several solid 'jump scares', and a very satisfying ending in which Marti finishes off the bad guy in spectacular fashion.For maximum enjoyment, viewers are advised not to think too hard about the storyline, since it features several glaring plot holes, some unbelievable contrivances, and plain confusing moments that might ruin the fun if considered for too long (how did Andrew remain in the manor house for twelve years without food, light, and heat?
There's your set up for HELL NIGHT, a derivative but still enjoyable early 80s slasher romp that featured such then-young talent as "Exorcist" vet Linda Blair (who never looked hotter than she does here), Peter Barton (a blink-and-you-missed-him teen heart throb of the era, best known for the "Powers Of Matthew Starr" TV series) and Vincent Van Patten (the "I hear it's raining cats and dogs in Idaho" guy from "Rock N Roll High School").
I'm not going to talk about the story because I'm sure the concept was devised in about two minutes, but the thing that makes Hell Night stand out is that it's actually scary, everything that a horror movie should be.
It didn't bring anything new or set standards but it surely followed the basic rules imposed by Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Friday the 13th (among the most popular slashers).Decent amount of gore, dark settings, creepy music, scary killer (s), and a good lead character (Linda Blair).
Linda Blair goes from demonically possessed pre-teen to screaming coed in this fart better than usual slasher film from 1981 - the golden year of the slasher sub-genre.Blair is Marti, a smart sorority girl forced to spend the night in a spooky mansion right out of Scooby Doo with three other sorority and fraternity pledges.
Like being in something called "Hell Night" was going to give you a good reputation!The movie has no nudity, very little swearing and next to no violence, blood or gore---how did this get an R rating?
HELL NIGHT (1981) **½  Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy, Suki Goodwin.
Linda Blair stars as a sorority pledge who, along with three others (Van Patten, Barton and Goodwin) must spend the night in Garth Manor, an old abandoned house, as a part of her initiation.
Says one half-man, half-monster is killing the kids, seemed like two So how good could this movie be if even the description is bad?Acting: 4/10 Story: 4/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Cinematography: 6/10 Character Development: 0/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 3/10 Nudity/Sexuality: 0/10 Violence/Gore: 5/10 Music: 5/10 Direction: 3/10Cheesiness: 2/10 Crappiness: 7/10Overall: 3/10Another one for just horror buffs and completists, and even that might be a stretch.
HELL NIGHT is a run-of-the-mill slasher flick from the early 1980s, notable only for the casting of THE EXORCIST's Linda Blair as a college student who decides to spend the night in a haunted mansion along with some of her equally unaware companions.
Four teens are going to sleep in a manor with terrific stories about it.Yeah,very original for the time.The acting is good,except Linda Blair.I especially liked the Vincent Van Patten performance,and Suki Goodwin is good in her role of bad girl.There isn't much blood and the murders aren't original.The special effects are poor and we didn't see breast and there the scenes in bed are very innocent.The setting is amazing and one of the best settings in the horror story!!I give it a 5 and not a 6 or a 7 because the killer back story isn't clear and that's upsets me.Megamagdaleno's mark:5'2SPOILERSThe favorite kill:Peter,who is cornered and pierced by a scythe.Then,the Peter's flashlight falls into the floor as we hear the killer's grunts.
By her side is Dick Van Patten's handsome son, Vincent; and Peter Barton, who would later go on to become one of Jason's most memorable victims in Friday the 13th Part 4.With top-notch gore effects, a thrilling score, and one of the most haunting mansions ever seen on film - Hell Night is a roller-coaster of horror that should have been one of '81's biggest terror hits.As it, its all but forgotten...
This movie was a fun horror film  It is nothing amazing, but it is really entertaining and worth a look especially if you are a Linda Blair fan(like me).
And, on a personal level, I always enjoy Linda Blair in just about anything she does.While it will never be known as a great movie, you could do far worse with a teen slasher than watching Hell Night..
Hell Night it is very creepy, the atmosphere is amazing and the house "GARTH MANOR" is like a separate character in itself.