Night School

Plot synopsis:
At the Jack-n-Jill Daycare Center, teachers aide Anne Barron (Meb Boden) is saying goodnight to the young child Lisa who gets picked up by her mother. Anne sits alone on the merry-go-round when a person wearing all black leather with a black motorcycle helmet, rides up on a motorcycle to the daycare center. After looking around and seeing that Anne is alone, the black-clad person accosts Anne by spinning the merry-go-around and holds out a kukri at Anne as she passes, until finally the blade is lifted and Anne screams.The next morning, Boston Police Lieutenant Judd Austin (Leonard Mann) is with his girlfriend Stevie (Margo Skinner) on his day off, but his partner Taj (Joseph R. Sicari) calls him and Judd leaves to go to his "lousy job". He arrives at the scene of the crime and is told by the coroner that the murder of Anne Barron is similar to an earlier one the previous month where a young woman was decapitated. Judd is shown Anne's severed head, resting in a nearby bucket of water. The previous victim's head was found in a lake. The director of the daycare center, Miss Armand, tells the cops that Anne attended evening classes at Wendell College, a local girls school. Judd sets off to try to find a meaning in the decapitated heads in the water.Judd goes to the school and stands in the back of Professor Millett's (Drew Snyder) anthropology class as the teacher is finishing a lecture. When the class is dismissed, Judd approaches Millett to ask him questions about Anne, and Millett says that his student Kim Morrison (Elizabeth Barnitz) was Anne's friend. Kim is clearly distraught when she learns about Anne's murder and is consoled by Millett. Eleanor (Rachel Ward), a British exchange student at the college, walks in and tells Millett that she has finished his notes. Kim tells Judd that Anne had a boyfriend but she would not tell her who it was.That evening, Eleanor goes to the Lamplight Restaurant near the college for some coffee where the weird busboy Gus (Nicolas Cairis) stares at her. Carol (Karen McDonald) a middle-aged waitress, asks Eleanor if she is in Millett's class and if the teacher "fools around". Eleanor evades talking about Professor Millett and she instead pays for her coffee and leaves. Eleanor is walking home alone when she is frightened by the shadowing Gus who follows her. She runs and gets inside a row house and locks the doors. Eleanor begins to take a shower when someone begins rigging the front doorbell, but Eleanor doesn't hear the bell. A few minutes later, a man walks in through the back door and walks upstairs to the bathroom where Eleanor is scared by Millett. The two of them kiss and then enjoy themselves in the shower as the professor paints his student's nude body. It is clear that Eleanor and Millett are lovers and live together in the professor's house.The next day, Kim is in scuba gar at the local aquarium feeding fish and turtles as people watch through the aquarium glass. The girl gets out of the water and goes to the locker room to take off her scuba diving suit when the black helmeted killer jumps out of a locker and slashes her several times with his kukri until he finally beheads her and drops her severed head into the tank so the people can see.After leaving the latest crime scene, Judd goes to see Millett at his home where Eleanor is there, saying that she is the professor's live-in "research assistant". Judd goes to the university where he finds Millett in his office to question him about the latest beheading murder, whom was another one of his students he questioned the previous day. Millett says that the only animal that kills for pleasure is man. Judd tells Millett that Kim used to be his student and asks Millett if he had an affair with Kim or any other student. The teacher denies that he is having affairs with any of his female students as well as being responsible for the murders. With no evidence to arrest him, Judd leaves but he tells Millett: "People don't go out and kill just for the hell of it. There's always a reason."After Judd leaves, Millett meets with a tearful Eleanor where she tells him about Judd visiting her at the house earlier and that he thinks that Millett is responsible for the murders. Millett again denies that he's responsible for the killings and Eleanor seems to belive him. Eleanor tells Millett that she loves him and will do anything for him, but there is always another person. Eleanor walks out and Millett catches up to her at the Lamplight Restaurant and apologizes, and he again denies having affairs with other women or being the one responsible for the killings. Eleanor tells him that she believes that he is innocent of the murders, but not innocent of cheating on her. She tells Millett that she is about a month pregnant. They both seem happy about it, but Eleanor seems a little irked when Millett flirts with the waitress Carol a little bit.Millett goes to see Helen Griffin (Annette Miller) the dean of the school, and he hears her talking to Kathy (Holly Hardman) another student about allegations of having an affair with the professor. Helen discusses Millett losing his job, and she offers to let Kathy stay at her place.That evening, Carol is closing up the restaurant for the night after the manager Gary (Bill McCann) leaves. Suddenly the lights in the restaurant are turned off and Carol naturally asks: "Who's there?" Just then the same black-clad killer appears and the kukri is brought out. Carol manages to get out the back door, but the killer catches up, swings the kukri, and carries her severed head back to the restaurant. The next morning, Gary opens up the restaurant for a couple of construction workers and they see the mess of overturned tables and chairs, but Carol is nowhere to be seen. Gary serves them two bowls of beef stew for breakfast and one of them notices a strand of hair in his bowl. Gary examines a pot of stew that had been left on the stove and empties it out. Then, he notices a nearby sink full and upon draining it, discovers Carol's severed head. Gary calls the police where they find Carol's decapitated body in the back alley in a trash bin. Judd and Taj show up where Gary tells them that he suspects it was the mentally challenged busboy Gus who did not show up for work and gives them Gus' home address.Judd and Taj go to Gus' seedy apartment and question him where Gus tells them that he didn't go to work because he was "too sick". Taj finds a bra in Gus' drawer, but Judd decides to leave, thinking that Gus is only a peeping tom.Judd goes back to Millett's house and when no one answers the door, he picks the lock and lets himself inside. Looking around for clues, Judd goes into Millett's office where he finds photographs of Millett and Eleanor posing with tribal people. Eleanor comes in and asks the cop if he has a search warrant. He tells her 'no' and he asks Eleanor about headhunting (implied by the photographs). Eleanor tells Judd that during her and Millett's travels to New Guinea, heads were cut off of criminals because the people believed they could process life force from the heads of enemies; the heads were put in water to cleanse the evil spirits.After Judd leaves, Eleanor goes over to the school to find Millette to apparently inform him about Judd's persistance. Unable to find Millette in his classroom, Eleanor walks into Helen's office where she interrupts a discussion between Millett and Helen about the professor having an affair with one of his students. Clearly angry and jealous, Eleanor storms out, and Millett is angry with Helen, suggesting that her interest in the students is something other then "welfare".That evening, Judd is staking out Millett's house where he follows Millett as he leaves his house on his motorbike, but loses him at a red traffic light. Just then Taj radios to Judd that he has been staking out Gus' place and that he has followed the peeping tom whom is right outside Helen's house. Gus is peeping inside the windows while Taj is a short distance away. Inside the house, Helen is laying in her bed with Kathy clearly trying to seduce her. Just then a telephone rings, and Helen goes downstairs to answer it where she is grabbed by the killer who is already inside the house. A few minutes later, Kathy wakes up and enters the bathroom where she finds Helen's severed head in the toilet. Kathy is then beheaded by the same killer who puts her severed head in the filled bathtub.Just then, Judd arrives and bursts down the front door where he finds Helen's headless body in the living room. In going upstairs to the bedroom, the killer jumps out at Judd, knocking him down the stairs. The killer then runs out the front door, gets on a motorbike, and speeds away. At the same time, Taj arrests Gus outside for trespassing. Judd stumbles outside and tells Taj that he strongly suspects who the killer is and they need to follow him.The black leather-clad killer returns to a place at dawn and enters through a back door and takes off the helmet. It is Eleanor. Millett walks in and she shows Millett the bloody kukri saying: "I did it for us, Vincent, and for our baby." Eleanor tells Millett that she had to kill all the women that he lusted after because she loved him. She talks about an accepted ritual within a society where women are not allowed to defend themselves. When they both hear police sirens outside their house, Eleanor says that the police are coming for her and that Judd may know she committed all the beheading murders. Eleanor goes to the front door and prepares to make a run for it. She says that if the police kill her, they will kill her unborn baby too. Eleanor also tells Millett that she always knew that she would get caught someday, and she is going to make a suicidal attempt to flee. Millett stops a weeping Eleanor from going to the door.Outside, Judd, Taj, and several policemen are outside preparing to move in with guns drawn. Suddenly, a figure wearing the black motorcycle helmet and black leather speeds away from the back of the row house. The cops give chase until it ends with the motorbike hitting a car at a police blockade and the person in black flies off the motorbike and lands on the hood of Taj's car. The helmet is taken off and the cops see Millett. He is dead from either a broken neck or blunt force trauma to his head. Taj declares that Millett is the killer, but Judd does not seem satisfied with the discovery.A few days later at the professor's funeral, Judd shows up and asks the grieving and distraught Eleanor (who's the only one in attendance) if the ceremony is over. She cries and says 'yes'. (It is clearly implied that Judd correctly suspects Eleanor to be the killer after his encounter with the helmeted killer at Helen's house earlier because of the killer's height and slim build after having interacted with both Eleanor and Millett repeatedly). Aware that Eleanor was indeed the killer but with the case closed of Millett being the culprit, Judd seems to accept it and walks away. Eleanor, aware that Judd knows, walks the other way, alone.A little later, Judd is in his office at the police station working as usual. He leaves his office and goes to his car in the garage to drive home when suddenly he is attacked by a black helmeted leather-clad figure hiding in the back seat. It turns out to be Taj just wanting to scare him, and the two cops laugh.

Tags: violence, cult, cruelty, murder, sadist

Review:
They wonder if there's any connection between the two murders."Night School" is a typical run-of-the-mill early 80's whodunit slasher with a decapitation twist.
The twist ending is pretty predictable and the acting is a bit wooden (Rachel Ward, in her film debut, is all sorts of terrible here) but the film is never boring and has been directed with style.
Night School is an excellent, stylish American giallo with terrific set pieces and great use of Boston locations.Several coeds are being murdered with their severed heads found in submerged in water and the detectives believe a sleazy professor is behind it.
An excellent slasher/whodunnit you might not have heard about.Brutal killings,attractive women.attractive men,big knife,Freudian Symbolism,shower scene and red herrings.Even a surprise ending,although one that is a bit out of place especially compared to the rest of the movie.It's all there.So how come Night School isn't a more popular title?
But does he succeed in jumping from one end of the movie chain to the other without getting a little confused in-between?It's all set in Boston, around Wendell College', a suspicious night school where it seems a sadistic and ruthless butcher is targeting a number of the students for headless (!) assassination.
Lieutenant Judd Austin (Leonard Mann) is put on the case and finds a prime suspect in professor Millet (Drew Snyder), a flirtatious anthropology lecturer who seems to have quite an interest in the young attractive female co-ed's extra curricular activities!
We already know by viewing the first two murders that the killer submerges the decapitated heads of his victims in the nearest pool of water, so we're already expecting him to find a shocking sight somewhere or other!
A killer in a motorcycle helmet is decapitating attractive babes attend a night school class taught by an anthropology professor.It all has to do with some head-hunting rituals from Papua New Guinea.Very enjoyable cop drama/slasher with some elements of giallo.There is a truly sensual shower scene with a a ravishingly beautiful Rachel Ward and three decapitated heads of victims are found in various strange places including an aquarium.The killings are mostly off-screen and there is a bit of sleaze.The melodically creepy piano based score by Brad Fiedel of "Just Before Dawn" is truly effective.If you enjoyed "What Have You Done to Your Daughters" give "Night School" a chance.It truly is one of the slashers that resembles the Italian giallo that inspired the genre in the first place.8 out of 10..
A police lieutenant and his partner (comic relief?) start to investigate the murders."Night School" takes place in Boston.
There are some connection points: 1) Leonard Mann, an Italo-American actor that worked mainly in Italian films, including gialli like "Death Steps in the Dark" and "The Monster of Florence".
Anyway "Night School" is quite engaging, charming and different from the normal fare.3) There are many pretty girls (and some of them will be ruthlessly killed by the decapitator).The highlights in "Night School" are Rachel Ward (her beauty illuminates the screen) and Leonard Mann.
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.
"Night School" has the female students of a Boston night college quite literally losing their heads at the hands of a psychopath in a biker helmet, with an anthropology graduate student (Rachel Ward) caught in the middle of it all.Overlooked and underexposed are two key words that come to mind after seeing this film; it's been bashed by critics and hasn't exactly gotten the love that other slashers of the period have amassed, but I knew I was in for a treat from the film's opening scene.
There is little in the way in of extreme gore (in fact, Hughes sort of teases the audience by rarely giving in and showing us all), but the horrendous sound effects that come with each slashing, paired with the jarring score and killer's POV shots make the scenes unexpectedly disturbing.Off-setting the film's gritty edge is the slightly comedic relationship between the determined lieutenant and his bumbling assistant.
Drew Snyder plays her smarmy professor, and we also have Leonard Mann as the headstrong "Harvard" police officer.Some have said the conclusion to the film is predictable, which I suppose is true, but given the context, this was a fairly original approach for 1981 (albeit a bit of a self-conscious riff on Hitchcock and the Italian giallo).
Besides Alice, Sweet Alice, I can think of only one film that comes even close to capturing the lurid thrills of the Italian giallo movement - that is Night School.
Directed by, of all people, Ken Hughes (of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Night School mixes class with vulgar sleaze to a delicious and fun effect.
Rachel Ward makes her film debut as Eleanor, the troubled girlfriend of a horny college professor whose female students keep turning up decapitated with their severed heads submerged in water.
It does help give it that giallo-flair, but I almost wonder if it wouldn't have been more interesting to have had another female student play detective in an effort to save her classmates and figure out who's behind the leather jumpsuit.Flaws aside, Night School is still way better than most of the slashers of that era and deserves a second look..
Like sadly too often the case with early 80's slasher-movies, this one honestly isn't as bad as the rating & reputation suggest and it obviously all depends on the viewers' prior expectations.
The vast majority of contemporary slasher flicks were blind copies of "Halloween", but "Night School" looks for role models that predate Carpenter's horror milestone by several years, more particularly Alfred Hitchcock (oh yes, yet another shower sequence) and various Italian Giallo movies!
There's a killer on this loose in this beautiful city, completely dressed in black leather and wearing a pitch-dark motorcycle helmet, who brutally decapitates of young co-eds and dumps the chopped off heads in the nearest watery reservoir.
Police inspector Austin quickly discovers a pattern, namely all victims attended night school classes and  more particularly  the anthropology lectures of professor / playboy Dr. Millett.
In spite of the gooey sounding head-hunter premise and its listing among the infamous Video Nasties, "Night School" is a rather tame and UN-shocking film.
Director Ken Hughes (director of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", of all people) films a handful of effectively suspenseful scenes, the music is atmospheric and  even though I seem to be the only one who thinks so  the character of Taj (the assistant) was funny!.
The lovely Rachel Ward makes her screen debut and comes off as the films highlight - unfortunately she can't save the lackluster story.
Female students are systematically killed in unimaginative ways (even though the filmmakers believe they're imaginative) by someone who drives a motorcycle and wears a helmet, as to hide the identity of the killer (which I figured out 10 minutes into the movie).NIGHT SCHOOL is not a horror movie but more of a sucky Giallo or a bloody soap opera.
Nothing memorable about it except for the fact that it's totally unmemorable.And Rachel Ward is one bad actress.Not worth watching, even for horror film completists..
Sure, there are young women getting slain one by one, but there's an element of adult sophistication and sexual perversity that one usually only sees in giallo films.The main selling point these days seems to be Rachel Ward who turns in a fairly bland and unremarkable performance.
The modus operandi of the killer here is rather odd, but it works rather well as we follow a biker dressed all in black leathers who enjoys going round decapitating various members of a night school, before dumping their heads in the nearest container of water.
We are introduced to several red herrings along the way, although suspicion often seems to fall on the school's anthropology professor.My only reason for seeing this film is due to the fact that it was included on the DPP Video Nasty list back in the eighties.
The film doesn't feature any big name stars, although Rachel Ward makes a mark and the rest of the support cast aren't too bad considering the material they were working with.
Night School was also the debut of Rachel Ward who led a successful career as an actress after her involvement with this movie.Right off the bat I noticed a glaring mistake in the editing.
As far as the characters go, the masked killer is highly reminiscent of that dopey buffoon that I had the displeasure of viewing in 1985's The Nailgun Massacre (well it's a stretch I guess).Night School's soundtrack was composed by Brad Fiedal – a young and ambitious composer at the time who would later be responsible for working on all 4 installments of the Terminator series.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many professionals get their start doing horror films in one way or anotheralmost as if it's the proving grounds for talent.I think all-in-all, Ken Hughes had fun making this movie.
Despite hailing from the golden age of American slashers, Night School (AKA Terror Eyes) shares more in common with the Italian giallo genre than your average early 80s U.S. kill-by-numbers flick: the plot revolves around a series of grisly murders that take place in and around a school; in typical giallo fashion, the majority of the action is centred around the investigation of the crimes rather than the actual murders themselves; the killer is clad head to toe in black motorcycle gear and carries a distinctive weapon (a Kukri knife); and like many an Italian murder/mystery, the motive for the slayings is just plain silly.Unfortunately, even though the ingredients seem right for a cool and classy Euro-style thriller, Night School ultimately fails to impress thanks to some dreadful casting, the sheer predictability of the plot (the identity of the killer is obvious from the outset), and director Ken Hughes' habit of 'pulling his punches' just as matters begin to get interesting.
It's hard enough watching Rachel Ward struggle to act and Drew Snyder failing to convince as a lothario professor with the ability to charm his way into his students' knickers, without the added irritation of a potentially sleazy lesbian scene cut tragically short, the film's promising death scenes cutting away just as the killer delivers the fatal blow, and a lack of decent gore—all we see of the decapitated heads is the hair!As disappointing as it is, though, Night School will always remain of interest to horror fans for being one of the DPP's official video nasties (probably thanks to the admittedly vicious moment where the killer repeatedly slashes a terrified woman with his knife, her blood smearing all over the walls as she desperately tries to escape)..
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.
Although it is now lost in the annals of 1980's slasher movies, Terror Eyes, or Night School, has at least one claim to fame.
And arguably, it shouldn't, as although the film manages to tick off every cliché in the slasher handbook, it delivers a few effectively-staged set- pieces more in common with the giallo genre.The basic premise is that Boston is under attack from a serial killer dressed head-to-toe in black leather, whose identity is permanently disguised by a motorcycle helmet.
Austin spots a similarity to the way the victims heads are being removed and left submerged in water, and so investigates Millet and his relationship to his young assistant Eleanor (Rachel Ward) further.Possibly the most alarming thing about Terror Eyes is not the dodgy effects or lack of plot, but the fact that it was directed by the same guy who gave us Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ken Hughes.
Soon Lt. Austin (Leonard Mann) is investigating the murder and before long more women from a local school turn up with their head cut off.
Suspect quickly falls on a professor (Drew Snyder) who has had an affair with many women and his current love (Rachel Ward) begins to wonder what's going on.NIGHT SCHOOL is a pretty forgettable slasher that tries to mix that genre with that of a police thriller but it pretty much fails on both levels.
Someone, dressed in black helmet, jacket and pants, is attacking students who attend the anthropology class of Professor Millet, an established womanizer bedding his students under the nose of his girlfriend Eleanor Adjai(Rachel Ward, lovely, but lacking in performance, having trouble with the dialogue under her thick accent).
It's up to Harvard grad lieutenant Judd Austin(Leonard Mann)to find the killer, who leaves little-to-no trace of evidence, except the unorthodox methods of the crime scene.Okay psycho-thriller benefits from Fiedel's terrific score which is, at times, melodic, menacing & piercing.
The film, typical of both giallo thrillers and 80's slashers has a a couple of red herrings, such as a peeping tom who works as a garbage man at the local tavern which yields the murdered waitress and Professor Millet himself(..for he's quite the authority in tribal customs and methods).There's a stab of black comedy at the very end regarding the lieutenant, who is the only one who knows who the true killer is yet can not prove it, and someone behind the seat of his car, which finishes this with a nice, tasteless touch.
They're attending the anthropology class of a professor, Vincent Millett (Drew Snyder), who is apparently some sort of chick magnet.Done in a style that hearkens back to the Italian giallo films that helped to inspire the slasher film, "Night School" may come as something of a disappointment to some fans of the sub genre.
Not only is Night School one of the seventy four 'collectable' video nasties that were unfortunate enough to be banned in the United Kingdom and added to the notorious DPP list, but on top of that, its production boasts some interesting trivia.Director Kenneth Hughes was not just an ambitious non-experienced wet-behind-the-ears beginner like so many of his genre counterparts from the period, but instead he was a film-maker with a long and varied résumé, which included a few high-profile efforts.
Dressed in motorcycle leathers and masked by a tinted crash helmet, the killer is decapitating his victims and then submerging their heads in water, which leads the Police to believe that he is a ritualistic maniac.
Detectives are mystified as to the motives of the deranged assassin and as the bodies pile up they realise that they must move quickly to prevent the terror from striking again.Even though Night School has enough of the necessary trademarks to allow it to be identified as a slasher movie, it plays more like an ultra-violent cop-thriller.
Who knows, watch it if you want to find out...Directed by Ken Hughes I thought Night School was a reasonable horror film that also could probably be classed as much a psychological thriller as straight slasher.
The acting in Night School is pretty good by all involved except Rachel Ward who is simply terrible & just check the scenes out when she tries to be emotional, at times it's embarrassing to watch.
Night School is just an average horror/thriller that is an OK watch but isn't going to make anyones top ten that's for sure.
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 1981 horror film stars Leonard Mann, Rachel Ward and Drew Snyder.
SPOILERS AHEAD...From the director of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), comes this less than average slasher film loaded with bad acting from a misused cast, squirm in your seat dialogue and some strangely overlit cinematography.This stalk n' slash' film belong to the killer-on-campus/high school subgenre, such Prom Night, Graduation Day, Final Exam, House on Sorority Row and The Dorm that Dripped Blood.
"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.
Unfortunately this film seems to have been made a few years before she discovered acting, but luckily she went on to much bigger projects such as (Thorn Birds and Sharkey's Machine) but sadly her time in the limelight didn't last and she ended up doing rubbish straight to video projects and TV movies.Night School was released at the height of the Slasher boom, unfortunately it is a bit slow and too much talking and it doesn't show any of the actual killings but it does work in suspense in several scenes throughout the movie..
Someone is killing off the female students who are taking night classes at a local college.Each victim is decapitated and has her head thrown into the nearest body of water for some unknown reason.The detectives working the case discover a connection between the victims and a certain professor at the college, which makes him their prime suspect in the killings.Is the professor really responsible for the murders or is someone else to blame.........Regarded as one of the notorious video nasties here in the U.K. for a number of years, Night School isn't just your average run of the mill stalk n' slasher set in a school, it's actually quite a compelling whodunnit.It's only weak link is the fact that the red herring may as well be wearing a jacket saying 'hey audience!!