I have a sweet spot for HELL NIGHT. Ever since I saw first saw it on late night cable as a kid and it scared the shit out of me. Watching it now as grown man with a hairy chest, a 15 pound dick and urine that can burn it's way through an iceberg made out of lead, HELL NIGHT seems very tame in the violence department, but it still manages to create a lot of suspense thanks to the filmmakers using the novel idea of creating characters that the viewer actually
likes! Unlike most slashers where the characters are so annoying they can't get killed fast enough (I'm looking at you
SORORITY ROW and
LAID TO REST). The entire look of the film is very pleasing with an awesome spooky mansion, excellent lighting and all of the victims dressed in old-timey clothing.
The plot: four pledges trying to get into a college fraternity have to spend the night in a vacant mansion where a family was murdered 12 years ago. Naturally, the frat dudes have set up some pranks to scare the pledges, but shit soon hits the fan when people start getting killed for realz!
Fun movie, but I would like to complain about the small number of victims. With only a total of 7 people inside the mansion there's not going to be a lot of action and that's where HELL NIGHT falls short. The suspense and buildup are great, but I would have liked it much better if there had been more people involved. It would have been awesome to see the pledges trying to turn the tables on the frat people
then having the frat people and the pledges join together against the killers for the big bloodbath at the end. Just a thought. Also, some quality nudity and gore would have been nice. As it is though, HELL NIGHT if a fun lightweight 80's slasher. Recommended.