HELL NIGHT (1981)

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 like! 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 for sure.

True story: I was watching this film once at a friend's house when his very young son came walking in the room.  It was towards the end where the bad guy was chasing everybody around and my friend's kid was on the verge of freaking out when I told him not to worry because that is just the Hug Monster and all he wants is a hug, but the the other people don't want a hug from him because he's so smelly.