After starring in The Exorcist, its sequel, and a handful of television dramas (like the highly acclaimed, Sarah T. - Portrait Of A Teenage Alcoholic), Linda Blair made a name for herself in the 80's as one of the "Queens of Exploitation" along with such names as Linnea Quigley. Hell Night was one of the first movies in that cycle of her career and I'm willing to bet it's probably the best as well.

Directed by Tom De Simone (a former gay porn director who'd make a handful of enjoyable low-budgeters in the 80's before going on to television series directing) and co-produced by Irwin Yablans of Halloween fame, Hell Night starts off like a wild frat party in the vein of Animal House before setting itself up as an "Old Dark House" slasher when for "Hell Night" a group of four college students (Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, and Suki Goodwin - the last of which agreeably spends most of the movie in lingerie and didn't make another movie after this one) are taken off to run-down Garth Manor and are given the task of spending the night in the creepy old mansion.

Seems that the house has quite a history as twelve years prior rich man Garth had killed his wife and children (except for one who disappeared and was never found) when it turned out that after numerous tries they couldn't conceive of a "normal" baby. This gives our prankster fraternity the opportunity to set-up blaring speakers in the house and other elaborate pranks, but things start to go awry (and people start to get killed) when it turns out the missing, deformed, son has been living in catacombs under the house all this time and doesn't like the company.

When I was growing up this was a staple on late night TV and I must have watched it numerous times. Back then I really didn't think much of it, but I still would sit through it as I liked to absorb as many horror movies as I could. Now, years and years later, I have a new appreciation for Hell Night as it focuses more on having a decent, spooky mood and developing the main characters into likeable people than most of the other similar movies from its time frame. It also manages to pull-off some good moments of suspense (and a cringe inducing "gate climb" scene), has some cool briefly glanced deaths like an early decapitation, and manages to recover from the slowdown it suffers from in the last third (thanks to lots of cat 'n' mouse scenes and creeping around) with a top-notch finale involving Blair, the gate, and a car.

Another thing I noticed while watching the movie was that it seems co-producer Yablans has taken the cue from his earlier hit, Halloween, by using a musical score that sounds similar at times and going for a more deliberate, eerie pace like the 1978 classic did. That's not particularly a bad thing, but De Simone can't pull it off quite like John Carpenter did and, as mentioned above, the last third could've moved a bit quicker.

Hell Night is a completely watchable 80's horror flick that sports great cover art, decent acting from the young cast, and enough thrills to entertain - it's just too bad it's not as well-known as other, lesser, movies of its type are. (Chris Hartley, 8/30/05)

Directed By: Tom De Simone.
Written By: Randolph Feldman.

Starring: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Kevin Brophy, Jenny Neumann.