Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Imagine yourself in this scenario. You’re a new student on a college campus who is not very rich or popular. A campus sorority chick approaches you and offers you clothes, a car, a place to stay, all in exchange for merely joining her co-ed fraternity/sorority. Now it is “Hell Night,” Alpha Sigma Rho’s name for their annual initiation night, which occurs every Halloween. To get into ASR, you’ve just learned that you and three other initiates must spend one night in an old empty mansion: no phones, no utilities, and oh yeah—a legendary history of a man who slaughtered his wife and handicapped children years ago in front of one of his children and then killed himself, and the child witness and two bodies remain unaccounted for. What would you do?

This is the exact dilemma that Marti (Linda Blair) finds herself in when ASR president Peter (Kevin Brophy) delivers a well-performed, typical campfire-style fashion, morbid monologue on Garth manor where, as Peter says in his monologue, witness Andrew Garth is still “rumored to still walk somewhere beyond the gates of this house.”

“Is it too late to back out?” asks Marti.

“You can’t,” says her frat/sorority “friend.” “I’ve already given you the clothes, the car…you have to go through with it.”

You will discover that the film title “Hell Night” definitely employs the clever device of double meaning once the gates lock behind Marti and her co-initiates Seth (Vincent Van Patten), Jeff (Peter Barton), and Denise (Suki Goodwin). From there, once Peter and two other ASR members sneak back to the house to spook the initiates, it becomes clear that no legends or setup scares are really needed (though they add to making the movie interesting); the Garth home and grounds are wrought with plenty of REAL terrors.

Sure, the film is old, the special effects are dated, and the concepts of haunted house tales and slayer films aren’t new ones. But if you think well-plotted haunted houses and well-plotted slayer films are undying classics, as I do, this movie might be for you. So what made the magic for me that prompted me to review this old video and recommend it to you?

The Garth legend: To me, this whole story provides an intriguing premise that adds to the plot. I could not wait to see if I saw the missing corpses or even Andrew turn up, and if Andrew DID turn up, to see if he would be a supernatural ghost killer or a flesh-and-blood, grown, traumatized human killer, half-man, half-super monster, or something else.

Image vs. reality: We have some scares setup by Peter and his flunkies, and some very dark secrets and surprises left over from Garth slaying days. Around every corner awaits a new terror. Each time, we wonder if we will find the teens fleeing from a fake prop, or running right into fatality.

Secret passages and doors: What would any haunted house be without them? They make great surprise venues for characters to stumble upon terrors, and great surprise venues for terrors to stumble upon the characters.

Character and acting: Has Linda Blair ever done a poor job of acting in ANY movie she’s done? I’ve never seen one, and “Hell Night” is no exception. Inside and out, Linda is a beautiful Marti, creating a dynamic character who is naïve yet smart, conservative and shy yet passionate, curious yet careful, and scared yet courageous. We find ourselves rooting for her survival among the horrors that lie in wait and saying, “Marti must survive, even if no one else does.” Denise and Seth can be somewhat annoying characters at times, but their cheesy lines and behavior, well-played by Goodman and Van Patten, are humorously out-of-place in such a gruesome setting and add much-needed comic relief to the darkness of the movie. Van Patten is especially funny as Seth. A few early, filler scenes between characters drag at times, but they are short-lived, add to building the characters, and are forgiven due to the fast-paced slaying, chasing, mystery, murder, and mayhem of the subsequent scenes that come. Also, it helps that the characters don’t tend to make the stereotypical stupid mistakes put in less creative horror films to easily kill off the characters. Instead, the four initiates try to help one another and for the most part even do logical things that real people might do in their situation (such as attempting escape, trying to get the police, gathering weapons, and staying together).

I don’t want to ruin the movie for you by saying too much more than this. If you aren’t convinced by my review alone, folks, read Ian Button’s “Hell Night: Pray for the Day” on “Diabolical Dominion.com” (http://www.diabolical-dominion.com/Reviews/Hell_Night/ ). Particularly impressive to horror fans like myself are the horror gurus noted in his review: “What caught my eye in the credits were how many horror names were in there, like producers Irwin Yablans (Halloween 1, 2 & 3), Joseph Wolf(Nightmare on Elm St., Halloween 2 & 3), and Chuck Russell(The Blob remake, Nightmare on Elm St. 3)…. I also noticed that Frank Darabont (who directed Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile and helped write Nightmare on Elm St. 3, The Blob, The Fly 2, and Frankenstein) was the film’s production assistant…I think having all these people involved is what kept the film a step above the usual slasher clones.”

Just like Ian Button says in his review, this movie actually scared me the first time I saw it, and it has become one of my all-time favorite horror movies. In fact, I had to get a copy of my own. At the six or seven bucks I noticed on its Epinions listed price, it is a definite bargain. And it is certainly well worth the $2-$4 it will cost you to rent it.


Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older