The Garth Manor Massacre: Hell Night (1981)

Hell Night (1981)

Rating: ***1/2

Starring: Linda Blair, Vince Van Patten and Peter Barton.

It was the usual fun and party-filled annual Hell Night when the Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity and its sister sorority initiates four new pledges (including le gasp! Linda Blair!), all dressed in fancy old-timey Victorian costumes, by having them spend a night in the infamous Garth Manor, where legend has it that twelve years ago, patriarch Raymond Garth murdered his family after suffering a severe breakdown of bearing nothing but deformed children, right before committing suicide by hanging. When the cops went in to gather the bodies, it is said that one mongoloid son was missing, now believed to have survived that night and is prowling within the manor’s walls looking for victims to kill.

Armed with a single gun, the four pledges settle themselves in the manor, unaware that the fraternity president and his cohorts will be trying their best to scare them out. However, these teenagers will soon find out that they’re not alone as someone feral and armed with a mean cleaver starts to pick them off one co-ed at a time. As their number dwindles down, who in the end will make it through this year's Hell Night?

A fairly simplistic slasher running the classic premise of kids trying to survive a nightmarish evening in an abandoned haunt, a mad maniac nearby ready to strike and kill, Hell Night (1981) spices up the teen-murder spree with creaky and shadowy gothic house set-pieces that fairly brings out effectively creepy moments and a good dose of descent scares. The old spooks of cobwebs, hidden passages and shady figures sneaking around to catch their prey by surprise impressively work their way into the typical bodycounter narrative, building promising atmosphere to its set-up, as well as fun popcorn-friendly frights.

Hell Night (1981) also boasts an effective line of talents playing our main doomed teens, making them likable enough through their wits and quips without crossing the borderline of being too animated and annoying. You get to feel for these characters once the horror of their situation strikes them, especially Linda Blair who dons the role of this picture's final girl, Marti, an adorable and slightly tomboyish mechanic gal who didn't fail to deliver some good screams and, too, a memorable kill of her own by the end of the film. Her character is the most well delineated out of the bunch, finding the time to be friendly to her companions and is even resourceful when needed to be, practically designating Marti her main heroine status with a playful smile. On the other side of the platter, the trio of pranksters bore the brunt of being kill count fodder, having little to do but to play spooky sounds and hologram ghosts before meeting the bad end of a cleaver or scythe.

As a slasher, it's slightly intriguing how restrained Hell Night (1981) is; there's hardly any nudity and saucy scenes, plus a good deal of the kills barely splashed the red stuff. The film, however, makes up for the light bloodwork with worthwhile suspense and striking imagery leading towards the kills, on top of a generous share of intense stalk-and-chase scenes like one seemingly inspired by The Shining (1980) where a victim gets chased all over a garden maze by a scythe-wielding killer. There's also a weird yet neat twist concerning our rabid maniac that kinda came out of nowhere, the only possible explanation given being a panicked comment during the film's climax which boils down to someone getting the Garth Manor story wrong. It's an admittedly hokey affair, but one with a cheeky factor that sorta works for how manic it is.

Despite all the good it does, Hell Night (1981) isn't without its flaws and, considering the film's steady pacing and slow burn direction, the story can get a tad testy to sit through, especially when the killings not only take about half an hour to start, but are spaced far enough from one another to give room for nuanced character drama. It's a stroll not a lot of slasher fans may be fond of, but with a fun set of characters, gorgeous cinematography and near-pedigree suspense, it's honestly tolerable and rarely boring! 

Pacing issues aside, Hell Night (1981) is a genuine hell of a good time for how much it works as an underrated cult classic slasher; its casts are solidly entertaining, the eerie scares mostly work and we have enough thrills and spills going on courtesy of a "gorked out" mansion dweller! Treat yourself right and see this one! 

Bodycount:

1 female decapitated with cleaver

1 male had his head head twisted

1 male gets a scythe through the chest

1 female found with a fire poker stabbed to her neck

1 male shot dead with a shotgun

1 male killed offscreen, presumably shot with a shotgun

1 male thrown out a window and falls to his death

1 male impaled on gate railings

Total: 8