“Now the FUN begins!”

Story: Alpha Sigma Rho hast four new pledges for their co-ed fraternity/sorority/thing. But on their Hell Night – the final night that new pledges must endure before initiation – Our Gang has to spend the night in a mansion with a tragic history. Could one of the twisted family members still live there, with nobody realizing the danger? I mean, DUH. Obviously.

Scares and/or Splat Factor: wide screen and/or cutaway deaths, but it decent enough jump scare-palooza

Subgenre: Collegiate Survive- The-Night Slashers
Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Original, but with lots of lovely 80s slasher clichés

Trick or Treat?: Frat president that looks 45? Check. Token TV heartthrobs? Check. Tons of clichés that would make Scream‘s Randy proud? Check-y check! Night is probably Linda Blair’s most well known movie outside The Exorcist. And it’s a lesser known slasher that’s a goofy good time. From the jump, there’s that red with black shadowed opening credits font… Yeah baby. That’s the stuff.

Why? Because Night is so boilerplate you can just kick back and let the paint by numbers plot wash over you. The cast is a bit better than the typical lower budget 80s horror fare, thanks to a cast stocked with actors that have plenty of experience in front of the camera, and a screenplay that allows the final survivors to make intelligent decisions. Well, at least til the story decides it needs more death, and needlessly slaughters more of Our Gang with zero fanfare. And fine; I had a huge crush on nice guy lead Peter Barton back in the day, and who doesn’t love Linda Blair? So Night gets extra points for these two fine folks.

The group of four pledges and three frat pranksters is a small cast in a film genre that typically prides itself on body count. At around an hour and 40 minutes, the short character list equals lots of shameless searching-for-everyone padding in-between kills and exposition dumps. But what can I say? I’m a sucker for Final Girl slashers that hew closely to boilerplate. Plus, the creepy old mansion is pretty darn cool.

Night is a perfect film to put on at a party, when you’re looking for something you don’t really need to focus on, but is fun enough in moments. If you’ve never seen it before? Give it a serious look, especially if silly 80s horror is your bag.

Score: 2.5 out of 5 pumpkins.