Hell Night — Hell Night( Blu Ray)

From the early 1980’s- ‘the golden age of the slasher ‘ here’s Hell Night- an often entertaining-to-creepily moody blend of teen slice ‘n’ dice and haunted house horror. The film features Linda Blair in its lead and severs up a mixture of scooby doo campness, moments of gothic creepiness/ dread, and some neat enough stalk ‘n’ slash action. Here from the folks at 101 Films is a new Blu ray release of the film- taking in a 4k scan of the film, a selection of old and new extras.

Released in the summer of 1981 Hell Night (aka Paranoia, Scary Castle) was directed by Cambridge MA born Tom DeSimone. He had an impressive forty-four feature-length credits to his name, starting off in the 1970s with a spate of adult films(as Lancer Brooker) such as The Upstairs Room, How To Make A Homo Movie (!?), and Confessions of a Male Groupie. In the 80’s he stepped into the more formal grindhouse side of things- like a more serious and drama fed take on the WIP genre The Concrete Jungle, female vigilante film Savage Streets ( which also featured Linda Blair),  and more tacky ‘n’ trashy take on the WIP genre Reform Girl School. Hell Night is a competently enough shot film- with DeSimone manage a good balance of playful 80’s campiness, dark creepy house atmospherics, and some well-executed/ tense stalking scenes.

The film finds a group of four college pledges been sent to a seemingly abandoned/ deserted mansion to spend the night. Older members of frat have set up a number of creepy pranks to scare four, though they fairly soon realize what’s going on- unfortunately, someone in the house has started killing for real- is it one of the teens, one of the cursed family who used to live in the house, or something/ someone else.

All four teens are dressed up in fancy dress as part of their pledging- so we have Marti( Blair) in wenches dress with her assets on display. Jeff(Peter Barton) who looks like one of the Osmond and is dressed as a buccaneer, & blond hair sexually fired up Seth(Vincent Van Pattern) as robin hood. The group been topped off with a flirty flapper girl and drug-taking Denise( English actress Suki Goodwin). All four are likeable enough, and as the night goes on things effectively turn from prankish to deadly.
 
On the gore/kill side of things we have a decapitation, a hanging, a scythe through the body, a brutal head twisted, and an impalement. Though the film is still fairly dark/ murky in its look due to the nighttime shooting of most of the kills- you can largely see what’s going on. The film is scored by brooding & creepily wonky pitch shift synth soundtrack, which is most effective. And the creepy house setting is well realised/ captured. The tone of the film starts off rather playful/ fun- with a very sort of fleshless sex comedy-meets- scooby doo vibe, as we move through the tone certainly turns darker/ creeper- though the fun vibe never fully dispense, so if your looking for an easy-going/ fun slasher, then Hell Night will be for you. 

Moving onto this region B disc, and apparently, this is the first Blu Ray release of the film. First off we get a nice 4k scan of the film, this is nice bright and balanced in its colours- with even the night-time largely shots coming off well and clear. Moving onto the on-disc extras, and as far as I can gather these are all brought over from the Scream Factory disc from a few years back, and I must say it’s certainly a bumper crop of very worthy/ interesting stuff. First out of the gate, there is an audio commentary from actress Linda Blair, director Tom DeSimone, producers Irwin Yablans and Bruce Cohn Curtis. This is an expectedly chatty and fun affair- they move from talking about the time it took to shoot the detailed and complex opening shot, moving onto discuss the two main filming locations- the exterior of one house and the interior of another. They talk about working largely at night, and the issues this brought up. They discuss the costumes and why they selected to go down the fancy dress route. They talk about on-set stories, and largely fond memories of the shoot, and much more- it’s a really laid back and entertaining track giving you the idea that all the cast and crew enjoyed the shoot. Next, we get the following featurettes/ interviews- Linda Blair: The Beauty of Horror- this runs at thirty-five minutes and sees Ms Blair discussing how/ why she got the role, and acting in the film. Hell Nights with Tom DeSimone- which finds the director stand outside the house from the film to have a twenty-six-minute interview. Peter Barton: Facing Fear- which is a twenty-minute interview with the actor. Producing Hell with Bruce Cohn Curtis- a fourteen-minute interview with one of the film's producers. Writing Hell with Randy Feldman- twenty-five-minute interview with the film's scriptwriter. Vincent Van Patten and Suki Goodwin in conversation- a twenty-six-minute interview with the two actors. Kevin Brophy and Jenny Neumann in conversation- a twenty-three-minute interview with the two actors. Gothic Design in Hell Night- twenty-two minutes featurette with the set designer. Anatomy of the Death Scenes twenty one minute featurette with the makeup/ effects team, and a six-minute on-location at the house featurette, plus of course your normal trailer and image gallery. The finished release features new writing, taking in the following Scare Blair Bunch: Hell Night, Linda Blair and the Rise of the American Sorority Slasher by Andrew Graves and Haunted Houses on Film by Barry Forshaw .
 

 

It’s certainly great to have the extras bulging Blu Ray release for the UK market- sure if you already have the Scream Factory release your not gaining any new on-disc extras, but you do of course get the new inlay booklet/ packaging- and if this is your first purchase of the film, you’ll be as happy as Larry with the extras/ presentation here.