Hell Night – Review (Scream Factory Blu-ray)

Hell Night has been yet another one of those horror movies that I’ve meant to watch for a very long time. I would see the poster, the one with Linda Blair’s boobies hanging out of her dress, while she is screaming to get out. It was a memorable poster for sure, but for some odd reason, I never had the opportunity to watch it. Of course, that has changed now, since Scream Factory has produced a feature-packed Blu-ray release. Using a new 4K scan from the 35mm film print, the film has never looked better (sidenote: the film print was missing some footage, so standard definition footage was used, but Scream cleaned it up the best they could, and it looks good). As for what I thought of the movie, read on to find out!

Linda Blair plays Marti, a college girl in the process of trying to join a fraternity (sorority?). The process to get into the fraternity takes place during an event called Hell Night, and it involves spending a night in a supposedly haunted mansion. It’s your cliche story we have all seen before. Marti is joined by Denise, the slutty girl, Seth, the surfer dude, and Peter, the jock with a heart of gold. The leader of the fraternity (is it really a fraternity? Do some fraternities accept both girls and guys? I’m confused.) plays some pranks on the four people staying the night, but it isn’t long until the real monsters come out to kill some pledges.

As I’ve already mentioned, Hell Night isn’t very original, but it does offer a fun time. It’s got some fun murder scenes, with lots of practical effects. I did find that the kill scenes flashed by too quickly. There really isn’t much gore to speak of in the movie, as it’s mostly edited out. Also, it’s an 80s horror film, but there isn’t any nudity in the flick. There are some really gorgeous looking women in this movie, but the flesh stays covered. The most we get is the delicious Suki Goodwin walking around in scantily clad lingerie, which got my heart racing.

Another issue I had with Hell Night is the story, or to put it more bluntly, the lack of a cohesive story. We are provided with some backstory on the history of the mansion, but the murderers in the movie are never fully explained. You are told that one of the killers is a certain person who survived the night of the murders 12 years ago, but there is also another killer and I have no idea who that killer was. Also, later on in the film, we are shown a scene in the basement with some old rotten bodies around a table (a staple of 80s horror films), but I have no idea who these dead people are. Are they the family? Other victims? Doesn’t this Hell Night happen every year, so wouldn’t people stay at the mansion every year? Why was this one night the catalyst for the killers to start killing? It doesn’t make sense the more you think about it.

Maybe I’m thinking way too hard about Hell Night. Maybe I just need to sit back, turn my brain off and relax while Linda Blair’s big ol’ boobies heave around on screen. Yeah, I think that’s exactly the right way to watch this fun, but flawed horror film.

Scream Factory has released a feature-packed Collector’s Edition, with so many special features. There are plenty of new interviews with the cast and crew of the flick. Each one is packed with lots of information. These aren’t cookie cutter features that run a few minutes. Most of them run over 20 minutes or more. The only old extras on the disc is an audio commentary, trailers and photo galleries. Scream Factory has definitely provided plenty for fans to look at. Good on them!

Verdict

If you happen to like the film even a little bit, you definitely want to own this amazing Blu-ray Collector’s Edition release from Scream Factory. It has a solid video transfer and extra features that are almost as big as Linda Blair’s boobs. A no brainer purchase!

Extra Features