Great 80's Horror Movie
Blair is solid in this movie. They do not make them like this any more.
[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Hell Night (1981) Discussion > Great 80's Horror Movie
Sure. Linda Blair gave a good and credible performance. For being a slasher flick, she was o.k. oh and she looked very sensual!
When I was a little boy, the Garth Manion monsters scared the hell out of me!
Those were the days!.
"there isn't nothin' like the sight of an amputated spirit, there is no prosthetic for that."
AMEN! It WAS frightening in 81.... Informative too! As a 7yr old, I learned that people should CAREFULLY select the location of their sorority/fraternity slumber sites. Otherwise - all your friends get hacked and you have to pledge all over again! Linda was good, though certainly not as powerful as Wolfman Jack in "Motel Hell"!
share[deleted]
I was also 7 when I saw this movie! I will never forget the night it came on TV. We watched it as a family....imagine 4 kids, ages 7, 5, 4 and 2 watching this thing. I don't know what my parents were thinking. This was the first horror movie I ever saw. I remember with PERFECT clarity at the end, my little sister, who was 4 at the time, asked (after Marti drove Andrew right through the gate that was hanging by the middle portion), "What is she gonna eat for breakfast?" It came on again about 3 years ago at 1 in the morning and I made my husband sleep on the couch while I watched it in the living room.
share
I absolutely agree.. they do not make movies like this anymore. I think the movie studios should see that 80 horror is the most popular in the history or horror..
I was thinking about this not too long ago.. it would be impossible to make a movie with the 80s feel now.. think about it... Imagine if they made a updated Hell night in todays world.. HELL.. someone could pick up their cell phone and make one call.. all would be saved. I miss true 80s horror. When we didn't have cell phones, internet or any of the things we have today..
Think about this.. even what we know about movies has changed due to the internet.. I am not talking about downloading the movies before it is even out at the theater.. I am talking about BEFORE the movie is released.. everthing is known about it on the internet.. the beginning, middle and end.. it totally changes things about the movie.. what did people know about Hell Night before it was released ? Think about what it would be like today, if it was released.. people would already know that there were two killers.. the ended.. DEATH BY GATE.. everything would be out there for the world to read BEFORE they saw the movie..
True horror movies are the thing of the past.. I am sorry to say.
"Between emotion and response falls the shadow"
~T.S. Eliot~
Actually if they made Hell Night in the new era, they would have the pledges to not have cell phones on them lol. It's really hard to make slasher films believable in this time because everyone has a stupid cell phone so its that, "damn, no signal" thing that is always written and the audience hate it. Wrong Turn is probably the best horror of the era that = to a 80's horror in my opinion.
Yeah, when I was eleven (and she sixteen), she turned me onto LOTS of shows she'd seen at the drive-in (I had to wait a while, until HBO brought 'em in). This was one of the TOPS. And I'm pretty versed in ALL horror...though I'm partial to the first three Jason trips (and the first two Halloween's--and only Nightmare on Elm Street's ORIGINAL), this is somewhat a cut above a lot of the others.
Some of the obscure ones, though, are endearing, no? Here's a few:
Happy Birthday to Me
The Boogens
Phantasm (only Part I)
The Fog
Motel Hell
The Evictors
And, I think, the best of the "cheesy" slasher flicks:
The Prowler
Hey, fans....what did you think of the remakes of Amityville Horror and the Fog and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of Wax? I'm kind of likin' them a lot, and my kids're diggin' the "whole effect" of most (though the youngest can't screen 'em yet, for obvious reasons)!! Lemme know, I'll just check back to the HELL NIGHT ON IMDB MESSAGE BOARD DEALY. Hey man, tell your buds, the Hell Night page is a secret place to talk about good slasher flicks...We could have somethin' here.
Okay,
thjollymon
Thjollymon, I didn't see the remake to Texas Chainsaw Massacre because I couldn't bring myself to do it - that movie is too classic and good to be remade - don't you agree?? It is scary as hell, and you can't reproduce the effect that that movie had in a remake, don't you agree? Besides, how can you replace Marilyn Burns?! As far as the Amityville Horror remake, it was decent, though it wasn't as creepy as the original. The original has great suspense and just overall better chills - didn't you think that after a while in the remake the "startlers" - (the editing) - got sort of predictable? Anyway, it wasn't bad, the original is better, though I did like the whole focus on the John Ketcham guy, you know the one who the history of the house is traced back to, the guy who tortured Indians or whatever... that part was creepy. Oh, one more thing - I really think you should check out Nightmare on Elm St Part 2 again. I think that you'll find that it is actually good - it is darker, scarier, and just better made all around than the original. I think you'll agree with me, if you watch them both within a relatively near period of time... See how many cheesy parts there are in the original - quite a lot! Though the original is a classic, it is much overrated compared with Part 2. Reply and tell me what you think.
flyjeffersonairplane
Well, I left out the subsequent Freddy movies because I just thought the IDEA was groundbreaking, and further stabs at it took away from the overall effect. Of course, 2 is the only one I recall seeing in theaters (Sikes Senter Mall, Wichita Falls, Texas); and at the time, my friend Jeff and I really dug it!! I'll bet if more horror fans knew about this site, though, they'd jump ALL OVER Freddy 3/Dream Warriors (my kids' favorite, by the way). That one grabbed mass audiences in a way that was uncanny for that time; not one of my favorites, though. I'd stand by the Texas Chainsaw remake, too...very good. And the original DOES have a hallowed place in the history of horror cinema, yeah. But there's new, worthy stuff to see/feel in the remake. Especially the ending. Good enough for the new House of Wax to have ripped off, I think, to an extent.
Anyway, SO GOOD to talk to a fellow fan of the Splattery Cinema. Get back. I'll be lookin' for ya.
Yes, I see what you mean by the first Nightmare as being groundbreaking in the idea - definitely. I think that Part 2 is creepier, darker, and has better acting, what do you think? You know, an exciting story too - Freddy possesses a body like a demon... So you saw it at the theaters, way back in '85? Awesome. In your opinion,which Texas Chainsaw is better? Also, have you seen Slumber Party Massacres 1 and 3? What do you think about them?
shareYou won't believe this, buddy...I only saw Slumber Party Massacre I. I know, I know, I slacked off when I was 16 or so....probably my dates wanted to see Tango and Cash or Something Wild. Go figure...just got Carrie, Firestarter, Hell Night and Burnt Offerings on VHS via good ol' Amazon.com, though, and my kids seem to love 'em all. Especially Burnt Offerings. Hmmm...weird, that. We THOROUGHLY enjoyed Hell Night, and they loved Friday I, Halloween I, Freddy I. I think they're humoring Dad. But we've seen Burnt Offerings three times; they just can't get enough of that one. Now that they're older (Maddie is 12 and Bree 10), Burnt Offerings and Poltergeist is what they want to pick, whenever there's nothing new to pick up. Oh, and William (6) just LOVES Jaws. He and I have seen it five times in the two or three months since I picked it up. Again, weird, huh? Just thought and began an old one from childhood, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown". Remember that? Same guy who directed/engineered "Boggy Creek" and "The Evictors"...Let me know. "...Sundown", especially, has a special place in my heart, along with the original Amityville.
Take care man, and DON'T INVESTIGATE THE SOUND IN THE ATTIC. That's where they get ya.
Okay,
Bobbo
Hell night is a classic spooker of a movie.Always frightned be in those mid 80s summer nights when everyone was asleep but you watching cinemax.I miss those days
Rudy70, that's exactly how I first saw it! Saw it again recently and it has held up quite well.
shareYes, I caught up with this one again recently, and it holds up very, very well. The characters (especially Vince Van Patten, who really does steal the show in the third act) are a lot of fun and fairly believable. The monsters are clever. The movie looks good--beautiful locations, nicely photographed. It's really much superior to most of the stuff people were making at that time.
It seemed "restrained" at the time I saw it originally, on cable in the 80's. I noticed, for example, that for a couple of the gore scenes, instead of building fake heads of the characters, there was a tendency to cut a hole in a fake wall (or whatever) and stick the actor's head through the hole and set the gag up that way. The film looked expensive enough to me that it could have gone a pricier route with the effects (and had some false heads built). However, the passage of a number of years gives these effects scenes a different look and they seem fairly inventive now. It seems to me that the film works BETTER now than it did at the time--more raw, more shocking.
Very effective popcorn spook-house horror show.
[deleted]
This movie had me on the edge of my seat more than 'Friday the 13th' or 'Halloween'. Highly Recommended (obiously) for fans of the genre.
shareI agree. This movie, while pretty formulaic was still eerie and gave me the
chills.
Yeah its good i also like Curtains and My Bloody Valentine.
shareWell,
There's a "resurgence" for MY BLOODY VALENTINE now, with the 3-D "reboot" in theaters now...and I enjoyed that one a lot, the other night!
What's outstanding about the Remake Trend in old 80s slasher flicks is the awesome DVDs they're releasing now! You can get HELL NIGHT, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, and even HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME on DVD...even George Romero's "forgotten" MARTIN, which is true classic of the genre of Horror, if not necessarily a slasher film.
In particular, the extended/special edition DVD of MY BLOODY VALENTINE ('81) has some excellent special features (thanks again, Lion's Gate)!
Awaiting this coming Friday night: the "reboot" of FRIDAY THE 13th...I really, really hope that this is a good one. I'm with you fellas. We have HATED so many of the PG-13 stuff coming out for the last 5-6 years! Good luck, and remember: stay out of the basement. There's a gateway to Hell down there, y'know?
Okay,
Bobbo
"Only a fool would say that." --STEELY DAN
This movie is totally awesome, its just like Halloween the story is so simple yet so brilliant i gave it 9 stars, such a shame that its so underrated.
shareYeah, this is a wonderful horror movie. One of the best from the 80's as far as I'm concerned.
"You don't know what death is"-Sam Loomis (Halloween 2)
I agree. A very great horror movie.
MYSPACE
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&f riendid=387606505