If this wasn’t too long and too slow, it could have been alright. I mean the bones are there: vaguely annoying college kids forced to spend the night in a creepy old house with murder lore as part of an initiation test, and yet…it just kind of flubs it. There’s no real tension or tautness or even much of a gothic vibe. Which wouldn’t matter so much in a slasher if the kills were outstanding, but they’re just kind of fine. It tells you a lot that a scene where a character climbs a gate is probably the closest it comes to a breath-holding moment.

Junesploitation 2026 03/30

This was one of the few early 80's slasher films that I never saw for whatever reason. This film, Curtains, Silent Scream and The Boogey Man are the biggies that I missed back in the day.

Anyhows.... finally watched Hell Night. Enjoyed it. A few very inspired scenes/shots... the reveal cut of  the killer at the end of the bed... and the frustrated teen (Vincent Van Patten) raiding the back room of the police precinct.

Scream Factory Blu-ray is jammed with extras. And they do a good job with the 4K scan of the best surviving archival 35mm film print. (so that means the negative is lost... very sad. Preservation/archivism is so important. Indie films can still be easily lost.)

Too bad actress Suki Goodwin never made another film.

Haunted gothic castle roaming 80’s Slasher with a decent enough villain and an awesome ending, unfortunately so much of Hell Night is bogged down by a lack of tension and slow pacing—especially in that second act.

Happy that this hit blu a year or two ago and I was interested in revisiting this but alas... it still didn’t do much for me—I wish I could cut 15 minutes from this movie (and Linda Blair—who I love and respect but I just can’t with her character in this). Still though, there’s some ok stuff in here... and I love that last 10 minutes—a truly fun ending that feels wasted amongst all the filler.

Bummer.

A slasher starring Linda Blair and set inside a spooky old house sounds like something I would absolutely give a 4-5 star rating right? But no, le sigh, it’s only a 3 star deal and that’s mostly due to parts of it being so so so boring. There’s way too much talking between these teens and they just aren’t that interesting. Like the blond surfer guy wanders around the house in his boxers for half the movie and either take them off or put all your clothes on k, stop being a cock tease.

Still, Linda is super adorable and the kills are pretty fun so I still come back to this every once in a while in spite of the talkiness and unacceptable lack of male nudity.

#SlasherSaturday
Watching this, I was really hoping Seth was going to be the final girl. I should have know it would be the one and only Linda Blair though. (When the film first started, I thought for sure it was Stevie Nicks 😆). This was a pretty fun 80’s slasher complete with some cheese dialogue. A couple decent kills, but this kind of left me wanting for more in that department. Great poster though. 

Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 2
1. Linda Blair and Neve Campbell in Scream
2. Neve Campbell and Kevin Bacon in Wild Things

Not a very good slasher, since it lacks a lot of the genre's best qualities (a memorable killer, inventive kills/gore and nudity). It does take place at an atmospheric location, however, which is always fun.

I still had a good time watching this with Michelle, despite it being a lesser movie.

Hey that’s the girl from the Exorcist who blew mad green chunks

35

In theory, a mix of William Castle movies and an early-80s Slasher film sounds like an instant classic, but Hell Night has about 25 minutes of filler added to an absurdly slow pace. By the time anything interesting happens, you're already checked out. Boring. Cool setting, though, and the intro/opening song is fantastic.

HELL NIGHT was one of those 80’s schlockers that would always be on Saturday afternoon on the local NY tv station so as a kid I watched it a bunch but clearly it was edited down for violence there so watching it again decades later uncut was eye-opening how solid the death scenes were, especially in the editing. 
It’s not great, kinda too long and Linda Blair looks bored but some quality kills and a fun atmosphere (but what’s with the castle? Did Charlie Band rent it out?) makes it more watchable.