- Source: Hell Night
Hell Night is a 1981 American supernatural slasher film directed by Tom DeSimone, and starring Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Kevin Brophy, and Peter Barton. The film depicts a night of fraternity hazing set in an old manor—the site of a familial mass murder—during which a deformed killer terrorizes and murders many of the college students. The plot blends elements of slasher films and Gothic haunted house films. Filmmaker Chuck Russell served as an executive producer, while his long-time collaborator Frank Darabont served as a production assistant.
Hell Night was written by Randy Feldman, then a recent college graduate who shopped the spec script to several film studios, among them Irwin Yablans's Compass International Pictures. Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis subsequently became involved with the project and secured the lead role for Blair, with whom he had collaborated on several films, among them Roller Boogie (1979), another Compass International release. It marked the first horror film role for Blair in several years, following her performances in The Exorcist (1973) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). Principal location photography of Hell Night took place in Redlands, California at the Kimberly Crest Mansion in late 1980, with interior photography subsequently occurring in Los Angeles. The film was shot by Swedish cinematographer Mac Ahlberg. The production's shooting schedule was considerably tight, and required the cast and crew to shoot throughout the holiday season.
The film opened theatrically in August 1981, and was the final film released by Compass International Pictures, grossing $2.3 million against a $1.4 million budget. Critical reception was generally mixed, with some critiquing it for its similarity to other slasher films as well as for Blair's performance, while others praised it for its art direction and found the film frightening. In the years since its release, the film has gone on to develop a cult following. Some critics and film scholars have noted the film for its subtext regarding social class, as well as for its depiction of Blair's character as a resourceful and intelligent final girl.
Plot
During a college costume party, Peter prepares to initiate four new pledges into Alpha Sigma Rho. The four consist of Jeff, a boy from an opulent upbringing; Marti, an intelligent girl from a poor background; Denise, a promiscuous party girl from England; and Seth, a surfer from Southern California. As part of the initiation, the group are forced to spend the night in Garth Manor, an abandoned mansion once owned by Raymond Garth, who murdered his wife and three deformed children Morris, Margaret, and Suzanne. Garth then hanged himself. While he had a fourth deformed child, Andrew, his body was never found nor the body of Morris. Folklore states that Morris and Andrew still lurk within the mansion.
Peter and the students lock the pledges on the grounds behind the estate's large iron gates. Jeff and Marti bond by discussing their contrasting social classes while Seth and Denise hook up. The group endures several scares that Peter, along with two students, May and Scott, have set up around the mansion to frighten them. May and Scott are murdered by an unseen assailant. Peter discovers Scott's body strung up on the roof and flees into the hedge maze, where a second assailant murders him with a scythe.
Meanwhile, Seth goes to use the restroom, only to return and discover Denise missing and May's severed head on the bed. Panicked, he alerts Marti and Jeff and scales the gates to escape and get the police. Jeff investigates a light in the maze that he discovers is Peter's flashlight near his body. Back at the house, a figure attacks them in the bedroom and Jeff uses a pitchfork to wound the assailant, who disappears. They remove the rug, discovering a trapdoor through which the assailant fled. The couple descends into the tunnels, where they discover Denise's corpse set at a table with the preserved remains of Garth's family members.
Seth arrives at the local police station, begging for help, but the police believe him to be playing a fraternity prank. Seth steals a shotgun from the station and carjacks a vehicle. Meanwhile, Jeff and Marti escape the deformed Garth brothers. Seth returns to the mansion, where he shoots and kills Morris Garth. Jeff and Marti meet him in the foyer but Andrew kills Seth before pursuing the couple back to the bedroom. Jeff urges Marti to escape out a window. Before he can follow suit, Andrew hurls him out the window, killing him.
Marti enters the hedge maze, where she finds Peter's corpse and pries the gate keys from his fingers. She unlocks the gates and escapes in Seth's stolen vehicle, knocking over one of the iron gates in her attempt. Ambushed by Andrew, she drives the car into the fallen gate, impaling Andrew on its spikes. She awakes as the sun rises over the mansion, and emerges from the car, stoically walking away.
Cast
Themes
James Tucker of Rue Morgue magazine notes that Hell Night contains a subtext regarding social class in both the central characters (the working-class Marti and wealthy Jeff discuss at length the differences between their respective low and high-class backgrounds) as well as the villains of Andrew and Morris Garth, deformed brothers who were neglected by their wealthy father and concealed in the family's sprawling mansion.
Literary critic and film scholar John Kenneth Muir cites the character of Marti as emblematic of the working class, writing: "She's a smart young woman (her father is a garage mechanic), is resolutely blue collar, in contrast to the other pledges, and shares an interesting conversation regarding capitalism and the division between the rich and poor with the ill-fated Jeff."
Production
= Development
=
Randy Feldman, then a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote the screenplay for Hell Night over an approximate five-week period. Feldman was loosely inspired by the plot of Black Christmas (1974), which centers on a killer preying on sorority sisters in their sorority house. Feldman stated in a 2018 interview that he approached the writing of the screenplay in a literary manner, owing to his background as a college English major, and admitted the original draft was excessively detailed.
Feldman shopped the spec script to several film studios, among them Irwin Yablans's Compass International Pictures, who had distributed John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis, a colleague of Yablans, subsequently contacted Feldman, and expressed interest in purchasing the film rights. Mark L. Lester had also read the screenplay, but passed on directing the project. Curtis and his brother helped finance the film, which Curtis pitched to director Tom DeSimone, with whom he had worked on Chatterbox (1977). Several of the film's financiers were businesspeople in Washington, D.C., who were friends of Curtis's brother.
Feldman's screenplay was slightly altered after it was purchased by Curtis, mainly in its implementation of an additional villain; the original draft had only featured one of the Garth brothers as a killer instead of two. Chuck Russell, who would later direct A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), served as executive producer on the film.
= Casting
=
Actress Linda Blair was the first to become attached to the project through her working relationship with producer Curtis, who had produced several of her previous films, including Born Innocent (1974) and Roller Boogie (1979). The film marked her first horror film in several years, following The Exorcist (1973) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).
Johanna Ray served as the film's casting director, and it was her first feature film credit. Curtis sought Peter Barton for the role of Jeff. Barton, a model, was hesitant to take the role and was considering abandoning his acting career at the time, but Curtis convinced him to star in the film. Vincent Van Patten was subsequently cast Seth, while Suki Goodwin, an English actress, was cast in the role of Denise.
= Filming
=
Principal photography for Hell Night took 40 days in the fall and winter of 1980, between November 1980 and January 1981 with Swedish cinematographer Mac Ahlberg. Frank Darabont, a collaborator of the film's executive producer, Chuck Russell, served as a production assistant.
The original filming budget for Hell Night was $1 million, but the shoot's duration through the holidays extended the budget an additional $400,000. The film's shooting schedule reportedly consisted of six-day weeks and was described as grueling. Star Linda Blair recalled the daily shoots lasting from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., and that the tight schedule demanded the cast and crew spend Thanksgiving working on the film, with the production renting a double-decker bus used to serve them a Thanksgiving meal.
The majority of the film was shot in three locations: The exterior of Garth Manor was shot at the Kimberly Crest Mansion in Redlands, California. The hedge maze was brought in as there was no actual garden maze on the mansion property. The inside of Garth Manor was filmed in a residential home in Pasadena, California. The frat party was filmed in an apartment lobby in Los Angeles, with the exteriors of the party filmed at the University of Redlands. The seemingly many tunnels in the movie were actually only two corridors through which the director had the actors repeatedly running from different angles. Additional interior photography took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.
Director De Simone stated he wanted a "classic Gothic look" for the film: "I don't like these horror films where people are walking around haunted houses wearing jeans and T-shirts. So we threw our heads together and I said I wanted Linda in a Gothic kind of wardrobe. And we came up with the idea to make the hell night party a costume party. And that way we were able to have everyone in those kinds of costumes that suited their personality." During filming, producer Curtis urged DeSimone to implement an extended chase sequence for Linda Blair's character after seeing Jamie Lee Curtis's chase sequence in Terror Train (1980); this was the basis of the chase sequence that takes place in the tunnels under the mansion.
The two actors who portrayed the Garth killers are not listed anywhere in the credits, although their real names are believed to be Valentino Richardson and Chad Butler. However, on the film's DVD commentary, it was noted that they are both German nationals who spoke little or no English, and that one of them (the middle-aged bearded man) died shortly after the release of the film.
Release
= Box office
=
Hell Night was given a regional limited theatrical release in the United States beginning August 7, 1981 by Compass International Pictures, opening in cities such as Detroit and Miami. During its opening week in Detroit, the film was the highest-grossing release in the city, out-earning Raiders of the Lost Ark, with box office receipts totaling $187,000.
Three weeks later, on August 28, 1981, the film expanded to a wide theatrical release before having its Los Angeles and New York City openings on September 4, 1981. During the September 4 weekend, the film ranked at number eleven at the U.S. box office, with earnings of $832,000. The film grossed a total of USD$2,300,000 in the United States by the end of its theatrical run.
= Critical response
=
Hell Night received mixed-to-negative reviews at the time of its release. John Corry of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, concluding that, "Hell Night does make one original contribution to the genre. One college student, played by Linda Blair of Exorcist fame, does escape from that terrible house. Miss Blair is throaty and rather vacant, but the character she plays is a child of the working class. Her father runs a gas station. Get it? Those nasty privileged children are only getting what they deserve. Maybe the new film makers are only sentimental liberals, after all."
Time Out wrote "Amazing [...] what a competent director, cameraman and cast can do to help out a soggy plot", calling the film "tolerably watchable by comparison with the average Halloween rip-off." The Washington Post's Tom Shales criticized Blair's performance, and summarized: "Director Tom De Simone handles the shocks competently but not imaginatively, and most people will be able to guess from which side of the frame the beastie will leap... Cinematographer Mac Ahlberg (I, a Woman) fails to make the most of the handsome 16-room mansion in Redlands, Calif., where most of the picture was filmed, perhaps in one night."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a one-star review, writing: "You know a movie is in trouble when what is happening on the screen inspires daydreams. I had lasted through the first reel, and nothing had happened. Now I was somewhere in the middle of the third reel, and still nothing had happened. By "nothing," by the way, I mean nothing original, unexpected, well-crafted, interestingly acted, or even excitingly violent." A review published by TV Guide noted the film contained "a few effective moments," adding: "Although the actual gore content is low, the titillation content is high, an avenue DeSimone would continue to explore in his future exploitation movies."
Critic Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the film favorably, praising Blair's performance, and remarking that its art direction and costume design "contribute substantially to Hell Night's overall superior craftsmanship... It's the kind of picture that just might give adults as well as youngsters nightmares." Thomas Fox of The Commercial Appeal similarly felt the film was frightening, writing: "Hell Night is scary. Silly, predictable and sometimes unintentionally funny. But scary." The Evansville Courier & Press's Patrice Smith felt the screenplay was "penned with a moderate dose of intelligence" and praised the film's cinematography and performances, adding that it "reverts to classical directorial approaches to suspense... That method alone is praiseworthy."
Linda Blair was nominated for a Razzie Award in the category of Worst Actress for her performance, losing to Faye Dunaway for Mommie Dearest and Bo Derek for Tarzan, the Ape Man, who were tied.
As of May 2023, 57% of 14 critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a favorable review, with an average weighted rating of 5/10. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
= Home media
=
The film was released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment in 1982. It was later released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on August 31, 1999. This release featured an audio commentary with Linda Blair, producers Bruce Cohn Curtis and Irwin Yablans, and director Tom DeSimone; it also included television spots and the original theatrical trailer as bonus material.
On January 2, 2018, Scream Factory released the film for the first time on Blu-ray in a Collector's Edition set, which features four hours of new interviews, as well as the bonus materials contained on the 1999 Anchor Bay DVD. The British distributor 101 Films issued a limited edition Blu-ray on July 26, 2021.
Legacy
Hell Night has attained a cult following in the years since its release. Critic Robin Wood retrospectively praised the film for portraying a strong lead character, Marti, calling her "an active and resourceful heroine capable of doing more than screaming and falling over." Anton Bitel, writing for Little White Lies in 2021, similarly observes that the film "reconfigures the slasher as social struggle, with Marti not just its final girl, but also its working-class heroine. And while she may continue to embrace liberty and equality, Marti learns to turn her back on fraternity. Literary scholar John Kenneth Muir similarly notes that the character of Marti has been cited as one of several female heroines of slasher films that bear a unisex name, adding that, "whether or not that's significant, Blair crafts a unique and interesting character."
In his book The Gorehound’s Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s (2003), film scholar Scott Stine wrote of the film: "Hell Night is one of those early '80s stalk 'n' slash quickies that—although almost universally despised at the time, despite the fact they made money—is actually quite endearing in retrospect.
In 2013, Ray Fulk, a Lincoln, Illinois resident, bequeathed his $1 million estate—including a 165-acre (67 ha) farm—to the film's two stars, Peter Barton and Kevin Brophy, of whom he was a fan. In his will, Fulk described Barton and Brophy as friends, though neither of the actors had ever met him.
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Hell Night at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Hell Night at IMDb
Hell Night at Rotten Tomatoes- Source: Hell night
Hell night or hellnight may refer to:
Hell Night, a 1981 horror film by Tom DeSimone
Hellnight, a Japanese horror video game by Atlus Co
See also
Hazing, a ritualistic test used as a means of initiation into a social group
Devil's Night, October 30, a night of vandalism and other mischief in some parts of the United States
Hell Knights, creatures from the Doom video game series- Source: Hellnight
Hellnight, known as Dark Messiah (ダークメサイア, Dākumesaia) in Japan, is a first-person survival horror video game developed by Dennou Eizou Seisakusho and published by Atlus Co. in collaboration with Konami in 1998.
Plot
Tokyo at the end of the millennium is a megapolis with a huge system of subway tunnels and sewers. The game opens with the protagonist fleeing from a group of notorious cult members through the city streets and escaping on a late-night subway train. As he contemplates why they want to kidnap him specifically, the scene changes to a secluded research station. There, a symbiotic lifeform breaks free of its confines and attacks a research scientist. He soon mutates into a zombie-like creature and makes a bloody exit towards the subway system.
Time passes and the protagonist's train is derailed by the creature roaming the tracks, as if purposely being drawn to that point. The only survivors of the crash are the protagonist and a schoolgirl named Naomi Sugiura. They both flee the train wreck when the creature starts systematically killing everyone left alive on board. They are soon confronted by a black-ops squad (secretly sent to destroy the creature from the lab), but the creature wipes the team out within seconds.
The protagonist and Naomi travel deeper into the sewers and find a place called "The Mesh", an underground area full of self-sufficient citizens who have given up their identities above ground to live a more peaceful life. Their lives are about to be disrupted by the pursuing creature, who has now evolved into a faster and more exoskeletal-like form. They attempt to find a way to the surface.
Along the way, the player can meet and recruit several people as companions. Naomi Sugiura is a 17-year-old schoolgirl who ended up in the sewers after being chased by a group of occultists. Kyoji Kamiya who is A 28-year-old serial killer who carries a gun stolen from his first victim, who was a cop. Leroy Ivanoff is a 30-year-old veteran Russian soldier that follows the creature deeper into The Mesh in a quest for vengeance for destroying his team. Rene Lorraine is a French journalist intent on exposing the secret of the cult that are kidnapping people around Tokyo.
Gameplay
The game uses a first-person perspective, very similar to first-person shooter games, only without any means of combat. Throughout the game, players must travel through different areas of The Mesh and beyond, and must solve puzzles to progress to the surface. The player encounters only one type of enemy, and that is the mutating monster called The Hybrid. The only possible way for players to survive is to run away. Any close contact with the enemy will result in the deaths of their companion (and finally themselves). Once the companions are attacked, they are killed off permanently.
Throughout the journey the player meets other characters that may replace their lost friends. Only one character may tag along at a time, each having a different ability. Although the game does not allow any physical force towards the enemy, players are still able to 'stun' them with the help of their companions; the number of possible stuns differs with each character. Players start with Naomi as the default. To replace her, Naomi has to die and the player must meet up with the new member. Having someone in their group negates the choice of another character to join; the character ultimately continues their journey without the player, with their fates being revealed towards the end.
There is no combat, as the primary "weapon" players possess is the ability to run fast. After a period of time the characters will get exhausted, and the screen shakes and later flashes red to warn the player that they have reached the characters' limits to run. Therefore, a strategic plan to move about the areas in the game must be considered. Most of the characters apart from Naomi are able to attack the monster and help players temporarily. Naomi helps by telling the players the position of an approaching monster, either by dialogue or by a symbol on the map.
The main objective of the characters is to reach the surface. Not everyone in the Mesh is friendly; some serve as antagonists to the player's goals, while others can help. The player must be able to interact, take note of clues and find alternative paths to avoid losing a member in the group or other negative phenomena.
Having different companion or the lack of thereof result in different story sequences and endings. For example, one of the latest stages will have different content for every character since it reveals the story of their past.
= Presentation
=
The bulk of the game consists of 3D mazelike maps that all have their own look and feel. Some are set in one level, while others have several layers. Aside from the maps, the only other 3D representation is that of the monster. To some older gamers, Hellnight can be seen as a modern 3D Monster Maze. Other characters, including the player's companion, appear as static 2D renders, though they have been modeled in 3D. They are never physically present on the map until the player activates them through movement, a completion of a task or pressing the 'talk' button. It has never been made clear if this is intentional to scare the player with a 'pop-up' cast (the creature 'pops up' albeit animated) or if it is due to budget and time restraints.
When a player enters a room, rather than the exit to another maze, the game's stylistic presentation changes from 3D to 2D. The pre-rendered representations of each room is played out as a basic point and click. The player must click on certain areas that are already designated hotspots; eliminating any need for pixel hunting. By pressing left or right, these points of interest are cycled through accordingly. It is in these pre-rendered spaces that the majority of puzzles and conversations take place (some puzzles towards the end of the game take place in the 3D world). The monster never attacks the player in these rooms (except for one instance), so they can be seen as a quick safe haven before venturing out into the tunnels again.
The game's atmosphere relies on alternating between the puzzles and solutions in certain rooms (the 2D renders) and the dangerous legwork between each point of safety (the 3D world where the creature roams).
Development and release
The game was first mentioned in December 1997. The game was shown off in the March 1998 Tokyo Game Show. The game was released in Japan on June 11, 1998. It was then released to most of Europe with the exception of the United Kingdom. The game, however, was never released in the United States.
Reception
The game received polarized reviews with some giving it praise, while others being highly critical of it. German magazine Maniac gave the game a score of 19/100. German magazine Video Games gave it just 7%. French reviewers also gave mixed reviews. Consoles + gave it a 55 out of 100 score, and Joypad gave it 6/10. Japanese reviewers were more positive, with Famitsu giving it 28/40 score.
Tim Coleman of Hyper also gave it a 55 out of 100 saying that those who wished to have a game with action would be disappointed.
Gamers' Republic, however, praised the game saying "Dark Messiah accomplishes what it sets out to do—deliver a suspenseful experience", adding "I had a blast".
In 2013, GameSpot writer Jon Leo suggested that the game should be resurrected on the PlayStation 4.
References
External links
Hellnight at MobyGames
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