Review of Hell Night

Introduction

As part of an initiation rite into a fraternity group called `Alpha Sigma Rho`, 4 student pledges have to survive a night in Garth Manor and be locked behind gates until called upon at dawn. The ringleader of the group dressed in his cloak and appropriate garb leads them all to the entrance and tells of a rumoured legend about a crazed killer haunting the Manor, and in doing so setting the scene for the 4, in readiness for things to come.
Once inside the 4 students easily pair each other off into rooms of the house, Marti (played by Linda Blair, from "The Exorcist") keeps company with Jeff by talking about themselves and being more civilised than the other 2, who are half drunk, wild and rampant for each other and who make straight for one of the bedrooms. Scary pranks have been set up prior to the night by a few of the group, who come quietly back to monitor the outcome of them. But the haunted legend is true and all the characters start to mysteriously disappear, and before long the pledges don`t know what is fake or real!

Video

The movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 and has a clear transfer in the lighter scenes, although the picture has a soft look to it the colours are warm looking and the skintones of the characters are realistic. What lets this movie down are the dark scenes, and seen as though this is a `scary` plot and it is shot in the early hours, there are plenty of them. The black colours are not bold by a long shot, and there is a very visable red/green hue of colour running within the picture where it is suppose to be black.
I found that I was concentrating and looking at the messy picture quality more than the movie, and it`s only the burning torch lights that looked good through the dark. The police station scene certainly wakes you up in regards to the darkess (or dull contast of how things have been so far!), there is a brightness of colour and light for starters and more down to earth ambience effects within the room.
The Garth Manor location is set well enough, with it`s trees outside covering and giving a partial view, secret passages, big rooms, pointed spires and dark windows. The low camera angle shot looking up, as it`s moonlit shape menaces over is effective and gives the building that haunted quality you see in most scary storylines. Most of the rooms are all candle lit, giving off plenty of shadows and glows.
Some of the scenes were filmed well giving a look that played on your senses, slow zooms of the camera gave certain aspects of the Manor, like doors a scary feel as you thought if it would open or not as you came closer. Long shots zooming out from a character emphasised the empty room they are left in giving a solitude and lonely look to the scene. The roof pulley scene was also good as it did have some tension about it, by filming the building`s edge where the wire was going over. As the movie is one based on the senses, you don`t often see any special effects and a holographic walking image is the best that you get really. When you finally get a glimpse of `the ghouls` after all there sneaking and running around their faces aren`t that scary in the make-up department, just a bit grizzly and similar to one of the early stages of transformation that David goes through in the movie "An American Werewolf In London". All other make-up effects are quickly shown and are unrealistic anyhow, what are you screaming like that for, it`s only a plastic head!!

Audio

This is a movie that could have utilised the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel audio well, if it was around in 1981 and so instead its back to basics with a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track as stated on the sleeve. By upmixing the audio into Dolby Pro Logic the dialogue can be localised better, but doesn`t really enhance the sound by that much, the dialogue is clear though and the few examples of ambient effects like crickets, birds and fire crackling can be heard.
The moaning sounds that get rigged up sound eerie and are a little bit more chilling if "Hellnight" is watched in complete darkness. Pitch bends and long chords are used to give an atmosphere to the sound in quiet scenes whereas in some of the more dramatic scenes a lot of high screeching effects are used.
A lot of the movie score I found similar to the theme from "Halloween" but it suited and set the scenes well, most of the time. The music is quiet and brooding in places as if to represent something stirring, piano keys tapping and strings are all slow moving. At certain dramatic parts, the music is just too wild and silly, it is a noise and has no rythmn and isn`t at all scary.

Features

The menus are nicely animated using a picture of Garth Manor as a foundation shrouded in darkness and red design to the left. Above the title are `play film`, `scene selection` and `special features`, screams and moans attempt to scare you and animated spiders, lightning, insects and ghoulish faces emerge onto and sometimes out of the screen.
The features include a trailer, 2 TV spots, bios of cast and crew and an audio commentary by Linda Blair, Director and Producer.

Conclusion

"The Blair Witch Project" scares more as both this movie and that are mainly based on scene setting and the senses of the audience. There is a lot of slow walking movements and eye rolling by the characters and you are just waiting for something to happen like it usually does. There are a lot of familiar cliches in the plot `I`ll be right back` is the usual horror one liner, I found myself questioning the actions of everyone; "Why did he/she go there?", "Why did he/she do that?"
I think only the skeleton scene made me jump slightly throughout the movie, the rest you have seen before and just know what`s coming next! The feature lasted about 102 mins but frustratingly could have ended earlier if she had spotted those keys!