Pray for day!

This plodding, derivative slasher opus -- a surprise box-office hit -- stars Exorcist vet Linda Blair as one of a quartet of sorority and fraternity pledges required to spend the title evening of their initiation inside the spooky Garth Manor. The mansion was the site of a gruesome multiple murder, wherein the owner killed his wife and three of his four deformed children before taking his own life. After the four pledges bed down for the night (mainly with each other, though Blair is called upon for the standard "virginal heroine" role here), mischievous upperclassmen descend into the house, intending to scare them out of their wits...but something even more repulsive than a pack of drunken frat-boys beats them to it. It comes as no surprise that Garth's fourth child -- apparently the most monstrous of the bunch -- is still roaming the premises, and doesn't take kindly to strangers. An early foray onto exploitation turf for director Tom de Simone, this film has a fairly stylish look, though mired by underlit photography and silly performances. Blair is appealing, but her role is sadly underwritten.

Hell Night is a 1981 American independent horror film (with elements of Creature Features). Tom DeSimone directed the film, which was written by Randy Feldman and stars Linda Blair. The film depicts a night of fraternity hazing ("hell night") set in an old manor, during which a deformed maniac terrorizes and murders many of the college students. The film has a large cult following.
Future film director Chuck Russell, who would helm A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors & the remake of The Blob in 1988 and 2002's The Scorpion King, served here as an executive producer.


Filming Hell Night took only 40 days. The majority of the movie was shot in three locations: The outside of Garth Manor was shot at a mansion in Redlands, California. (The Kimberly Crest mansion was converted from a private residence to a museum shortly after filming was completed.) 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, California. The many underground tunnels filmed in the movie were actually no more than two corridors in which the director had the actors running repeatedly through from different angles.
For the scene where Jeff is thrown down a flight of stairs and hurt his leg, there was not a lot of acting involved. In reality, actor Peter Barton had really hurt himself and most of his limping was due to being in real physical pain.
The two actors who portrayed the Garth killers are not listed anywhere in the credits, and their real names remain a mystery. However, on the DVD commentary, it is noted that they are both German nationals whom spoke little or no English, and that one of them (the middle aged bearded man) died shortly after the release of the film.


Release Date: September 4, 1981

Distrib: Compass International