Linda Blair returns to horror with the final film of August 1981
So why did we forget HELL NIGHT when we were recording the show?
When we were recording ‘80s All Over, much of the research for the show was happening behind the scenes in real-time.
I did the research for the entire series, and as I’ve said before, part of the reason we did the show was that there was no single reference source for accurate release dates for all of the movies of the 1980s. Even now, I am continually fine-tuning the release date list that I have on my computer. I have compiled a startlingly dense research library to pull all of this together. Some films have been added to the list since I started the newsletter version of the project, films I’m going to have to go back to cover. It’s fine. It happens. It only underscores just how difficult it is to get all of this information put together in one place.
We would go back and spotlight previous mistakes on the podcast, and we worked to correct ourselves as quickly as possible. One film, though, became notorious to listeners of the show, because we kept bringing it up and then not reviewing it. It wasn’t intentional at first, but the longer it continued, the funnier it was to… well, to me, at least. Part of the fun of podcasting is the interactivity you build with an audience over time, and we couldn’t resist a sort of ongoing affectionate tweak of the nose. When we did finally include it, it was only as a hidden easter egg.
Not here! Nope. We’re doing it on the correct weekend this time. August 28th. Along with Body Heat, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, and the US release of Galliopoli, this movie was opening in a number of markets. Let’s close out August 1981 with my review of this semi-obscure slasher effort, most notable because it marked the return to horror of one of the biggest genre icons of the previous decade…
Hell Night
Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy, Jenny Neumann, Suki Goodwin, Jimmy Sturtevant, Hal Ralston, Carey Fox, Ron Gans, Gloria Heilman
cinematography by Mac Ahlberg
music by Dan Wyman
screenplay by Randolph Feldman
produced by Bruce Cohn Curtis and Irwin Yablans
directed by Tom De Simone
Rated R
1 hr 41 mins
A night of fraternity hazing goes wrong when mysterious killers start violently picking off students while they’re locked in an allegedly haunted house overnight.
Like Wes Craven, Tom De Simone found his earliest work as a filmmaker in the adult industry, but De Simone’s adult work was groundbreaking in a way. He was the first filmmaker to make a gay adult feature film with actual dialogue and a plot in 1970, and he was prolific, making over twenty films in just a few years.
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