Nov 12, 2024
Night School (Terror Eyes, 1981)
"There's been another killing."
"Mmm."
"That doesn't seem to surprise you."
"When man kills for the sake of killing, there's no reason why he should stop."
"Do you really believe that man can go out and kill, just like that?"
"Why not? You see, animals kill when they're hungry or when they're threatened. But man is the only animal who destroys his own kind for the sheer pleasure of it."
#night school#terror eyes#1981#video nasty#slasher film#american cinema#ken hughes#ruth avergon#leonard mann#rachel ward#drew snyder#joseph r. sicari#nick cairis#karen macdonald#annette miller#bill mccann#margo skinner#elizabeth barnitz#holly hardman#brad fiedel#an intermittently stylish but tonally mismatched slasher from perhaps the busiest year for big screen splatter icons. this was almost bound#to get lost in the onslaught of horror classics that 81 saw‚ but it isn't helped by the weird way it melds its sleazy giallo inspirations#with a tv movie style romantic drama theme. a bizarre final project for director Hughes‚ who'd come up doing quota quickies in the UK and#had no real horror experience; he was a last minute replacement for Alfred Sole‚ who walked off the project. Ward was more or less#an unknown newcomer at this point but in a couple of years she'd be a screen icons with The Thorn Birds. there's some nicely executed#scenes of suspense here‚ and a delightful playfulness at times (there's a 'where will the severed head be' tease in one scene which goes on#so long it almost becomes absurd) but the plotting is old hat and the big twists very predictable. not without its fun moments#but simultaneously this was never going to be a game changer in a genre which was already beginning to suffer from over exposure
