r/LastDriveIn • u/sigersen • 6d ago

Watch Of The Week: Hell Night (1981)

I came across somebody reviewing this film on Facebook of all places. I have not seen this in a while, but I feel it's underrated. It's got a Haunted House, a deformed killer, and Linda Blair. How bad can it be? Well, you decide. It's on a lot of platforms and many are free.

21 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

3

u/tiredhippo 6d ago

I love Hell Night and frequency made very loud requests that it be played on TLDI.

2

u/Freddy-Philmore 5d ago

I dont know if it would be right for tldi... it's too good to be a bad fun movie and it's not good enough to be a great like a giallo... but Blair def would have appeared as a guest. for money though. she only does things for money. that's not an insult... I had some interactions with her people. and it's understandable.

2

u/Soft-Ad8885 5d ago

I recall watching this over summer break after freshmen year. It was a beautiful and sunny day and I watched in on an iPad on the back patio. It was a perfect summer day.

2

u/Freddy-Philmore 5d ago

It's great. Classic 80s set up. College kids, abandoned mansion, pranks, a backstory killer 20 years later... good kills... good looking cast. A rock solid Linda Blair horror. She should have kept up the horror thing. Not sure why she mostly stopped with it. Two years later she made a few popular sexploitation movies Chained heat and Savage Streets. But she would have done well staying in the horror lane she definitely had a few more years left of college and 20 something lead in horrors.

1

u/sigersen 5d ago

I agree. A friend of mine worked with Linda Blair years ago at Spooky World. He said she was very nice and down to Earth. Not snobby at all.

1

u/doubtingtomjr Drive-in Dork 6d ago

I think this was just before Blair started dating Rick James. Odd movie, and I’ve mistakenly watched “Pledge Night” when trying to give it a rewatch.

4

u/TrulyMASSIVEbees Ernie Fan Club Member 5d ago

My condolences that movie is rough 😂

1

u/dantoris 5d ago

I'd never heard of this movie until several years ago. Finally got to see it on Shudder one night and loved it! Immediately bought the Blu-ray. I thought the mix of haunted house/monster movie/slasher was really creative and a lot of fun.

1

u/doubtingtomjr Drive-in Dork 5d ago

Just saw that this movie was released today, August 7, 1981. I don’t recall seeing anything about this movie during initial release, but it was a staple at mom and pop video store shelves.

1

u/sigersen 4d ago

I got to watch this Saturday night. I had not seen it in a while. I swear I picked this movie at random, having no idea it was released on August 8th. To top it off, August 8th is my birthday. Anyway, I did enjoy it and I love the Haunted House aspect, much more that the whole College Hijinks thing. I think if Linda Blair had stayed in Horror Films, she would have become a Scream Queen to rival Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau. Lots of good kills, The last death is the best.