Happy Hell Night (1992)

Really Surprised!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

What a pile of trash! How can you root for a girl who is dating one brother whilst sleeping with the other brother? Are we supposed to like these people? The only thing this film suggests is I was in the wrong education system here in the UK! If I'd been in the US I'd have lost my virginity so much quicker because all the girls seem to be whores and the guys weren't much better - the usual jackasses! As far as the film is concerned it showed promise but then rapidly lost the plot. The effects budget was obviously spent on the car kill as every kill after was an aftermath shot! Lazy and boring! As for continuity this film was so full of loopholes! We get our two 'heroes' up in the loft with the 'girlfriend' and another girl who is holding hands with the 'girlfriend'. Our 'heroine' suddenly says 'why are you holding my hand so tight' when she is clearly not holding anyone's hand. In the next shot you can clearly see the other girl rocking back and forth in a chair having been sliced and diced without our trio of braniacs even noticing!! I could go on but I just can't be bothered! What a disappointment!

This is a surprisingly great low budget slasher, that's creepy, with a very cool killer and lots of blood!. I wasn't expecting much when i picked this up on DVD, however what i got was a surprisingly great slasher that was quite creepy at times, with decent characters and a very creepy setting, plus the ending was awesome!. Sure some of the dialog was cheesy, and it may have a routine feel at times, however i couldn't help but really enjoy it, and the finale was quite suspenseful, plus it has lots of great bloody death scenes for gore hounds (like me)!. The killer is really cool looking, and the plot is somewhat original, plus all of the characters were very likable!. It has plenty of nudity, to enjoy, and the character development was above average, plus the opening was pretty cool. This is a surprisingly great low budget slasher, that's creepy, with a very cool killer and lots of blood, i highly recommend this one!. The Direction is very good. Brian Owens does a very good job with the low budget with great camera work, creating a lot of creepy atmosphere, using a creepy location, good POV shots of the killer, and keeping the film at a pretty fast pace!. There is tons of blood and gore!. We get bloody stabbings,impaling's,man crucifix-ed upside down,ice pick in the foot,ice pick in the hand, slit throat,very bloody corpses,severed head, severed hand,ice pick in the head and out the mouth,decapitation,ice pick in the eye,tons of severed limbs all over the place, and LOTS of blood!. The Acting is surprisingly good for a slasher film!. Laura Carney is very pretty and is pretty decent here, she was fairly convincing, likable had good chemistry with the 2 leads, and did a pretty decent job overall i rather liked her.Frank John Hughes is very good here as Sonny he had good chemistry with Laura Carney, was likable and gave a solid show. Nick Gregory was somewhat unlikable at first however he turned out to be a decent guy i really liked him. Charles Cragin is fantastic as the killer!, he was extremely creepy, and gave an awesome show. Sam Rockwell and Darren McGavin have small thankless roles and are wasted. rest of the cast do adequate. Overall i highly recommend this one!, give it a shot. ***1/2 out of 5

Happy Hell Night missed their decade by a few years. I believe that's why the movie is so obscure and not very well received. It had a lot of bad characters, choppy editing, and a wasted Darrin McGavin. There also seemed to be some missing ingredients. We would see a character sitting in a chair and the next time we saw that character he would be dead on the floor with no explanation. It does have the creepiest killer since Barlow from Salem's Lot though. There were also some very creepy moments in the film, just too few of them. If the whole film would have taken on the tone of "Scary Jesus" scene, the film would have been great. Other than that, this is not the best fraternity prank/slasher film. How to do it right: Hell Night. How to do is so terrible wrong that it becomes right: Pledge Night. This film is somewhere in between those two and, thus, not as enjoyable. Keep an eye out for a pre-fame Sam Rockwell and Jorja Fox.

This one had a decent premise going for it but it's plagued with a marginal directorial effort, stale performances, and no suspense whatsoever. The characters are uninspiring and when the movie is over, your eyes will hurt after rolling them for an hour and a half. It's one of those slashers that I could've shut off and not cared how it ended. Poor Darin McGavin, Kolchack hit a low with this one. It's fun seeing Sam Rockwell and Jorja Fox in their 5 minute roles but this one is about as fun as a bad case of hemorrhoids on the Tour de France. Happy Hell Night isn't even worth the effort for die hard slasher aficionados. Maybe Anchor Bay will do something better with their money by obtaining the rights to titles such as Just Before Dawn, The Burning, or Popcorn for their next horror outing.