{"id":1404,"date":"2024-07-29T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:36:15","slug":"night-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/29\/night-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Night School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Night School<\/strong> (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ken Hughes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ruth Avergon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brad Fiedel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mark Irwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1981 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leonard Mann, Rachel Ward, Drew Snyder, Joseph R. Sicari, Nicholas Cairis, Karen MacDonald, Annette Miller, Bill McCann, Margo Skinner, Elizabeth Barnitz, Holly Hardman, Meb Boden.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0As far as 80s slasher flicks go, Night School<\/strong> isn\u2019t too bad. It follows the same basic formula as the other slasher flicks that came out around the same time. It\u2019s a formula that seems to please the fans, so I can\u2019t really fault the movie for not being original. Whatever works, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0This time around, a homicidal maniac wearing a black motorcycle helmet is stalking and decapitating night school students with a kukri<\/em> (a knife with an inwardly curved edge). That\u2019s all there is to Night School<\/strong>, a film I\u2019m sure I would have liked better had I seen it at 13. It hit area theaters near the end of August \u201981 and, as expected, the parentals had it on their \u201cNO WAY!\u201d list. I didn\u2019t see it until five years later when Showtime aired it one Saturday night (November \u201986). I recently rewatched it and enjoyed the whole retro aspect of it. It\u2019s clearly a product of the early 80s with its casual attitudes towards sex and violence against women. Ah, the halcyon days of R-rated un-PC slasher flicks! Even when they\u2019re bad, they\u2019re still pretty good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Night School<\/strong> opens with an attractive young teacher\u2019s aide (Boden) losing her head on the playground carousel. The Boston detective, Judd Austin (Mann, Cut and Run), assigned to the case finds the girl\u2019s severed head in a bucket of water. It\u2019s eerily similar to a previous case in which the female victim\u2019s head was dumped in a pond.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The carousel victim attended night classes at nearby Wendell College. Austin questions a few people on campus including anthropology professor Vincent Millett (Snyder, Commando) and his attractive research assistant Eleanor (Ward, Sharky\u2019s Machine). Millett becomes the prime suspect after it\u2019s discovered he has a reputation for sleeping with his students. He was sexually involved with the carousel victim and is currently living with Eleanor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Millet isn\u2019t the only suspect. It could also be Gary (McCann), the creepy busboy at a local diner. He stalks Eleanor as she walks home from class one night. It could even be somebody else. Whoever it is, he\u2019s keeping Detective Austin busy. It\u2019s not easy work uncovering the identity of a deranged killer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s long been established that I love movies like Night School<\/strong>. As a true gorehound, I must express my disappointment that it isn\u2019t gorier than it is. Yes, there are several beheadings, but you don\u2019t see a lot of blood. So what\u2019s the point in watching it then? Some would argue not much, but I still think Night School<\/strong> has its cool points. I like the scene where one girl\u2019s head gets dumped in the sea turtle tank at the local aquarium. In another scene, a victim\u2019s head is discovered in a toilet. Still, something is lost without spurting blood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What many don\u2019t realize is that Night School<\/strong> is Ward\u2019s film debut. Sharky\u2019s Machine didn\u2019t come out until later that year and The Final Terror, while filmed in \u201981, sat unreleased for two years (it opened in Philadelphia in May\u2019 84). There\u2019s no question that Ward is a striking lady. In keeping with the movie\u2019s un-PC spirit, I\u2019ll say that she\u2019s freaking HOT! But what about acting ability? I reiterate, she\u2019s freaking HOT! Does that answer the question?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The storyline, albeit familiar and somewhat predictable, is pretty good. Director Ken Hughes (his final film) makes no attempt to pass off Night School<\/strong> as anything other than what it is, a violent mad slasher movie with at least one sex scene. I wouldn\u2019t exactly call it suspenseful, but it\u2019s never boring. Basically, it is what it is and that\u2019s not a bad thing. I\u2019m giving Night School<\/strong> a passing grade.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Night School (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ken Hughes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ruth Avergon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brad Fiedel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mark Irwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1981 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leonard Mann, Rachel Ward, Drew Snyder, Joseph R. Sicari, Nicholas Cairis, Karen MacDonald, Annette Miller, Bill McCann, Margo Skinner, Elizabeth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Night-School-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1973,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}