Sam Panico
Oh Canada. We've celebrated your movies for an entire week and you continue to deliver pure blasts of polite insanity to our streaming devices and DVD players!
Halloween night 1966. A priest named Zachary Malius kills seven frat boys from Winfield College for breaking into his family's crypt and recreating an occult ritual. He's placed into an insane asylum, where the laws in Canada are, well, insane. He's never fed and has been in a catatonic state for years, surviving by eating bugs.Kids have learned nothing in the intervening quarter century as they go right back and do the ritual again. Malius comes back to life and starts doing what slasher villains do best - wipe out people right after they get done having sex. At least he has the excuse of being a priest. One wonders why they decided to make him like Freddy Kruger, yelling things like, "No sex! No TV! No parking!" That said, the fact that the Catholic Church covered up these crimes should come as a shock to no one.Sam Rockwell shows up briefly as the younger version of the character that Darren McGavin plays for the rest of the film. Jorja Fox from TV's CSI also shows up.Director Brian Owens is also behind 80's video fave Brainscan. There is one genuinely unnerving scene where a crucified Christ comes to life and starts screaming, then falls to the floor and breaks into small pieces. Shades of Enter the Devil!There are moments of slow motion flashbacks and hints of art here that are undermined by horrible looking titles. It's like his movie got only so close to being well art directed. It's not the best or worst slasher ever, but it won me over. Maybe I was watching it at 2:30 AM, which always helps matters.
callanvass
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
hawk-handsaw
Amateurish direction, bad acting and a weak script are the best parts of this awful movie. Plot holes, inadequate character motivations, choppy editing and an overall lack of film-making skills. One often wonders who lets these people direct movies. I suppose this is one of those movies financed by a rich relative. It is just typical of the phrase "They'll let anybody direct a movie these days."I watched this because I'm a big Darren McGavin fan. Too bad he didn't end his career with his stellar turn in "The Natural" instead of taking this home movie as a job.
Joseph P. Ulibas
Happy Hell Night (1992) is a strangely obscure horror film. A derangedhunchback with ashen skin and large black eyes escapes from his prisoncell to torment a group of promiscous co-eds that are full of sin andvice. The movie for the most part is old hat but the ancient, moldykiller is real creepy. He reminded me of a mini Freddy clone, he evenspouts advice after maiming his victims. An old cop (with the help ofhis son) tries to put the half pint killing machine back into his cellbefore he kills again.Recommended,if you can find it.BP.S. This movie was shot in eastern Europe (but takes place in the USA).
