Nacht des Grauens

I just saw "Night Screams" as part of an (obscure) slasher double bill with "Graduation Day" (1981). At least "Graduation Day" wanted to be a slasher. This, "Night Screams", I don't know what it wants to be. I do know it wants to be more clever but it ends up being a dumber movie all the same. A couple of escaped convicts find a hiding place in the basement of a house where a teenager on medication decides to have a party with his friends because his parents aren't home. There's bad music, bad sex, bad acting and eventually a few bad killings. On a technical level, it's not better or worse made than "Graduation Day". The latter at least played it by the early 80's slasher textbook and delivers as such a film. "Night Screams" plays it by the late 80's slasher textbook - not that the rules are much different, really - but manages to dumb things down to an almost intolerable level. Even with nada suspense or tension this time and the kills themselves aren't memorable either. The only mildly amusing aspect was the stupid twist at the end. It's such a typical conclusion, not at all original and you can see it coming from a mile away. But at least the filmmakers watched enough slasher flicks to get that thing right. Still, even if you're an avid slasher fan, I don't think you'll get too excited over this flick.

I think this is a really good slasher flick from the 80's that most people have never seen or heard of. There's a lot of 80's music, fashion, puns, etc. The plot is actually not that bad, and the acting is "mostly" very good considering this was filmed in Witchita, Kansas. Some of the killings are quite interesting in their method and approach. The ending was particularly well done in my opinion, it leaves the idea open for a sequel that never came. Not everyone will enjoy this movie, but if you like well executed slasher films from the 80's then you'll most likely be very pleased. On a side note the DVD which was put out by Image is above average, the picture is very clear and the sound is in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Sadly there are no special features besides scene selections and two trailers for other Image DVD releases.

By the time Night Screams came out, the slasher film had gone past life support and was at death's door. Night Screams doesn't do much to revitalize the genre, but it's competently and professionally made with a few reasons to tune in.

A seemingly unrelated murder kicks off the film as two people are murdered while watching Graduation Day on TV (if you think it's gonna get meta or something, think again). It's years later and a mentally disturbed football player has a party while his parents are away and his friends are brutally murdered one by one. There's also two homicidal bandits on the run who have chosen his basement to hide out in to avoid the law, but they're such obvious red herrings that their subplot doesn't amount to much.

If you're looking for gore, Night Screams actually does deliver in that department. People are stabbed, electrocuted, suffocated, and even burn on a grill like a hamburger. If you're an 80's fashion enthusiast, there's also a whole lot of questionable hairstyles and wardrobes on display.

Somewhere in Wichita David is a potential college football star who's just won a four year scholarship to a college somewhere in Oklahoma.His mates decide to throw him a serious farewell party whilst his folks are out that night.Unfortunately three uninvited guests secretly gatecrash these nightly celebrations,two are convicts who've fled from lockup,now hiding out somewhere in the homes cellar while our third interloper is a mental patient escapee with a connection to the party guests and notably David himself.Soon the bodies start to pile up...Watchable slasher with gore,nudity and plenty of movie clips from Herb Freed's "Graduation Day"."Night Screams" tries to be a bit different than the rest of its low-budget neighbors.The action is slow and the bodycount includes ten murders or so.7 out of 10.

Behind the uninspired title lies an equally uninspired slasher that fails to deliver those essential ingredients of any good trashy horror: gratuitous nudity and gore. Initially, the film shows promise, opening with a girl getting topless in a changing room before being attacked by a masked maniac, but then it becomes apparent that this is actually a scene from 1981 slasher Graduation Day, as watched by two of this movie's characters before they are stabbed to death. Nudity borrowed from another film doesn't count (which also negates some T&A later on, which comes from a porn film being watched at a party), and the subsequent stabbings are lame.

The rest of the film continues in this disappointing fashion as a group of friends at a post-graduation party are bumped off in tame and uninventive ways off by an unseen maniac. Suspects include the escaped lunatics hiding in the basement, and football star David (Joseph Paul Manno), who is prone to outbursts of violence if he stops taking his meds. Of course, these turn out to be red herrings, but the real identity of the killer isn't hard to guess.

Of the numerous murders that occur in the house, we get a guy skewered with a fire poker, poisoning in a sauna, an axe in the head, a guy barbecued on a stove and stabbed in the neck, strangulation, suffocation, electrocution in a hot-tub, and choking with a pool cue, none of which are likely to satisfy gore-hounds. The best part of the film comes earlier on, when the escaped criminals are involved in a shootout with some cops and kill the staff of a diner in cold-blood: it's a surprisingly brutal scene, with some bloody squib-work.

2.5/10, rounded down to 2 for diabolical dance troupe The Sweetheart Dancers, whose terrible moves would get them four 'NOs' on America's Got Talent.