Happy Hell Night

First off, let me say.....thank you to Anchor Bay, you guys are releasing the movies we can no longer find on VHS, so for that, my thanks. Now, Happy Hell

Night is very typical for the cheese we know and love from the eighties. It concerns a series of murders that happened in a fraternity by a satanic killer, Zachary Malius, played by the ever creepy Charles Cragin. The story then pushes twenty-five years later in the same fraternity house, and the pledges have to, as a hazing, go to the asylum where Malius was confined to, and take a few pics of the killer. As these movies go, Malius escapes and the killings begin. Nothing new as far as the murders go, but an interesting pick-axe to the skull on a very young pre CSI Jorga Fox. From there, it takes a retired detective (Darren McGavin), a priest and two brothers and the girl they fight over to put Malius back in his confines. The acting is typical for the time and very dated, but enjoyable nonetheless. If you can find it, rent it, buy it, whatever, but this movie is highly recommended to those who love the B movies of the eighties and early nineties. A good movie for Friday nights with popcorn and pizza.

When a couple of frat boys break into an insane asylum as part of a Hell Night prank, they release an evil being who has been trapped there for the past 25 years. The demon then proceeds to kill everyone who crosses his path, using a wickedly pointed mountaineering pick as his weapon of choice.

Happy Hell Night is a low budget piece of trash that is, for the most part, pretty awful; the acting is uniformly lousy and the direction uninspired, but, fortunately, the film does deliver a fair amount of (mostly unconvincing) gore and a touch of nudity from a couple of babes, making it just about bearable.

Charles Cragin, as the killer, is fairly creepy to look at—pale and bald with completely black eyes—but his aura of menace is diluted whenever he is given lines to speak. After each kill, the character makes a lame quip with a voice which sounds like he's been gulping back helium—Freddy Krueger he ain't!

Finally, after almost everyone at a frat house party are slaughtered, two brothers (and the slapper they have both been humping) attempt to send the demon back to hell.

Happy Hell Night is silly, instantly forgettable, and only really worth a watch if bad horror movies are your passion.

A promising concept, is let down by its stringy narrative and so-so execution. I've never even heard of "Happy Hell Night" before and this early nineties, offbeat campus low-budget slasher is something that wouldn't have felt out of placed in the 80s. Tacky, gory and sleazy, but something just seemed to be missing or should I say something felt out of place. I couldn't shake the feeling that it could have been much better.

In 1963 seven members of the Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity were found brutally mutilated inside Winfield Mausoleum. The accuser priest Zachary Malius was put away in the local State Asylum. Twenty five years later, a hazing prank goes wrong when some guys accidentally release Zachary from his cell and heads back to Winfield College to continue the butchery.

The killer is suitably creepy and genuinely unnerving in appearance, but when he opened his mouth to spout out an amusing quip (ala Freddy Krugger style). It simply killed the mood. "No…" this, "no…" that. Done in a scratchy tone. No, please stop talking. Sadly this is too distracting (including its loopy tone), as it does bestow a nasty, atmospheric ambiance with some striking imagery… especially with the sequences of the killer lurking in the shadows and of course when he's stuck in his cell. Even then odd surreal images crop up too, involving a Jesus statue in a church and the setting has a Gothic touch. The darkly twisted, but untapped story takes awhile before hitting its strides, with the usual campus lounging and dramas. But when it kicks off the slaughter, buckets of blood flows (very cheap jolts), sex and nudity escalates (sometimes kinky) and stupidity is ensured. Some passages during the stalk and slash stages, just seem to jump around in a rather jaded manner. Not making much sense with little in the way of cohesion. The music does create some chills with its foreboding cues.

The cast attached features some names; Darren McGavin, Sam Rockwell, Jorja Fox (from the TV show "C.S.I") and Ted Clark. But these folks have nothing more than minor roles. The rest of the performances are extra-ordinary… some rather bad in their amateurishly buoyant deliveries. Crude dialogues come out of their mouths with a real joke-like emphasis.

Nothing special, but kind of fun over-the-top, b-grade shocker.

i was really entertained by this movie it got scares and some one-liner jokes by the killer which cracked my jaw from laughing,but then again,the movie got a nice horror story which is (in summary:2 guys trying to take a picture of a prisoner(who happened to be a devil-worshipper wearing a priest costume) in an old asylum,and guess what happened later ,of course, all hell breaking loose :)end summary

the cast did well here,the gore and blood were not enough though for my taste (im bald too )however ,genre fans will really enjoy this movie

"Happy Hell Night" came out at a time when the slasher craze had well and truly died, as the same ideas were being recycled over and over again, and this one is no different, here we have a killer priest who escapes from a mental hospital after 25 years for murdering a group of college students and surprise surprise, he sets out to do it again to a new group of college kids.

Happy Hell Night is an OK effort and I actually liked it more than I thought I would, once the first half hour is over and the killer priest starts killing, it actually starts livening up and there are some touches in the gore department, but I could have done without the stupid cheesy one liners from the killer, as it would have made him a whole lot creepier, and the supernatural element was done rather well and it does set it apart from the other slasher fodder that came out during this point.

All in all "Happy Hell Night" is an okay movie once it gets going although it does take quite a while and the cast weren't very interesting but they do get killed which is a bonus, and this movie may just be another run of the mill early 90's slasher, but it's still OK.