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Anthrax were always the most playful of thrash metal's 'big four', so it wasn't a big surprise for me to find that supernatural slasher flick Pledge Night, in which Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna has a blink-and-miss-it cameo, is far from serious. In fact, the first 40 minutes or so comprises almost entirely of juvenile hell week pranks perpetrated on new pledges by the brothers of the Phi-Epsilon fraternity; there's no horror whatsoever! All of this is really quite tedious and not in the least bit amusing, so it's a relief when the blood finally begins to flow, no matter how cheesy it all happens to be.

The fun really starts when Phi-Epsilon brother Dan (Arthur Lundquist) becomes possessed by the spirit of Sid, a fraternity pledge who died twenty years earlier when a hazing prank went horribly wrong. Controlled by the malevolent spirit, Dan kills a bloke sat on the toilet, stabs another in the back with screwdrivers, electrocutes a girl in the bath, rams a food whisk down another's throat, and blows up some poor sap's butt with a cherry bomb. These deaths are relatively gore-free, but the film eventually delivers a few cheap but entertaining splatter effects after Sid emerges from Dan's back, Freddy Krueger style, and goes in search of more victims: we get strangulation with large intestine, an exploding stomach, a 180 degrees head twist, and one victim who is killed by having his head pushed into Sid's gaping stomach wound!

On top of all this incredibly silly horror nonsense, Pledge Night also manages to deliver that other staple of the genre, gratuitous female nudity, serving up a grand total of six pairs of breasts, and a metal thrashing mad soundtrack courtesy of… you guessed it… Anthrax!

3/10 for the woeful hazing antics of the first half; 6/10 for the second, horror-packed half. That's an average of 4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

It's great Vinegar Syndrome keeps unearthing forgotten b-movies. Here (meaning Finland) most of their releases are not just obscure, but films that were never released at all. Although I must say the excitement of seeing something new makes the experience kind of fragile. You forget a bit too easily that most of these titles are straight from the bottom of the barrel.

That being said, Pledge Night is not that bad, or at least not in the same pile as their worst releases. The actors actually feel like students, they have a chemistry, the movie has a point and an understandable structure and the sets feel believable plus there's surprisingly many outdoor shots, which boost up the mood since there was a snow blizzard during filming. The original soundtrack cues and Anthrax songs fit in nicely plus Joey Belladonna plays a cool cameo.

Considering the budget, the effects are pretty cool and creative too, although you can tell how they've made most of them. I'm not sure if some of the effects shots were never re-discovered or if the budget just wouldn't budge, but they set up some of those scenes so the viewer is waiting for it to escalate, but then cut into something else, which is a bit of a drag. Surprisingly some of the frat boy stuff is actually more gross than the bloodshed, and it's been reported that writer Joyce Snyder researched the subject thoroughly, so that part of the suffering was real!

So if you go in with zero expectations and realize that what you're seeing isn't exactly spectacular, it is an enjoyable horror comedy. It feels like they really tried to get out the best of it and had a lot of fun.

This movie is definitely a case of its so bad its good. Coming into this film I expected it to be your stereotypical movie about frats with hazing etc etc and some humor mixed in. However, I was dead wrong, as this film is full of total cheese. Even the one liners from "Sid" were hilarious, such as "This is for Spiro Agnew" when he kills someone. The concept of a hippie monster has to be one of the most original out there and I commend the filmmakers for it. I noticed to make the film genuine they even filmed it at a frat house in Rutgers. For the budget this film was under I have to give the film company much respect. Overall, definite recommendation if you are a college student, but it might not be for everyone. 6/10

Pledge Night isn't even a B-movie. It's worse. Apparently, the writer had only written porn before and it shows.

I watched it for two reasons: the setting and the soundtrack.

As a "townie" and Rutgers alum, I appreciated the scene in Greasy Tony's, a now gone New Brunswick, NJ landmark. It was cool knowing they filmed it right down the road from me, although I knew nothing about the movie until now.

Anthrax providing the soundtrack was my other reason for watching. There were a few familiar tunes and I enjoyed lead singer Joey Belladonna's cameo as pre-acid Sid.

Need 22 more characters......

Pledges find out that "Hell Week" is nothing when they are trapped in a frat house with ghost killer Acid Sid, a 1960s hippie who was accidentally killed in a pledging ritual gone bad. Now what a hippie was doing pledging a fraternity is another question. This is one of those 80s horror flicks that is just there for the killing and from a porn producer trying to go legit. The Sid stuff is semi-interesting, but never fully explored in favor of pledge initiations. It is also never explained/shown how he came back to possesses a dude, only to later burst through his stomach in DEMONS-esquire fashion. Sadly, lots of the gore (highlighted in the pages of Fangoria) was cut for the US home video release. So you will have to continue to hope a film does "Death by eggbeater" justice. The film ends with a silly bit with the hero pledge finding out Sid is his father and the ghost was just back to protect him. In the 60s flashback, Sid is played by Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna (someone else plays him later under all of the burn make up). Belladonna's band also supplied some tunes, which seem to have been crammed in and don't fit the scenes they play over at all. As a film, this carries on the long horror tradition of fraternity brothers and pledges being offed. Which, of course, begs the question, "Who would win in a fight - PLEDGE NIGHT or RUSH WEEK?" My money is on HELL NIGHT, suckas!

I had the misfortune of watching PLEDGE NIGHT on video. It's such a terrible movie that it makes BLOODSUCKING FREAKS look like MASTERPIECE THEATRE. The entire cast was uniformly homely. They should all have worn paper bags over their anonymous heads. There are good bad movies, like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE which is entertaining despite its total ineptitude, and then there are the really bad movies, which are just terrible and not entertaining for one second in their absolute awfulness. They are the worst of the worst, and PLEDGE NIGHT easily makes it in my top ten list of the worst of the worst films. Putrid junk.

As a silly frat boy prank Young Sid is boiled in a tub of acid.Years later he returns to wreak havoc on the new generation of brothers in his old fraternity.Young Sid is played by Joey Belladonna,the vocalist of thrash metal band Anthrax.He later appears as Acid Sid,an undead pledge who died many years ago in the same house."Pledge Night" is a wonderfully silly and vastly enjoyable fraternity slasher with some grotesque death scenes and plenty of nudity.The story doesn't make a lot of sense and there are some absurd moments of blatant stupidity.If you like trashy heavy metal related slasher flicks like "Rocktober Blood" or "Terror On Tour" give "Pledge Night" a chance.7 cherry bombs out of 10.My favourite kill scenes:a boy has a cherry bomb shoved up his ass and a hand comes up out of a toilet to kill another sorry loser.

What we have here is another entirely redundant and ineptly processed 80's fraternity-slasher that isn't worth watching at all. Okay, I say it isn't worth watching, but somehow I always end up tracking them down because they usually feature at least some good killing sequences and/or a nice trivia-element. The trivia highlight of "Pledge Night" is that it briefly stars Joey Belladonna, the heavy metal singer whose band Anthrax also provided this cheap B-movie with a totally inappropriate soundtrack. Belladonna's part is small but important, as he appears in a flashback as a fraternity member that accidentally got killed during an initiation prank involving an acid bath. 18 years later, the vengeful spirit of Sid returns (now played by another actor) to kill the members of the new Phi-Epsilon-Nu fraternity and protect his own son from getting pledged. "Pledge Night" is a truly typical 80's slasher-picture, meaning that the emphasis lies more on vulgarity and toilet humor than on suspense and a decent script. This movie even exaggerates with its humorous overtone, as it takes nearly 45 minutes before the first actual death scene occurs. Before that it's just a very long series of, admittedly inventive, crazy pranks and demented initiation rites. The new members of Phi-Epsilon-Nu are forced to race with cherries squeezed between their butt cheeks (and then eat them, of course), eat worms & other unappetizing stuff and undergo spankings with a wooden paddle. It's all fun at first, but after half an hour you do start wondering when somebody will finally get killed! I actually feared that the murderer wouldn't show up at all and that the whole movie would just be a predecessor to such rancid teen-comedies as "American Pie" or "Van Wilder: Party Liaison". Director Paul Ziller too seemed to realize his film was lacking a point, and suddenly the killing sequences follow each other at fast pace. Most of them are lame and happening off-screen, but there are a handful of deaths scenes that undemanding horror fans might appreciate. One poor girl has a blender shoved down her throat and another guy (the token black guy) gets strangled by a human spine. The poorest sucker of them all dies when a cherry bombs is planted up his ass; ouch! The effects are incredibly cheesy and especially the whole make-up job on "Acid Sid" wouldn't even scare a five-year-old girl. The 'emotionally touching' denouement is retarded and completely misfits the comical tone of the overall movie. The acting performances vary from really bad to downright terrible and it came as a real relief to watch some of them insufferable characters dying. "Pledge Night" is a genuine turkey, only recommended in case you absolutely want to see every inane slasher movie made in the 1980's.

Pledge Night was a horror movie night selection for me and my friends. We expected a college campus horror flick, which it is and that part sucks. The first part was a hilarious, entertaining riot. It ruled!!!! up until the point it became a lame slasher flick with an uncool killer and a terrible end. How could the director let this laugh riot turn into a crap fest. It was the most amusing college phrat flick I've ever seen and ranks up there with Animal House. It had awesome dialogue and those wacky pranks rocked, but when you see the hand come up out of the toilet part stop the movie and let that be the end. You and your friends will thank me, if not they may beat the living crap out of you and you'll deserve it if you read my warning and didn't listen. Pledge Night was a good idea that could have been a great comedy about the lengths one goes through to become a member of a fraternity, but fell way short in its attempt to copy all other slasher flicks, I applaud its originality and humor in the first half.

A horror comedy, with a more of lean into the comedy element! If you're going into this blind (which I'd recommend), you'll get a kick out of where this goes.

The practical effects were genuinely better than I was expecting, although the last on screen death was somewhat underwhelming, still for the budget I think they were very creative with what they did do!

The acting is fairly naff, but if if you're a connoisseur of so-bad-its-good films that may add to the humour and charm more than detract from it!

Although, I will say the abruptness of the initial ending (before the customary one last scare) was so jarring it genuinely shocked me!

I played Chip and as bad - so bad it's funny - as this movie is I can't believe people are still talking about it. On the other hand it does have some of the best/worst lines ever. One complaint even thou my death scene had the blood cut out of it I believe the acting is more than bad enough to entertain. who knew people would talk about this film for so long.

A frat house, during hell week, is attacked by a pledge that died in a hazing accident more than twenty years ago. Though there is some creative effects and deaths, this isn't as much fun or enjoyable as other slasher films. This film was made by people who used to make porno's and had to be cut to avoid an X. Another complaint- too much male nudity and not enough naked girls. 4.5 out of 10.

A Dumpster Fire.

Painfully bad to watch. From the acting to the script to the plot to the acting to the "action sequences" to the special effects to the acting, it's basically unwatchable. On the other hand, it's still better than the Howling 7.

I simply couldn't resist picking this one up, mainly because it's the only movie ever starring ex-Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna. And, as I expected, you can't really tell if he can act or not, cause he's only in it for like 2 minutes. One minute has him reading a text from a piece of paper, the other minute he dies a vicious death in a bath-tub filled with acid. Still, it was worth seeing him in this ludicrous movie. This one is as bad as 80's slasher movies can get, and at the same time, it's equally entertaining... mostly for the wrong reasons. The first 45 minutes are ridiculously demented: Nothing else then one sick, gross and perverted pledge-test & fraternity joke after the other. We're talking squeezing-cherries-between-butt-cheeks race, eating worms, piggy-party events, eating gross-looking fake floating turds directly from the toilet, drinking undefined substances,... And of course there's lots of female boobage and even male buttocks to be admired. And also, the aforementioned flashback death-scene of mister Belladonna.

Then finally the killings start. And I must say, the film-makers made the okay decision of not showing the first deaths on-screen (but we do get to see the results). Just when you start thinking "Lame!", they start showing more and more of the killings. And For what it's worth: the death-scenes are pretty original. Cheesy, bloody & gory with bad effects, yes, but very much fun indeed. For a moment the director even tried to make you question the identity of the killer. Is it a crazy frat-boy gone insane? Or is it a frat-boy possessed by the spirit of Mr. Belladonna? Or has Zombie Belladonna really returned from the grave? Just watch it yourselves and find out! Just don't expect any answers or explanations. But do expect an extremely lame and laughable conclusion... and then prepare for the obligatory final "it's not over yet"-scene (with another totally free extra super small titties shot).

One more comment on the soundtrack: It features some old-school Anthrax songs, repeatedly played on mostly inappropriate moments. Fun to hear them, but certainly not their best stuff. The rest of the more... ehrr, "orchestrated sound-effects" i can't really describe. It's sounds weird and bad (but that, on the other hand, made it very appropriate). It might have sounded a bit like when Claudio Simonnetti got his very first keyboard/sampler thing way back in the early 80's, then went on a bad LSD-trip and just pushed some random buttons on it. If this sounds like I'm making fun of Simonetti, then I take back that statement... don't wanna give this movie too much credit anyway. Boy, this movie was trash. Loved it!

Filthier than a syrup-soaked cockroach, more fragrant than an anchovies-smeared banana, and cheesier than a Limburger smoothie, this boorishly unsubtle frathouse freakshow gorily remains a gleefully goofy, creepily chucklesome, sleazily snuffing screwball slasher! Paul Ziller's oft derided 'Pledge Night' is a madcap, magisterially moronic, blood-hazed, heavy mental murder mosh, wherein we observe the vengefully teen-thrashing return of 60s pizza-faced party pooper, Sid, while this heroically hateful Deadhead isn't the most memorably maladjusted mayhem maker in slasher movie history, Sid's deffo the most metal, dude!! Favouring crude fratboy pranks over technically proficient stalk N' Slash, Pledge Night's bawdy, fitfully funny, gore gag heavy, spank happy B-Horror buffoonery occasionally misses the mark. All that being said, when all this lurid National Lampoonery gruesomely hits the sweet spot it makes for a pretty righteous splatter-fest, and, at the very least, Paul Ziller's divisively dunderheaded 90s Schlock rocker 'Pledge Night' has something to offend everyone!!! - 'On this fateful night the skeezer-shunting, plasma-plastered pledges of Phi Up are about to discover just how vicious Sid could be!!!' - 'Paul Ziller's sleazily scattershot blood-spiller is a terminally toxic, thrash-tastic terror flick!'

I don't know which was more depressing, the fact that this was made or the fact that i rented it.... Acting was sub-awful Plot was lame, re-hashed, and putridly stupid The killer looked like a KISS star on crack. If you actually want to rent this, go ahead. The movie will serve as its own punishment.

As most note, this is a film of two halves. First half is a Animal House-esque fraternity movie before it turns to a slasher flick.

This already will be enough to put off casual slasher fans looking for a more straightforward narrative. Next factor in less than stellar acting, a killer unwisely modeled after Freddy Krueger, and most of the gore cut out and one can understand the hate.

But for those of us diehards, Pledge Night offers a uniquely fun experience. It's narrative plays out like a nightmare, with its plot turns and supernatural killings. The empty campus in a snowstorm is effective if not fully utilized. The kills (even in their excised form) are unique and still have enough red stuff to deliver.

Pledge Night is a fun, cheesy slasher that has been sentenced to obscurity, Vinegar Syndrome gave it a nice blu ray treatment with lots of interviews, but I was let down the elusive unrated cut was left out and barely mentioned, which I may be the only person who has spent hours hunting down (so far no luck).

This movie has it all: college pranks, boobs, hideous deformed zombies, Anthrax, Numerian's sword and murder. This is back when Anthrax made good fun metal not the boring serious stuff they do nowdays.

In 1968, a young hippie frat pledge was killed in a hazing mishap, burned to death in a tub of muric acid. Two decades later, his demonic corpse returns to the frathouse during "Hell Week"(wherein hazing rituals take place). As bodies pile up, the new pledges are left to determine if the grisly goings-on are a terrible reality, or just a mean-spirited prank intended to further debase them.

The first half of this gonzo slasher mess is devoid of horror elements, and plays out like an edgy gay porn flick with a hazing theme(okay, let's face it...there's always been serious homocore in the whole fraternity thing anyhow). I think it's safe to say that this is the most ass-happy horror film of the ages, and even features a death scene which involves a small explosive lodged in a dude's ripe punani. Once the bloodshed starts, however, there's actually some fun to be had here(and the sheer lame-brainedness of it all is clearly intentional). Don't expect a high quality product(like you really would, right?), but if you put your brain on pause for 90 minutes, you might find yourself enjoying this slice of very 80s cine-crap. 4/10

Strange structure. 40 minutes of comedy, then a supernatural slasher. Some good gore but the plot is messy af.