Halloween Night

From Michael Gingold, the editor of Fangoria...

You would think that Gingold, after viewing thousands of horror films, would know how to make a good movie. Now, granted, he did not direct it, he just wrote it... and granted, it does have a fair amount of gore. But he seems to have the same problem Rob Zombie does: he has seen so many films that he no longer has the ability to be original and can only steal from other (better) films.

And why is the audio not synced up? Nothing makes a picture even worse than when lips do not match the words they speak. The visuals are alright, though, so I guess it is not a complete loss.

For The Asylum Halloween Night is not too bad, they have certainly done much worse. Even with that taken into account, Halloween Night is still not a good movie. There are some things that are done reasonably, some of the daylight scenes are shot nicely, the music is a good mix of jaunty and eerie, Scot Nery does bravely as the one character that we come close to rooting for and there are some gory and imaginative slasher death scenes(honourable mention must go to the hanger death which is just hilarious). There have been worse-looking movies from The Asylum, but the special effects are poorly rendered, the editing is sloppy for much of the movie and some scenes especially the first 10-15 minutes are really amateurishly shot. Chris Vale's make-up is appropriately hideous considering what happens to him, but he looks too much of a zombie and some have already said. The acting is pretty dire from almost everybody, Nery is the best of the lot but then we have Rebekah Kochan overacts her rather shallow character and Derek Osedach mumbles his way through his lines and not much else. The characters are exceedingly annoying and shallow with non-existent character development, the one exception is Chris Vale but he is not much different from similar characters from similar movies. The dialogue is dumb and just painful to listen to, making something like the worst Disney Channel movie seem like Casablanca comparatively. The story is even more of a problem, that it's mind-numbingly ridiculous, painfully predictable and deathly dull is one thing but we also have a complete lack of tension, thrills sense of horror/terror(mainly because of the characters' interactions and expressions being so blank) and suspense, situations and interactions are really contrived and implausible, and there is a heavy reliance on drawn-out done-to-death clichés that are marred even further by being played far too straight. The ending is inept in every way, and if you're finding it difficult to buy or swallow don't blame yourself, you won't be the only one. In conclusion, could have been worse but rather mediocre, not the terrifying story that the cover advertised. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Clearly an attempt to cash in on the success of other Halloween-themed slashers, "Halloween Night" offers nothing new to the genre. However, new offerings does not equate to entertainment, and this movie certainly entertains. For a low-budget DTV, it certainly isn't terrible...I have seen much worse.

The BAD: A weak script, and sub-par acting are this films main faults. Many have posted opinions of the guy who plays David's acting--honestly, I didn't have a big problem with him. That is probably because NOBODY was good in this movie, even Rebekah Kochon who gave a good performance in "When A Killer Calls." None of the actors seem to be really into the film, which is problematic. The script is laughable in parts on the dialogue really consists of nothing but high school hallway banter. The films looks like it was filmed all in one day, and yes, the killer resembles a zombie much more than he does a burn victim! Have the filmmakers ever even seen a burn victim???? I'm pretty sure they don't like they just climbed out of a coffin after decaying for 15 years. I also felt extremely let down by the ending....it was pretty predictable and by-the-book, but also very rushed. There wasn't a big chase scene and really no suspense as to who was gonna live/die.

The GOOD: Some pretty decent death scenes are about all this has going for it, and they aren't even THAT great. Also, the killer here is pretty ruthless and viscous, which some genre fans might find refreshing. But mainly, this entertains because of the old "it's so bad it's good" cliché, and sometimes, like on Halloween eve, that's all I really need out of horror flick--entertainment, no matter what its source. Still die-hard and picky slasher fans should probably just stick to watching the original "Halloween" for the 30th time.

My Grade: D-

This is an entertaingly bad b-horror movie, but like all movies like this the bottom line is its just horrible. I really really hated Derek Osedach who played David Baxter, he really really sucks. I'm not sure what they hell he was trying to do for his 'performance' in this film. Its so laughable, I guess he was trying to improvise and ad lib, but he kept stumbling, and sounded so ridiclous, one of the worst acting jobs ever, honestly he gives the guy from El Chupacabra, Eric Alegria, a run for his money for the worst performance ever given in one of the worst movies ever made. Where was the director on this dumbass' acting? Well I guess this may not be one of the worst movies ever made. It does has satisfying killings. You end up hating the characters and are happy when they get brutally killed. That is the halmark of a true b-horror movie - characters so annoying you root for the killer.

However, the greatest thing about this movie is the hot girl-on-girl action! And I'm not kidding, there are a couple of hot chicks that get naked and get it on a couple times during the movie. most excellent. The nudity in this movie is one of its few good points. The music was really really well done too, but the one string melody was interesting but overused. But the script, acting, directing, camera work, etc all sucked big time.

Students throwing an epic Halloween party are infiltrated by a real homicidal maniac escaped from the local mental institution and who apparently doesn't like parties or partygoers. Clumsily edited, quickly made cash-in on the 2006 'Halloween' remake starts off okay, but despite some over the top, gory makeup effects, it quickly deteriorates into a cheap farce, little more than an orgy of mindless slaughter that defies logic.

I'm guessing the budget went on the costumes and the extras fees, and I hope there's receipts, because there's nothing else to show for it on the screen. The dialogue is an occasional highlight with some literary gold e.g. 'the real deal was psychological horror not medieval decadence' and my personal favourite 'you get tired of tasting tuna, you call me'.

Overall despite the tongue cheek tone and a reasonably sympathetic antagonist, there's only so much gratuitous nudity and corny one liners on which you can trade before you need to stump up on a coherent storyline. Unfortunately 'Halloween Night' the story, like its neglected killer, needed more attention in its development. Might just qualify as 'so bad it's good' and if you do take the plunge, make sure to stick around long enough for the coat-hanger killing, the whole set-up for which is totally wild.