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.

Happy Hell Night (1992) is a strangely obscure horror film. A deranged

hunchback with ashen skin and large black eyes escapes from his prison

cell to torment a group of promiscous co-eds that are full of sin and

vice. The movie for the most part is old hat but the ancient, moldy

killer is real creepy. He reminded me of a mini Freddy clone, he even

spouts advice after maiming his victims. An old cop (with the help of

his son) tries to put the half pint killing machine back into his cell

before he kills again.

Recommended,if you can find it.

B

P.S. This movie was shot in eastern Europe (but takes place in the USA).

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.

Happy Hell Night missed their decade by a few years. I believe that's why the movie is so obscure and not very well received. It had a lot of bad characters, choppy editing, and a wasted Darrin McGavin. There also seemed to be some missing ingredients. We would see a character sitting in a chair and the next time we saw that character he would be dead on the floor with no explanation. It does have the creepiest killer since Barlow from Salem's Lot though. There were also some very creepy moments in the film, just too few of them. If the whole film would have taken on the tone of "Scary Jesus" scene, the film would have been great. Other than that, this is not the best fraternity prank/slasher film. How to do it right: Hell Night. How to do is so terrible wrong that it becomes right: Pledge Night. This film is somewhere in between those two and, thus, not as enjoyable. Keep an eye out for a pre-fame Sam Rockwell and Jorja Fox.