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Night Shadows

  • 1984
  • R
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
5.1/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
Bo Hopkins, Wings Hauser, and Jody Medford in Night Shadows (1984)
Two brothers discover that the residents of a small Southern town are being infected by a form of toxic waste, turning them into blood-ravenous zombies.
Play trailer1:23
1 Video
73 Photos
B-HorrorHorrorSci-FiThriller

Two brothers discover that the residents of a small Southern town are being infected by a form of toxic waste, turning them into blood-ravenous zombies.Two brothers discover that the residents of a small Southern town are being infected by a form of toxic waste, turning them into blood-ravenous zombies.Two brothers discover that the residents of a small Southern town are being infected by a form of toxic waste, turning them into blood-ravenous zombies.

  • Directors
    • John 'Bud' Cardos
    • Mark Rosman
  • Writers
    • Michael Jones
    • John C. Kruize
    • Peter Z. Orton
  • Stars
    • Wings Hauser
    • Bo Hopkins
    • Jody Medford
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.1/10
    3.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • John 'Bud' Cardos
      • Mark Rosman
    • Writers
      • Michael Jones
      • John C. Kruize
      • Peter Z. Orton
    • Stars
      • Wings Hauser
      • Bo Hopkins
      • Jody Medford
    • 88User reviews
    • 58Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:23
    Trailer

    Photos73

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    Top cast26

    Edit
    Wings Hauser
    Wings Hauser
    • Josh Cameron
    Bo Hopkins
    Bo Hopkins
    • Sheriff Will Stewart
    Jody Medford
    • Holly Pierce
    Lee Montgomery
    Lee Montgomery
    • Mike Cameron
    Marc Clement
    • Albert Hogue
    Cary Guffey
    Cary Guffey
    • Billy
    Jennifer Warren
    Jennifer Warren
    • Dr. Myra Tate
    Danny Nelson
    • Jack
    Mary Nell Santacroce
    • Mrs. Mapes
    Stuart Culpepper
    • Mel
    Johnny Popwell
    • Captain Tom Dawson
    • (as Johnny Popwell Sr.)
    Ralph Redpath
    • Vic
    Larry Quackenbush
    • Harve
    Ralph Pace
    Ralph Pace
    • Art
    Wallace Wilkinson
    • Mr. Mitchell
    Charles Franzen
    • E.P.A. Man
    Lit Connah
    • Mrs. Miller
    Elijah Perry
    • Albert's Gang
    • (as Jerry Rushing)
    • Directors
      • John 'Bud' Cardos
      • Mark Rosman
    • Writers
      • Michael Jones
      • John C. Kruize
      • Peter Z. Orton
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews88

    5.13.2K
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    Featured reviews

    8Aaron1375

    Why such a low score? I thought it was rather good.

    Maybe it is the fact it was scored so low that it surprised me. Everyone talked how bad it was so I just had lower expectations, but in general I thought this was a good horror movie. About a guy and his brother in a town down south, they run into trouble with the local rednecks right away. Then the younger brother disappears at the boarding house the two stay at. The older one then tries to find out what happened to his brother and what is happening to the town. I always like the mysterious town scenario so that is another reason I like this one. Some gore, but most of the killings are a bit to hard to see. I did not let it ruin the movie for me as it did for some of the others who have commented, still though you will notice it is particularly bad in the finish. However, overall I thought it was a good horror movie with a relatively good cast and all. I loved the scene where little Billy gets it...was not expecting that.
    8liverboyjoe179

    Very Underrated and Pretty Scary

    This movie, sadly, went unrecognized. I am a fan of B movies mainly because they view a part of out mind we haven't or may never see or think about, an almost creative part. Anyway, this movie was pretty good in my view. However, I think they should've stuck with the name Pestilence because that sounds so much more deadly than Night Shadows (sounds too much like a haunted house movie) or Mutant (sound too much like a mutant monster movie like Spawn of the Slithis or The Being). Anyway, if you really like zombie movies, especially any of the Night of the Living Dead trilogy (yes, it is a trilogy) or Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead), you might really like this movie.
    7udar55

    Rednecks, bar fights, toxic zombies & Wings? What is not to love?

    Brothers Josh (Wings Hauser) and Mike (Lee Montgomery) are driving south for a vacation when they run afoul of redneck Albert (Marc Clement) and his gang. The resulting encounter leaves Josh's car in a creek so the brothers head to the nearby town to get some help. What they don't know is that the town folk are turning into zombies that can burn you with their touch thanks to some illegal toxic waste dumping. A favorite from my childhood, I was surprised at how well this held up upon re-watching some 20 years later. Director John "Bud" Cardos - who apparently replaced HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW's Mark Rosman - creates a good crazy small town atmosphere and the last half hour is full-on craziness as Josh, love interest Holly (gorgeous Jody Medford) and Sheriff Stewart (Bo Hopkins) try to survive. It ends up coming together like a remake of Romero's THE CRAZIES with less Army. Plus, anytime you have the intense Wings in a lead role, you know you will get good things.
    7BA_Harrison

    A fun slice of 80s B-movie horror.

    Wings Hauser, star of many a straight-to video movie in the 80s, stars in this decidedly silly, but enjoyably unpretentious slab of sci-fi/horror tosh.

    With a script constructed from a hotchpotch of well-worn genre clichés, Mutant's director, John 'Bud' Cardos opts to play things straight where others may have aimed for a more tongue in cheek approach; the result is a fun filled B-movie which, despite its hackneyed script and cheesy plot structure, works extremely well.

    After being run off the road by truck-driving rednecks, brothers Josh and Mike Cameron (Wings Hauser and Lee Montgomery) set off on foot for the nearest town. Unfortunately for them, the nearest town is infected with toxic waste (being dumped by an unscrupulous chemicals company) that is turning the residents into acid-secreting mutants.

    Josh, along with pretty schoolteacher Holly (Jody Medford), battles for survival, while trying to convince boozy sheriff Will Stewart (Bo Hopkins) that the town is under threat from a horde of killer mutants.

    Director Cardos perfectly captures the B-movie vibe and his likable cast throw themselves into their roles with gusto, giving some decent performances. Bo Hopkins is particularly good as the alcoholic cop and he shares some nice scenes with Jennifer Warren, who plays small town doctor, Myra Tate.

    Cardos, obviously no stranger to the genre (his mutants closely resemble the zombies from Romero's Dawn of the Dead) has the good sense to kill off characters that you would lay money on to survive in most horror films; this means that, with the gloves off, Cardos can have fun playing with the audiences expectations.

    In an exciting finale, in which Josh and Holly are surrounded by mutants, Cardos toys with the possibility of a downbeat ending, before the good sheriff and his men arrive to save the day.

    The make-up FX are simple yet effective; the mutants are blueish in hue, with some yucky 'splits' in their palms from which they secrete corrosive yellow gunk. When the infected turn into mutants, we get some impressive examples of that mainstay of 80s horror movies, the 'bladder effect'. Skin undulates and veins pulsate to nauseating effect.

    If you're after an undemanding and fun viewing experience, you could do a lot worse than to pop Mutant into your DVD player.
    8Bezenby

    Jing! It's Wings!

    I was a kid when the trailer for this film started to appear, and to me it looked like a total creep-fest. I never managed to get a hold of it during the video age, but it was one of the first DVDs I ever bought (for about a pound) and I've got to say that Mutant, although not a creep-fest, is a fine chunk of eighties horror cheese.

    I've heard (or read, rather) complaints that the film is too talky, but to be honest I don't think it hurts the film at all. For some reason director John 'Bud' Carlos sees fit to have his hero be a big goofy jerk, and if there's one guy who excels at playing goofball jerks, it's Wings Hauser. Right from the get go it's clear that it's his brother who is the smart one, as Wings incurs the wrath of the locals by driving like a nutter, gets into a car chase with some rednecks, and ends up crashing their car into a river, stranding them in the middle of nowhere. His brother is well annoyed, but Wings still manages to yuck it up as they head into a hick town, given a lift there by a crazy looking yokel who's not what he seems.

    Once they get into town they discover a dead body and head into a bar for help, only to run into the rednecks again and get into a bar fight, broken up by local alcoholic sheriff Bo Hopkins, a washed up city cop who's lost his bottle, and is an ex-lover with the local doctor. He is led by the brothers to where the dead body should be, but instead finds the town drunk sleeping, and a puddle of strange fluid. After dropping Wings and his brother at a boarding house, he drops the sample off at the doctor's place, and things begin to get weird.

    The town is strangely absent of people, and that night Wing's brother is dragged under his bed by some creature with smoking hands. Now properly stranded in the town, Wings looks for his brother with the help of a local teacher (and of course he finds time to woo her), finds a dead child, runs into the redneck again (and has a pipe fight with him) while Bo Hopkins finds more corpses and gets ignored by his boss, who thinks he's just a washed up drunk. Meanwhile, more and more citizens of the town start disappearing, at least during the day. It all builds up to loads of mutant versus the survivors, and an investigation into where exactly the source of this epidemic is coming from.

    This film reminded me a lot of Salem's Lot. There's the outsider staying at the boarding house, the townsfolk disappearing, hostile locals and the protagonists trying to get the bottom of things while their numbers dwindle. That said, the film kicks into high gear when the mutants start attacking on mass, and that's where the cheese factor kicks in too. Who can forget the mutant kids attacking the teacher in the school (not to mention poor kid Billy, who, after being told he need never feel scared again, is attacked and killed by the mutants!), or the doctor describing the symptoms of the disease while her assistant transforms in the background. I was chuckling away at Wings booting a child in the head while trying to escape from a toilet. Good stuff.

    There's also some huge errors on hand, from the 'acid hand' gag that's truly atrocious (a fake hand held by another hand – and they do it twice!), boom mike shadows, recurring stunt men etc, but it all adds to the charm. Wings is forced to emote a couple of times too which is a sight to behold (although the man can act, see "The Wind" for instance). This has long been a favourite of mine and was kind of remade as "Nightmare at Noon" with the same premise and same actors (both Wings and Hopkins in roughly the same roles) – I recommend that one too!

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Apparently because of poor box-office results, this film was the last to be released by Film Ventures International (FVI). Edward L. Montoro, president of FVI, disappeared shortly afterward, taking $1,000,000 from the company's coffers with him. Nothing has been heard from him since.
    • Goofs
      While Josh and Holly converse in her living room, the shadow of the boom mic can be seen on the wall behind Josh's head extending all the way to the right edge of the screen.
    • Quotes

      Dr. Myra Tate: Nothing human can have this in its veins and live.

    • Connections
      Edited into Robot Bride of Manos (2022)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 24, 1984 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Mutant
    • Filming locations
      • Norcross, Georgia, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • Laurelwood Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $2,500,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 39 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo

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