NIGHT SCHOOL (1981)

 

(a.k.a. TERROR EYES; director: Ken Hughes. Screenwriter: Ruth Avergon.)

Review

Boston, Massachusetts. A teacher’s aide (Anne Baron, played by Meb Boden) at the Jack ‘n’ Jill Daycare Center, is beheaded by a black-clad, black-helmeted motorcyclist wielding a recurved blade (a kukri, sometimes called a Gurkha blade). The investigators on the scene note that the killing is similar to another recent murder. Given the nature of the crimes, lead investigative cops, Lt. Judd Austin (Leonard Mann) and Taj (Joseph R. Sicari), are drawn to Wendell College where womanizing anthropology professor Vincent Millett (Drew Snyder, FIRESTARTER, 1984) teaches a course on tribal rituals, which introduces them to Millett’s research assistant, Eleanor Adjai (Rachel Ward, THE FINAL TERROR, 1983)—this visit deepens Austin’s suspicions about Millett. It seems that the murderer either works at or attends Wendell. The pool of suspects widens when a creepy busboy (Gary, played by Bill McCann) at a local diner is introduced as well.

More women in the area are decapitated, as Austina and Taj further investigate clues and suspects, and eventually figure out who did it.

This solid, occasionally suspenseful police procedural/slasher film shows a bit of blood and severed heads but rarely shows actual violence (lots of shots leading up to attacks, freeze frames and cutaways), and the killer is relatively easy to spot if you’re familiar with the genre. What makes NIGHT SCHOOL a gem of a slasher flick is its playful touches of macabre humor, good acting, well-sketched characters, lack of gratuitous violence, effective soundtrack (courtesy of Brad Fiedel), twisty/bizarre-ish ending, and its competent crew. It probably won’t win many awards (it won a few small ones when it came out) but it might provide tightly edited hour and a half entertainment for you, if you keep your expectations modest.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

NIGHT SCHOOL is Rachel Ward’s feature debut, and director Ken Hughes’s final movie, in a forty-eight-film career that includes THE IPCRESS FILE (1965, he was an uncredited writer).

Though a perforated hockey mask is shown in Gary’s room, it’s probably not a reference to Jason Voorhees from the FRIDAY THE 13^th films. Jason’s iconic mask (its first version) wasn’t introduced to the summer-set franchise until FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 3 (1982).

 

NIGHT has two minor players from JAWS (1975) in its cast: Belle McDonald, who played Marjorie Armand in NIGHT, was an uncredited Mrs. Posner in the JAWS; Edward Chalmers Jr., a “Construction Worker” in NIGHT, was also uncredited in JAWS— he played Mr. Denherder in that blockbuster film.