Would it really be September here without a school themed slasher from the 80s that has been mostly forgotten? Yep, there were so many of these that the “content vein” seems to never end, there’s always more slasher to pick and revaluate, here thanks to the UK (and also US) release on Blu-Ray by Arrow Video, who else?
I’m NOT gonna review the Blu-Ray itself and the many extra contents (especially if you managed to get your hands on the Limited Edition with the extra slipcase with the poster art of the movie under its alternative release date “The Scaremaker”), but i will say the 2K restoration it’s hella good.
I said school, but in this case we have a sorority group of college girls that are killed one by one by a degenerate in a bear costume (the college’ sport mascot) during a night-long scavenger hunt taking place on campus, with the story of a former student – called Dickie Canavaugh– that was recovered in a sanitarium and speculations on why he hanged himself.
Breaking some new ground, as usual, with a crossover episode featuring Kuro from the One Piece series as the mysoginistic killer… actually, it kinda fits, even leaving aside the weapon being used to maim and murder being makeshift metallic claws. Or it would, it’s not THAT ambitious a movie, but it opts for a slightly less unique final twist, which in hindsight it’s not that original, with plenty of films from the previous decade already tackling it after it became common knowledge.
Heck, even a popular, legendary film tackled the issue head on 2 decades earlier.
One that it’s also directly quoted, so yep, it’s exactly like the Sleepaway Camp infamous twist ending. Minus the phallus or everything else, so i would say, but jokes aside the way the twist is revealed has some similarities with the “Angela dingus” twist, which was released in theathers just the following year, in 1983, and admittely that one still the more shocking one.
I mean, that alone assured its legacy over the decades, alongside some sequels of dubious quality.
Speaking of which, Girls Nite Out’s twist it’s not there so much to pay homage to the classics, more to emulate one of the big slashers at the time, in this case the original Friday The 13th, but one were the killer is basically a non-supernatural Freddy in terms of weaponry but does love saying “bitch!”.
On the upside, the group of characters is more defined here, better fleshed out as such, sure, it has all the expected types of college dudes and dudettes, including “The Pre-James Rolfe Nerd”, but overall they come off as actual human people, and more entertaining than annoying, thanks to the script also leaning a lot more than most slasher of the era on comedy.
Not the best comedy bits in the world, but it’s not completely dull, we’ve seen worse in this department, definitely the effort here gives better results than shit like Student Bodies, to name a not so random one.
Cast is fairly good, with the marquee actor being Hal Holbrook as the security guard and Julia Montgomery as one of the girls, but the main draw i’d say it’s seeing basically a slasher ensemble, with plenty of actors that were already in other popular and/or recent slasher films, heck, even Lauren-Marie Taylor that was fresh off her success as Vickle in Friday The 13th Part 2.
Bottom line is that you end up caring a bit about this group of characters before the bear claw befalls them, not always a given, though it’s odd how a movie that specifically deals in infedelity as a big motif… it’s arguable quite tame in terms of sex shown and not just discussed, hence no nudity, not even the nips. Eh, who cares.
Same goes for the gore & blood, just a modest portion of the ol’ plasma seen on screen, which is fine and it’s not unsurprising given the aforementioned emphasis on comedy, it’s just how the movie is, but slasher gorehounds are simply not gonna find anything to chew on here, just saying, i don’t really care that much, nor i was lead to believe it was gonna be a splatteroni & tits galore.
Overall, it’s actually a very pleasing watch, as there’s more to like than expected, the cast is rock solid stuff, and while it’s formulaic, the emphasis on humour ultimately works, which can’t be said for most of the other slasher films at the times, offsets the fairly tamed approach to gore and nudity, and helps in giving the movie some personality and make it stand out (alongside the oldies soundtrack that includes Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express), even if it’s just a bit.
The creepy, surprisingly quiet final reveal/twist gives it some bonus points, too.
Girls Nite Out/The Scaremaker it’s not an overlooked classic or anything like that, but it’s an underappreciated little slasher with some comedy wit and enjoyable – if stereotyped – characters to it, that wants to have fun and be funny (and copy Friday The 13th, which you just did in the 80s if you smelled the “horror money”), and achieves both, even if it oddly plays it “safe for work” when it comes to the slasher common denominators of nudity and gore.
Let alone it actually NOT featuring a “girls’ night out”.
Wise Cafe (International) 