night school

At first glance, Night School (1981) seems to be an elitist slasher film, the sort that attempts to dodge any association with summer camps and spooky holidays, casting 30-somethings instead of 20-somethings and cloaking it all under the guise of a police procedural. Director Ken Hughes, whose last hit was the family-friendly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968, avoids showing a drop of blood and only chaste amounts of nudity despite being saddled with a story involving a string of decapitations at an all-girls college. Now that's some trick!

But what's really amazing is that, upon closer inspection, Night School is even more twisted that most of the slasher franchises earning critical outrage at the time. We're talking not one but two predatory professors, male and female, a kinky tribal body paint shower scene, peeping toms, lesbian seduction and a ruthless leather-clad biker claiming people's heads with a sacrificial blade. When all it said and done, the movie makes Halloween and Friday the 13th look like downright boring!

Lt. Judd Austin (Leonard Mann) is charged with solving a series of ritualistic decapitations in and around the Beacon Hill area of Boston. And his first clue is a doozy: each of the victims was sleeping with Vincent Millett (Drew Snyder), an archeology professor at Wendell College with a history of having affairs with his students. This doesn't sit well with his latest conquest, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), a live-in assistant and partner on several African expeditions who takes the news hard.

Meanwhile, the killings continue, creatively dispatching any woman who even looks at Millett sideways. Everything points to Professor Millett, but that explanation seems a little too obvious. The lack of clues left at the scene forces Austin to round up several suspects including a mentally handicapped dishwasher who seems fixated on the nearby co-eds...and Eleanor in particular. Or is it the school administrator who resents getting Millett's sexual hand-me-downs? Whoever it is hides their identity behind a black motorcycle helmet and stylish leather biker gear.

Night School is ridiculous, but it's so professionally done that it almost fools the audience into taking it seriously. Hughes' goes the Hitchcock route in several scenes; particularly during a clever diner sequence in which the customers begin to suspect their soup has more than a hair in it. How the killer chooses to dispense with each head becomes more and more outlandish, driving the movie into black comedy territory. And despite the lack of expected gore, each kill scene tops the one before with a satisfying body count of clueless victims.

Making her feature film debut, Rachel Ward is an atypical final girl. The film bounces between characters frequently, but she's the anchor amidst a giallo-esque plot, delivering a strong, sexy performance that's not afraid to bring the crazy. As one unbelievable scene follows another (starting with the idea that any of these girls would find Professor Millett - a dead ringer for Frasier Crane - irresistible), Night School sets up the audience for a not-so-surprise ending that still satisfies whether you saw it coming or not.

Warner Archive's Blu-ray presentation is naturally grainy (the movie has a decidedly small-screen look about it) with bold, beautiful colors. It doesn't have the feel of a movie that was ever made to be razor sharp and the lack of forced image enhancement is appreciated. There's zip in terms of extras but fans should be happy to have it on hi-def!