Sorry, this movie sucks

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

Very little about the premise makes any sense in this 80s slasher, apart from the fact that it is a perfect setup for a slasher movie. From the beginning it is rather predictable who will survive, so it wasn't as suspenseful in that sense. The dialogue was also sub-standard, and the acting wasn't that great. Despite this, however, the film was great fun and actually quite enjoyable.

Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best films of 1981,I started to keep a look out for DVDs of titles from the year. Becoming more aware of her credits after a friend kindly gave me a personalised signed photo of her last October,I was taken aback to spot Linda Blair's 1981 flick in the local DVD shop!,which led to me getting set for a hellish night.The plot:Deciding to give four new students a challenge before they are welcomed into the group,the president of the Alpha Sigma Rho,gives Marti,Jeff,Seth and Denise the task of spending a night in haunted estate,which the lone survivor of a family massacre is said to haunt. Desperate to join the group,each of them decides to take part. Using the estate as an urban legends,members of Alpha Sigma go to the estate to freak the four out by pretending to be ghosts. As they start making spooky sounds,the Alpha Sigma discover to their horror that they have stepped on an estate whose resident does not want any visitors.View on the film:Made during a (how should we word this?...) "hazy" phase in her life,Linda Blair gives a very good performance as Marti,whose "Final Girl" innocence allows Blair to show a Gothic Horror queen reserve manner,which is torn by Blair getting Marti to show some guts in the final Slasher phase of the flick. Stumbling round as the "jock" goofball, Vincent Van Patten gives a terrific performance as Seth,with Patten using Seth's comedic exchanges with Denise to show some wits which become more prominent as the night of hell begins.Initially looking like a typical dumb frat party Slasher movie,the first screenplay by Randy Feldman reveals the satirical bite that Feldman would later use on Tango and Cash. Playing around with Seth being annoyed at just being seen as a complete idiot,Feldman turns the "dumb jock" image of Seth into someone who actually shows intelligence over how to survive the night,which allows for a firm bond to be made between the four. Whilst being a bit inconsistent with the mythology of the estate,Feldman pushes those flaws aside with a delicious blend of the Haunted House and Slasher film,as the creepy things that go bump in the night that the four hear,is smashed by elaborate body count slayings.Making one of his few non-"Adult" flicks,director Tom DeSimone (who reunited with Blair as a co-director on Savage Streets) and cinematographer Mac Ahlberg (who later worked on Re-Animator) give the hellish night an eye-catching,stylised appearance,via slightly "mis—framed" shots bringing attention to the evil bubbling behind the gang. Filmed in three different locations, DeSimone cleverly makes it all look like one location,thanks to whip-pans and overlapping shots circling the estate,as the hell night unfolds.

Linda Blair stars as one of four college pledges who must spend the night in the creepy old mansion(reputed to be haunted, with a murderous history) in order to join the sorority and fraternity. Seniors plan to pull pranks on them for fun, but discover to their dismay that "reputed" turns out to mean "factual"...Surprisingly effective thriller may not be original, but has good performances and direction, which create characters you come to care about, and a genuinely spooky atmosphere, especially when it moves underground. Scary and (reasonably) smart, this one stands out from the usual "slashers" of the period, and results are above average, with a memorable ending.

This was OK, and really only because I happen to be a semi-fan of clean slasher flicks between 1975-1982. No nudity and no sex scenes, and very little profanity; that's how I roll.There's action here, but most of it is boring and stupid. The kids are just so insipid at the sorority and fraternity. The Garth house overnight kids were the best of the bunch, but Linda Blair is a bit slow. I kinda liked Seth; he shouldn't have come back, he should have just let those idiot police officers lock him up for safety.What happened to Denise anyway? Did I miss it? The other guy in the house (not Seth) is a fool. He's seen dead people and one girl go missing, and yet when he spies a light in the garden from the upstairs window, he has to go investigate and thinks it is smart to leave Linda Blair's character behind, telling her not to worry. Uh, why not fool? She doesn't say that, she just whines that she doesn't want to be left behind. Then why don't you follow his stupid butt stupid? Lots of other idiotic things go on here.