Ever since “Alien” and “Halloween” proved that monsters and slashers could equal big box office, studios cranked out the teens terrorized by monster/killer movies at an alarming rate. Everyone has their personal favorites of that era but while most were basically interchangeable and mostly unmemorable, there were some that managed to actually become effective, well made movies. Hell Night is one of those few films that, while following the basic formula that we’ve all see, manages to offer something more than the usual deluge of trash that cluttered theaters and cable television stations at that time.

Perhaps it the familiarity of slasher movies that is so appealing, maybe the cardboard cutout interchangeable characters or maybe the jump scares and easy on the mind plot. Whatever the reason, Hell Night manages to be an effective thriller with the heroes portrayed as people you would actually like to see live through the night and a monster that can be very ferocious and intimidating. Especially effective is when a character escapes and can’t find anyone to believe his wild, outlandish story nor take him seriously, as is the usually standard “the killer isn’t dead yet” shock endings that manages to become an pretty nice, memorable climax. There is also one humdinger of a decapitation that is a definite rewind-it-and-watch-it-again moment that comes out of nowhere in a truly shocking moment. It’s the small tweaking of those usual trappings that we’ve all come to take for granted that make Hell Night such an underappreciated movie that gets more and more obscure with each passing year.

Forgoing the usual gore approach that most horror movies embraced around this time for suspense and tension, possibly by choice and possibly for monetary reasons, Hell Night remains better off for it. Not only is it a memorable, well-crafted film that is a fun and impressive experience, it shows a real maturity despite the silly shenanigans going on throughout it, by this more restrained approach. Rather than riding on the coat tails of what came before or concurrent with it, thus becoming another forgettable footnote in the legendary history of the slasher film, Hell Night aspires to be something a bit different and fresh while giving audiences what they felt safe in receiving in familiarity with a hint of flair. Hell Night may not be completely original but the professionalism it presents in a time of carbon copy movies certainly is.