Night School (1981)

Who's been decapitating the innocent girls at a local night school? The police are baffled. Who really cares?

Director:

Ken Hughes

Writer:

Ruth Avergon

Stars:

Leonard Mann, Rachel Ward, Drew Snyder

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Leonard Mann	...	Lt. Judd Austin
Rachel Ward	...	Eleanor Adjai
Drew Snyder	...	Vincent Millett
Joseph R. Sicari	...	Taj
Nicholas Cairis	...	Gus
Karen MacDonald	...	Carol
Annette Miller	...	Helene Griffin
Bill McCann	...	Gary
Margo Skinner	...	Stevie Cabot
Elizabeth Barnitz	...	Kim Morrison
Holly Hardman	...	Kathy
Meb Boden	...	Anne Barron
Leonard Corman	...	Priest
Belle McDonald	...	Marjorie Armand
Edward C. Higgins	...	Coroner (as Ed Higgins)

Storyline

A Boston police detective investigates a series of gruesome decapitations of various college coeds commited by a helmeted, black-leather clad serial killer which leads him to suspect a well known anthropology professor as well as his female live-in assistant.

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Plot Keywords:

police | night school | professor | assistant | night | 

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Taglines:

A lesson in terror [USA theatrical] [as Night School]

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 April 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Terror Eyes

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fiducial Resource Industrial, Lorimar Film Entertainment, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alfred Sole (the director of 1976's Alice, Sweet Alice) was originally approached to direct this film, but Sole passed on it for another project.

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Quotes

Judd Austin: Don't you ever take your job seriously?
Taj: Come on, Judd. If we did that we'd end up in the funny farm!
Judd Austin: [they arrive at the car and get inside] Duck ponds, bucket, now a fish tank.
[pause]
Judd Austin: 'The hell are you eating?
Taj: A sandwich. Want some?
Judd Austin: [after a moment's pause] Yeah, give me some.
[Taj hands him half the sandwich and he takes a bite out of it]
Judd Austin: What kind is it?
Taj: Tuna fish.
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Madman (1982)

User Reviews

Schools Out For…EVER!

Like sadly too often the case with early 80's slasher-movies, this one honestly isn't as bad as the rating & reputation suggest and it obviously all depends on the viewers' prior expectations. If you're set to see a mindless and undemanding stalk 'n slash effort, you get just that, but with a tidbit of goodwill, you'll even notice and appreciate the creators' slightly more ambitious intentions. The vast majority of contemporary slasher flicks were blind copies of "Halloween", but "Night School" looks for role models that predate Carpenter's horror milestone by several years, more particularly Alfred Hitchcock (oh yes, yet another shower sequence) and various Italian Giallo movies! The killer's disguise and modus operandi, as well as the profile of the victims and several red herrings along the way, seem to come straight out of the script of the typical Giallo-effort. The stylish characteristics and outcome of the story may perhaps fall short (real Gialli have far more complicated denouements), but still this is one of the more likable non-Italian attempts at making a Giallo. "Night School" is also clearly sponsored by Boston's department of tourism, as the opening sequences depict multiple picturesque shots of the city by night. There's a killer on this loose in this beautiful city, completely dressed in black leather and wearing a pitch-dark motorcycle helmet, who brutally decapitates of young co-eds and dumps the chopped off heads in the nearest watery reservoir. Police inspector Austin quickly discovers a pattern, namely all victims attended night school classes and – more particularly – the anthropology lectures of professor / playboy Dr. Millett. All the evidence points either towards Millett himself or towards a simple-minded waiter/peeping tom, but that would just be too obvious, wouldn't it? The actual revelation of the killer's identity is ridiculously simple and easy to predict if you only just paid a little bit of attention to small clues. In spite of the gooey sounding head-hunter premise and its listing among the infamous Video Nasties, "Night School" is a rather tame and UN-shocking film. Most of the beheadings play off screen (at first, I even feared I was watching a censored version) and the rest of the bloodshed is kept to a minimum as well. The one sequence in the Sea Life Centre's locker room is quite mean-spirited, however, and probably single-handedly responsible for the notorious reputation. Director Ken Hughes (director of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", of all people) films a handful of effectively suspenseful scenes, the music is atmospheric and – even though I seem to be the only one who thinks so – the character of Taj (the assistant) was funny!