Bloodtype Online

For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience

One Dark Night (1983)

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    When your typical group of teenage girls wants to initiate a new member, Julie, into their club they decide that she must spend the night in a mausoleum.  Of course a couple of things complicate their evening.  One is that the leader of the girls is intent upon torturing Julie because her ex-boyfriend is now dating Julie.  The other is that the very day they lock Julie into the mausoleum is the same day that the body of psychic Raymar is interred.  Only Raymar isn’t completely dead and has become a psychic vampire of sorts that feeds on fear.  So of course when the girls break in so that they can scare Julie they get more than they bargained for when Raymar starts to manipulate things to feed off of their fear.   

    You know I’ll be honest.  When I popped this one into the DVD player I wasn’t expecting that much from it.  In fact I sort of expected it to be bad, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it is.  The story is straightforward and typical of the horror films that dominated the 80s.  You have a group of annoying teenagers that fall into the standard categories of the good girl, the funny one, the slut (alas no skin), and the jock boyfriend (on a motorcycle no less!).  They all end up in a scary location where some evil force starts to kill them off.  Only instead of a slasher it is a psychic that can move objects with his mind.  I sort of liked the angle of the psychic vampire, which makes this movie stand out from the rest of the horror films from that time.  The performances aren’t great, but are acceptable for the young cast and the fact that this is a quickie horror film.  It was cool to see Meg Tilly in an early role, as well as Adam West getting a post Batman paycheck.   

    Technically One Dark Night is a competently made movie.  There isn’t any gore and the special effects are limited to some bad glowing eyes and electricity to show Raymar’s psychic powers.  There are also quite a few bodies that bust out of the crypts and scoot along the ground that look pretty cool.  But don’t expect zombies because for the most part these are puppets with little to no articulation.  Basically they are just thrown on the actors, which is okay because that is what is happening in the story.  Raymar is tossing bodies on them to create fear.  The mausoleum set where most of the movie takes place is light well and accentuates the overall atmosphere.  This makes for a tense and scary environment that plays well on screen.  Add a couple of well executed jump scares and you have a horror film that delivers.   

    While this isn’t a classic film I still feel that it is well worth checking it out.  Plus the movie is included in the Shriek Show Bloody School Girls 3 pack, which I picked up for $15.  I recommend giving this one a watch. 

Rating - ***

- John “El Juan” Shatzer