Just when I was totally fed up with dozens of early 80s cut & paste slashers, along comes Hell Night, a horror movie that doesn’t settle for repeating the lowest common denominators of the genre, but mixes and matches elements from various horror subgenres to make for an atmospheric film.

Story wise there isn’t much new here; a bunch of teenagers are challenged to spend a night in a spooky mansion, and expectedly someone starts to rub them out, one by one. But beyond the dodgy plot the movie makers manage to make quite a lot of good decisions from a constant eery presence of an evil to the relentless antagonist wisely exposed to the camera sparingly, which no doubt works for the movie’s advantage.

Hell Night was categorised and underrated as a yet another slasher upon its release, but has been later rightfully valued as an above average slasher, perfect for that gloomy Halloween movie night.

80s-o-meter: 72%

Total: 82%