Too much of everything

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Really, really bad, but hilarious in that way that only cheesy 80's slashers can be. With the way the mother acts, this could have been taken as a light satire on the whole 'sex drugs and rock n roll' thing but I genuinely doubt there was any such self reflection present in the making of this movie. In fact I don't think there was a single joke the entire running length but I still found myself laughing pretty often. Well, other than when that comedian came out at the party. I wasn't laughing then. Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad sets, bad cinematography. Classic case of 'so bad its good'... but not too good.

Jag Mundhra's second stab at the slasher film (after 1987's snooze OPEN HOUSE) isn't an '80s Halloween-season classic like TRICK OR TREAT or NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, but schlocky horror fans will probably have a good time with it.Hy Pyke (what a name!) is delightfully over-the-top as the grandfather (who is described as 'kindly' in the IMDb summary, but you're never given the impression he's anything but a scumbag) hell-bent on getting his eldest grandson to devote himself to his Satanic cult, a lame-o group that flash gang signs to each other and wear flannels under their devil robes. Meanwhile, someone in the cult is randomly killing people, and it's up to the other grandson, a boyishly handsome cop, to figure out what the hell is going on.It's gorier than a lot of the slashers from this time period (though the body count is low), and just about every female cast member gets naked at some point (except, bafflingly, the most attractive one). Most of the leads have fun with their silly roles. It feels super padded, even at 90 minutes, what with random five-minute glam metal dream sequences and a head-scratching, unfunny stand-up comedy routine that grinds all the Satanic action to a halt.Watchable for sure, whether or not it's worth watching could go either way. Don't spend too long tracking it down, but you could watch way worse.

Despite boasting the largest film industry in the world in terms of ticket sales, India was one of the last nations to deliver an inclusion to the slasher cycle. When you consider the fact that SSSHHH and KUCCH TO HAI provided such an enjoyable slant on the traditional format, it has to be said that it's something of a disappointment that they didn't start earlier. But whilst the country itself may have been somewhat belated in its offering of an entry to the ever-growing legion of titles, Indian born director Jag Mundhra certainly was not. After relocating to America during the early eighties, Mundhra became the first of his countrymen to grace the genre with not just one, but two consecutive titles. His first, Open House, was a somewhat laboured tale, which pitched a radio talk-show host against a maniacal psychopath that held an unhealthy taste for murdering promiscuous Estate Agents. Its poor reception meant that the film sank without trace, but studios noticed enough credibility in the filmmaker's work to allow him a second shot at slasher recognition.The copy of Halloween Night that I own was released under the amusing title of Hack-O-Lantern. In the opening, we are introduced to a redneck family in Southern America, whose chirpy exterior conceals some shocking secrets. It seems old grandpa is a part-time Satanist and this Halloween will be a special day for him and his cult, as his nephew Tommy (who is arguably his illegitimate son) will be initiated in to the psychopathic group. Tommy's kindly mother is aware of her father's evil plans and pleads with Tommy to avoid confrontation with the malevolent worshippers. Meanwhile a devil masked maniac is butchering the townsfolk with a trident and leaving corpses scattered around the area. Are the two events related? The family will uncover the truth on this dark Halloween Night. It's plain to see what Mundhra had in mind during the meetings prior to the film's commencement. Halloween Night boasts a plot that mixes the in vogue slasher clichés with the satanic sheen of titles such as Rosemary's Baby, Allison's Birthday and Invitation to Hell. Admittedly on paper this looked to be an intriguing combination, because category crossbreeds are remarkably uncommon. The synopsis is indeed far-fetched, but workable; and Mundhra's previous experience meant that he was already aware of the downfalls that could befall a low budget project. With an experienced actor on board, plus a group of ambitious hopefuls and a big enough budget to invest in some decent effects, surely the ingredients were all in place for a decent slasher hit?Unfortunately Mundhra's second attempt at slasher recognition proved to be as woefully uninspiring as his first. Not only is his offering poorly conceived, but its lack of professionalism makes for a painfully inept runtime. The main problems lie in the director's inability to define a mood from scene to scene. Halloween Night is a feature that reminds me of one of those lazy Friday afternoons at work. You know the ones: you've already hit your monthly targets and your boss has gone for a meeting in the city, so you and your colleagues converse about weekend plans and relax in the knowledge that the beauty of a morning in bed is nearly in sight. Instead of updating those annoying spreadsheets, you check how many pokes you've had on Facebook and cunningly call your friend who's on holiday in the Bahamas. Mundhra's effort seems content to remain in first gear and in terms of generating enthusiasm, it falls astoundingly short. Not only does this conceal any signs of credibility that could have been evident, but it also leaves a runtime that more often than not slips into snooze-inducing tedium.Hy Pyke is star-billed as if he were Al Pacino, with his name gloriously placed above the title as if its inclusion would bring audiences flocking from the furthest of fields. His biggest acting achievement prior to Halloween Night had been a brief and unmemorable turn in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Here he delivers a cringe-worthy portrayal, which lacks even the slightest acknowledgement of dramatic awareness. He is not aided by a supporting group of actors that lack experience, talent, emotional attentiveness and most importantly, plausible agents. It's perhaps unfair to blame only the cast for their lacklustre efforts, as Mundhra is a director bereft of any kind of theatrical delivery management. Scenes that are included to provide pathos or tension are staged so poorly that they give the film an almost comedic edge. Although the plot incorporates enough authenticity to allow for expressive creativity, the whodunit aspect suffers from an illogical conclusion and the possibilities remain hopelessly unexplored. It's true that the masked killer's identity is smartly concealed, but post-theatre reflection leaves unanswered questions as to the psycho's choice of victims.There is a director hiding somewhere deep inside Jag Mundhra, but throughout Halloween Night, he failed to reveal himself. What started as an engaging synopsis ended as a nonsensical mishap and the lack of any originality or flair for the macabre defined the movie to the ever growing video graveyard. With only one decent gore scene worth mentioning, Halloween Night fails to succeed on any level as a slasher movie and should be avoided.

The particular copy of this movie that I saw was under the moniker "Hack-O-Lantern". In terms of pure gore, the movie didn't exactly live up to the name. It was, however, charming in a typically 80's horror fashion, i.e., just about every chick in the movie gets naked. The plot is nothing new, but it is rendered fairly well. In one particular scene, the movieturns into a music video by the heavy metal band D.C. La Croix. If you like old-school metal like Wasp and Venom you will like the song they have in the movie.Bottom line, the movie needs more gore and a higher body count.