By the late 80s, slashers were past the peak of gracing theaters with their ill-fated characters and their cliché murder scenes, only giving slasher fans Friday the 13th sequels, and direct-to-video terrors. Every now and then, something new would come around, such as Evil Laugh, Slaughter High, Doom Asylum, and this. Night Screams is a pretty typical cheesy slasher romp with enormous trends of big curly perms, catchy pop music, numerous red herrings, and fake looking death scenes.
David (Joe Manno), a hunky high school football player, is throwing a party for his friends at his mansion while his parents are out of town. His shy girlfriend, Joni (Megan Wyss), is looked down upon by David's friends, who would prefer David to be with someone else. The only person who likes Joni is Lisa (Jeanette Allyson Caldwell; one of the few characters that are actually likable), whom defends Joni whenever someone is rude to her. During the night, David is horrified to realize that he can't find the pills that help his hyperactivity, making him short tempered and easily angered. What David and the rest of his friends don't know is that two maniacs who escaped from an asylum, Snake (John Hines) and Johnny (Troy Mays), broke into his house and are hiding in the basement (Why does this strangely remind me of The Majorettes?). Also, they don't realize that someone is beginning to kill them off one by one. Could it be the two maniacs? Could it be David? Or could it be someone else...? (I bet you can already guess who the killer is!)
The movie, while not completely original, does try to stray from most slashers, taking on the sub-plot of the two escaped lunatics to help out the killer add to the body count. The identity of the killer, while obvious and cliché, is interesting in that they have a motive that is understandable and actually makes sense. Another interesting thing about the movie is that part of the film is made up of two other movies, Graduation Day (1981), and a softcore porn shown towards the end. The movie's climax, which consists entirely of characters walking around in the dark and one character strangely disappearing, is pretty unimpressive and muddled. We see three characters outside, fighting, then one of those characters is stabbed. Next we see one of the two surviving characters back inside the house without giving any explanation as to what happened to the OTHER survivor.
The movie overall is pretty bad. There are a couple of interesting deaths (such as a character having their face grilled, a character being poisoned in a sauna by toxic fumes), some characters that are pretty likable (Lisa, Joni, and D.B.) and a twist ending that is cliché but pretty well executed (it would've worked better had it have been a little bit less ambiguous). The movie tries it's best at being different and unique, and while it fails, it does give a good effort considering the budget and the bad acting.
David (Joe Manno), a hunky high school football player, is throwing a party for his friends at his mansion while his parents are out of town. His shy girlfriend, Joni (Megan Wyss), is looked down upon by David's friends, who would prefer David to be with someone else. The only person who likes Joni is Lisa (Jeanette Allyson Caldwell; one of the few characters that are actually likable), whom defends Joni whenever someone is rude to her. During the night, David is horrified to realize that he can't find the pills that help his hyperactivity, making him short tempered and easily angered. What David and the rest of his friends don't know is that two maniacs who escaped from an asylum, Snake (John Hines) and Johnny (Troy Mays), broke into his house and are hiding in the basement (Why does this strangely remind me of The Majorettes?). Also, they don't realize that someone is beginning to kill them off one by one. Could it be the two maniacs? Could it be David? Or could it be someone else...? (I bet you can already guess who the killer is!)
The movie, while not completely original, does try to stray from most slashers, taking on the sub-plot of the two escaped lunatics to help out the killer add to the body count. The identity of the killer, while obvious and cliché, is interesting in that they have a motive that is understandable and actually makes sense. Another interesting thing about the movie is that part of the film is made up of two other movies, Graduation Day (1981), and a softcore porn shown towards the end. The movie's climax, which consists entirely of characters walking around in the dark and one character strangely disappearing, is pretty unimpressive and muddled. We see three characters outside, fighting, then one of those characters is stabbed. Next we see one of the two surviving characters back inside the house without giving any explanation as to what happened to the OTHER survivor.
The movie overall is pretty bad. There are a couple of interesting deaths (such as a character having their face grilled, a character being poisoned in a sauna by toxic fumes), some characters that are pretty likable (Lisa, Joni, and D.B.) and a twist ending that is cliché but pretty well executed (it would've worked better had it have been a little bit less ambiguous). The movie tries it's best at being different and unique, and while it fails, it does give a good effort considering the budget and the bad acting.