ONE DARK NIGHT (1982)
Tagline: A night to remember - until the day until you die!
(Horror, Energy Vampires, Mean Sorority Chicks) [R]
Note: This movie was also known as NIGHT IN THE CRYPT.
Olivia, you can’t keep on with this.
I have to Alan.
In this one Julie is trying really hard to get into a “sisterhood” called the “sisters” with 3 other girls. She basically feels like her future depends on it. To get in she has to spend the night in a mausoleum. The girls she is trying to join are not about to let things go smoothly. They come back to the mausoleum to ensure she is too scared to stick around. Meanwhile, a physicist named Karl “Raymar” who was conducting deadly experiments and became powerful has recently died is also now a permanent resident of the mausoleum. It is thought that “Raymar” who is an energy vampire draining his victims of life, may have the power to animate things from beyond the grave. Will anyone survive ONE DARK NIGHT?
First off, this thing has a pretty crazy plot. I was kind of shocked to see Adam West in this, but I guess every actor has to branch out at some point. Even Batman. There is a lot of whacky stuff going on this and some of it’s not even supernatural. Leaving candles burning overnight in a closed mausoleum doesn’t seem like something that would happen, but I wouldn’t know. I don’t hang out in them ever.
Acting-wise I’ve seen quite a few Meg Tilly (PSYCHO II) flicks, but this might be her best performance of them all. I really think they had her overreacting in the opening scene with Steve, but outside of that, this was one of her better films. Part of that might have been because, in a lot of the scenes, she would throw herself into hysterics because she was so uncomfortable filming in a mausoleum. Reportedly it took her some time to calm down between takes. Robin Evans plays a really mean girl in this named Carol. Geesh Carol, why do you have to be so bossy? Anyway, she is good in the role but Evans stopped acting in 1987 after appearing in 12 projects. Leslie Speights takes on the role of Kitty and crushes it. She finished her acting career in 1990 after doing voice work for several cartoons including the “Challenge of The GoBots” animated series. I do think it’s crazy that Kitty chews on a toothbrush almost this entire movie. Elizabeth Daily plays Leslie in this and gets the “Smart Decision of the Night Award”. She also did voice work for cartoons later in her career which is still going strong as of 2023. She’s slightly above average in this. I mentioned earlier that Adam West (DROP DEAD GEORGEOUS) is in this. He doesn’t get many lines and mostly plays a jerk with a point. Melissa Newman is solid in this as Olivia and it ended up being her last physical acting role. She did voice work after that for a bit. David Mason Daniels plays Steve and is also fine in the role. However, Steve does get the “Wimpiest Character in the Movie Award”. What is with you, man?
This is another one of those creepy flicks where actual skeletons were used because they were more readily available and cheaper than fake ones. The other notorious film this happened in was POLTERGIEST. Cinematically it’s actually pretty great, but where this thing just goes kind of wonky is when it comes to these “quasi zombies”. They kind of float around and don’t really move well enough to look like they can accomplish anything other than bumping into you. The storyline is crazy as I mentioned but it’s also just convoluted enough to not really ever make complete sense without your brain trying to fill in the holes in the dialog.
Overall this is a great outing for Meg Tilly and it’s definitely bonkers, but the best I can give it is a 4 out of 7. There are a few things that could have been easily done to tighten this thing up while increasing the perceived urgency of the final act.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF COMWORLD PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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