In the early 1980’s, horror cinema was dominated by the slashers. Jason, Michael Myers and their increasingly misbegotten silver screen progeny chased a bevy of young people to box office success. Gone were the days of dark, haunted castles and spooky, mist-shrouded cemeteries from which any manner of horrible things might come crawling back from the other side. People didn’t want atmosphere and chills, they wanted buckets of blood and naked teenagers.
In 1981, there was a revival of sorts for one classic monster, the werewolf. “The Howling”, “An American Werewolf in London”, and to a lesser extent, “Wolfen”, brought back the hairy lunatics for a new generation. In the mind of director Tom McLoughlin, this was not enough. The old, gothic spook films needed a revival and he set out to do so with his unique horror film “One Dark Night”. This was our Terror Tuesday treat from last week.
The film opens with the death of the noted psychic Raymar, he was a fairly famous psychokinetic who became a reclusive hermit years before his death. What is shocking is what is found in his apartment when he dies. Dishes, plated, silverwear and other household goods are lodged in the walls, cracks are everywhere, the place is an utter shambles and there are six dead girls in his closet. Weirder still, there is no apparent cause of death for any of them, even Raymar.
None of that matters for now though because now is when we meet our important characters. Carol, Kitty and Leslie are the Sisters, the most powerful clique in school. They wear matching purple satin jackets with red embroidery and seem to be the most popular girls around. Carol in the blonde and she’s in charge, Kitty is the token black girl in the movie and she is never seen without a toothbrush in her mouth, Leslie is the redhead and the most reluctant member of the group.
Julie (played by the always amazing Meg Tilly) wants to be a Sister. She wants to prove to them that she can be one of them, no matter what. The problem is, she is dating Carol’s ex-boyfriend, Steve and because of this, Carol will never let her be in the group. Oh, she hangs membership out there as a carrot for Julie, but the initiation challenges get worse and worse as time goes on. Case in point, their latest stunt is for Julie to spend the night alone in the local mausoleum.
This isn’t just any mausoleum though, this is where Raymar has recently been interred. Raymar had a daughter though and she seems to have picked up psychic abilities from him. In her case, this comes in the form of prophetic visions and she knows no good is going to come to anyone that night. Her husband though doesn’t believe in any of this. That’s ok though because he’s Batman, well, he’s Adam West at any rate. Even when he’s trying to play everything perfectly straight and serious, he still overacts as only Adam West can. God Bless Him.
This movie is slow to get to any real chills. That’s really not the point. The point is the slow build and the spooky atmosphere. There are a lot of great visuals involving the hallways of the mausoleum, several that reminded me of similar creepy scenes in “Phantasm”. The set they built is an almost exact replica of the famous mausoleum in Hollywood where a lot of stars are buried and it looks utterly convincing.
Things pick up when Carol and Kitty decide to sneak into the mausoleum to scare Julie. They dress up as ghosts and stalk the hallways, trying to frighten the poor girl into running away and losing her chance at being a Sister. Too bad real spookiness is about to begin.
It turns out Raymar was more than a mere psychic, he was a psychic vampire who could drain the life energy of those around him with a touch and use that energy to power his abilities to greater heights. He could also use his telekinesis to animate the bodies of the dead and wished to experience death himself, just to see what it was like. Well, apparently he didn’t like it because he’s decided to come back and Carol, Kitty and Julie are the ones who will have to deal with his return.
The build up might be slow and deliberate but the payoff during the Raymar resurrection scenes is well worth it. There is a genuine sense of tension and because we’ve spent so much time getting to know our characters, we feel more connected to them than we would be to the usual gaggle of expendable teenagers to be found in other films of the time.
The effects are also amazing and never have I found the use of a neon pink light so profoundly creepy. Green and red and even blue can be nicely disturbing colors but the bright pink that signaled the power of Raymar reborn was a nice, unique touch. The dead under his control were also well realized ranged from nicely preserved and creepily perfect embalmed corpses to rotting, decaying horrors falling apart as they levitated down the halls.
While there are not a lot of kills or gore in “One Dark Night”, I still found myself smiling like a madman when it was over. This just proves you don’t need blood, boobs or a completely expendable cast of dozens to make a nice, scary movie. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a nice change of pace from the normal 80s fare. Consider it the palate cleanser between servings of hearty slashers.
This was also the first film Terror Tuesday is doing in the “Back to School” series running all month at the Alamo Drafthouse. For the entire month, all of the movies in the series will be High School themed. Expect a lot more fun this week and all the way to October.
