Probably the definition of the phrase ‘What is the barest minimum I want out of a slasher movie’, ‘Girls Nite Out’ is, in essence a murder mystery presenting itself as a new fangled Slasher, but with a hearty dose of ‘mania’ to boot. Imagine ‘Black Christmas’ but if it had been directed and written by the guy who made ‘Sleepaway Camp’ with just the tiniest dash of ‘Friday the 13th’ and your not a million miles off.

The plot is split over two main plot lines, the first half follows a group of college students (mainly a group of serority girls) as they host a party at their serority house to celebrate a winning game for the football team. Its here that the film basically sets up its stall, establishing all the characters, their personalities and throwing a hearty sprinkling of ‘Oh! He’s got a dark/mysterious streak, maybe HE’LL be the killer!!!’ to help get peoples brains in gear (fun fact; anyone who is made out to be a killer in these movies is 99.9% of the time almost definitely NOT the killer.)

The second half of the film picks up the next day after several dramatic turns hit the sorority party, as the girls try and recover from the fun, but volatile night, by taking part in the college radio stations annual scavanger hunt. Only…the football teams mascot (a bear) appears to be on the prowl, following the clues of the hunt as well. And if they just so happen to come by any sorority girls who are also taking part in the hunt. Well…it’ll be a ‘Grizzly’ end for them!

And I think ‘Black Christmas by way of Sleepaway Camp’ is probably the best way to describe this one, but not in a good way. The film wants to have a certain heir of atmosphere and tensness. It wants to be a thriller for all intents and purposes like how Black christmas helps to build that sense of unease and isolationism…However; it doesnt really want to put any time into giving these characters the kind of depth and complexity that would allow for that unease and atmosphere to germinate. Instead, most of the characters get a personality type that they run into the ground with a kind of frantic mania. followed by a ‘twist’ personality type that the audience is supposed to infer as an attempt to make these base line characters a little more ‘extra’ than they seem.

Only, its a very lazy way to try and create uncertainty for the audience. To the point that I feel most audience members will clearly see through the attempts pretty much immediately. The mania I mentioned comes in the form of high energy comedic moments similar to sleepaway camp, but again, nowhere near as memorable and kind of jarring against the darker tones and suspensful atmostphere the films going for.

Mild spoilers also; but this is one of those kind of ‘whodunnit’ slasher films where its presenting itself as a ‘Find the killer’ film, but the ACTUAL killer in this film is barely on screen, has almost no dialogue and even on a quick watch back of the 1 or 2 scenes they’re in, gave almost NO impression that they could possibly be the killer, not to mention the big plot twist of the film is based on a photograph of the suspected killer, which you dont see properly until the big reveal of who the ACTUAL killer is. Basically; I dont think any reasonable person watching this for the first time would immediately know who the killer was without some kind of forewarning. which makes the whole core premise of the film (speculating who MAY be the killer) kind of redundant.

Outside of the above gripes, we do have a fairly solid little horror film, the pacing moves at a clip, the act sturcturing is fine, the characters border on annoying at times, but never fully go there, the comedy is VERY hit and miss, but landed with me more than it bounced. the dialogue feels solid enough given the characters are pretty much in a constant state of ‘drunk’ for 90% of the runtime.

The kills are a bit watered down, but are at least satisfying to sit through, the end reveal comes out of left field, but I felt was handled alright, if not a bit abrupt. the plotting requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief. But if you can do that, is fine.

The direction isnt out of the ordinary for early 80s horror. In fact i’d say its in the upper mid portion in terms of quality. I caught the Arrow video bluray of this, which…well, its a bit ropey to be honest, but given the films been left in disrepair for many years, the restoration work is about as solid as it can be. its clear the director was a solid pair of hands for the production, with all the various elements working quite well together to produce a film that more than holds up. My main issue is that it doesnt really stand out much (barring the mania element of the dialogue delivery) and a lot of it feels derivative of thillers and the protoslashers of this time…Id say its probably innoffensive truthfully. I liked it, I just wish it had more of an identity.

Same goes for the cine, the lighting is mixed to poor for the most part and a lot of the film is set in dark rooms or outside at night. Where it hits, its brilliant and striking with some nice moody work between ‘moonlight white’, the darkness and at most, candle light. But when it doesnt work, it makes it very hard to see whats actually going on, which naturally greatly impacts the viewing experience. Colour play is quite low, which is a shame, its hard to tell if thats how the director intended it to be, or if the print itself was just SO washed out that the higher contrast moments have paled. But in either case, it feels like, had the colours really been allowed to pop on this one, it could have been something special, instead; it feels a bit cheap and grungy…which is a shame.

Compositions are largely fine, there are moments where the croppings a bit off here and there, but on the whole this looks and feels the part for a low budget slasher flick. sequences feel a bit sparse on the B-roll front, but hang together well enough and the edit is just kind of unremarkable. Its a shame really as a lot of suspense can be drawn out of an edit, and its an opportunity that this film almost never really chooses to utilise.

Performance wise? we run the gauntlet from painfully annoying, to actually kind of naturalistic and fun. Key highlights include Hal Holbrook as the campus security officer, Julia Montgomery as Lynn, both of whome could have easily played to the gallery on this one, but chose a more serious take, which contrasts nicely against the rest of the cast. They are probably the strongest players in this, as the rest of the cast (and there is a LOT of them) range from not terrible, to horrendous, to…frankly incoherent.

One thing this film DOES have going for it though is a killer soundtrack, its essentially a 60s jukebox for the most part played directly from the campus radio DJ. Big names too! which surprised me given the budget for the film. while I woudlnt have thought it necessarily suits the 80s slasher tone. It does give the film a distinct and kind of charming aesthetic, that I wouldnt have considered. I think it works rather well all things considered.

Girls Nite out is a ‘passably’ good slasher film, given how poor this genre can get at times, its honestly pretty solid all things considered, if not missing that extra ‘oomph’ that takes it to the next level. I think this would probably pair well with something like ‘One Dark Nite’ or ‘Black Christmas’ as a ‘Sorority’ double header…Its borderline….But I think I would ultimately recommend checking this one out if your on a slasher kick and want something a bit deeper cut and off the beat and path.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/girls-nite-out/