Customer Reviews

Girls Nite Out

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Girls Nite Out is another horror flick from the eighties that many people have either forgotten about or never seen. It is about a crazed killer on a rampage on a college campus during a scavenger hunt. The clever killer dresses up in the school mascot's bearsuit and uses a Freddy Krueger-like device made with serated steak knives as its deadly "claws". Yes, the movie is old, the plot is questionable, but this movie is worth watching for something else. There's just something so weird and scary about the bearsuit. The way its swirly, hypnotic eyes look at you, it's almost paralyzing. Out of all the horror movies I've ever seen, this one still gives me the chills. It's worth checking out, I think the producer had this fear factor in mind when they made this movie.

"Girls Night Out" is a standard slasher flick from the 1980s when slashers were so prevalent. If you have read any of my reviews, you know that I have an affinity for good slasher flicks. However, many slashers (including some from the 80s) are not very good at all, and some are just plain horrible. With that being said, "Girls Night Out" is a pretty average or run of the mill slasher flick. Slashers are what they are, and you either like them or you do not.

After an ominous opening scene, the type of which invariably is a precursor to a twist in a slasher movie, "Girls Night Out" takes us to a University with their college basketball team going to a conference championship game, typical cheerleaders, a dorky mascot and some basketball players with some issues regarding their love life. The first twenty to thirty minutes of "Girls Night Out" attempts to set up subplots and develop characters. However, "Girls Night Out" does a poor job with this character development and the result is a boring first part of the movie. Particularly annoying during the character and plot development scenes are the antics and overt silliness of the stupid college students. Because this movie is a slasher, while deducting points, I give the movie a little bit of a break in this area, however.

What "Girls Night Out" does accomplish in the first twenty to thirty minutes is to give the audience a plethora of suspects for the imminent killings that occur. This creates what I like to call a "whodunnit" type slasher that is designed to create suspense with regard to the identity of the killer. Therefore, theoretically speaking, the audience is supposed to be interested not only in the welfare of the characters but also in the identity of the killer. I think this was a good idea for this particular flick because the killing scenes are not particularly good in this movie although there is some blood. The bear suit idea is creative and weapon is somewhat creative but largely ineffective at producing horror except from the standpoint of protecting the killer's identity.

After the first twenty to thirty minutes, we get our first couple of kills, one of which occurs at the time of a party which also serves to develop the characters and plot of this slasher. At this point, the audience learns that a scavenger hunt for a sorority is about to take place, and this is where the lion's share of the movie and subsequent killings will take place. Hence, the name "Girls Night Out".

Aside from Hal Holbrook, the acting is actually not very good at all and does a poor job of developing characters, theme and the plot, but it is adequate and acceptable for this type of flick. Witht that being said, the lack of good acting does hurt this movie and the execution of the plot suffers as a result. In this respect, "Girls Night Out" is definitely inferior to many other slasher flicks from the 1980s that do have good acting like "He Knows You're Alone", "The Funhouse" (not a pure "slasher", but in the same mold), and the "Friday the 13th" movies. The result in "Girls Night Out" is a rather thinly developed plot that causes the viewer to become frustrated and bored, especially in the beginning. Still, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what it going on. When the killings begin to take place, the movie gets more interesting.

Another criticism of "Girls Night Out" is that it ends rather abruptly although with an interesting twist to it. On the positive side, "Girls Night Out" sports that 80s slasher and low budget feel (which I love) along with a decent "whodunnit" mystery, and some rather pedestrian kill scenes which really are not that bad.

While "Girls Night Out" is definitely nothing special, I must confess that I like this movie more than I should. If you are a true fan of slasher flicks, you will want to pick this one up to add to your collection. Again, it is not the best movie in the world, but it is somewhat entertaing and pretty much accomplishes what it sets out to do, albeit a bit shaky in its execution. With that being said, this movie is rather low on scares, lacks atmosphere for much of the movie, and is on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to slasher flicks. Just to give the reader an ideal, on the slasher spectrum, "Girls Night Out" is better than the more popularly known "Prom Night" and a little better than "Terror Train" (both starring Jamie Lee Curtis), probably about the same as "Happy Birthday To Me", and no where near as good as "He Knows You're Alone", "My Bloody Valentine" and "The Burning", just to name a few.

As a final note, I think it should be noted that this particular DVD version of "Girls Night Out" is not the best of quality from a picture standpoint, but it is the best that is available to my knowledge.

This is something else to say the very least. I have a soft spot for this film. This was made about the same time as Nightmare On Elm Street and the killer here dons the outfit of the camous mascot (a bear) and creates a "knives for fingers" killin' glove. Faster Teddy Ruxpin Kill Kill. A must see with Hal Holbrook stumbling around the campus tryin' stop the madness. We got to close the sororities and keep the beaches safe...just kidding.

Girls Nite Out is a whodunit slasher flick, just as many horror flicks of that time were,and it has the typical stalk and kill scenes and has great murder sequences. Has a huge twist at the end as to who the killer is and many suspensful moments in between. There are better slasher films (such as Prom Night and The Burning) and yet there are much much worse( THe Majorettes, and the Forest) so Girls Nite Out is not that bad compared to many and stands among some of the above average as being well made, well directed, ( for it has great atmosphere and lighting) and cool death scenes, some even pre-date nightmare on elm street with the four bladed claw!!! Overall a very entertaining and standard slasher flick and is a must buy for slasher fans!

Ya know, I gotta say I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, though I'm not so sure I should have. I realize it's second rate slasher fare, but something about it just tickled me pink.
Yup, it's a slasher, so it's about a bunch of female college students getting systematically slaughtered on the night of the annual college scavenger hunt. Before and during the hunt, we're treated to a heavy helping of student tomfoolery and relationship dramas with all the characters. I suppose this is to help establish motives for possible suspects. The killer carries out his duties in the school basketball team's mascot bear costume. The killer is also equipped with a handmade claw apparatus made of knives, literally giving the costume a bear claw. And this predates Nightmare on Elm Street by two years! During the murders, the killer likes to mutter, "whore" and "slut" while carrying out the carnage. Not a ton of gore on display here, but enough to get by.
The great Hal Holbrook is also here as head of campus security, though I'm not sure how he got duped into this film. It's nice to see him though.
Lots of bad acting, Lovin' Spoonfull songs and a comical twist ending make this more entertaining than it probably should be.
Extras on the disc are a short interview with Julia Montgomery(still looking hot, cougarish!) and a handful of trailers. Not a bad deal considering the price.

Not your typical campus-set slasher from the 80s in which a college scavenger hunt turns bloody when the contestants get killed one by one by a murderer in a bear costume (!) with knives as his fingers.
Although Girls nite out (or the Scaremaker as it was originally called) has all the usual ingredients of a good old fun stalk 'n' slash movie, the makers did try to do something new with the material.
Over the years we all had our share of masked psychopaths but a bear costume? And while at first the school's furry mascotte evokes some giggles, when the murders actually begin it becomes a little more creepy.
Because the action is set to a "golden oldies" weekend, there are a lot of 60s/70s rocksongs on the soundtrack and they are a welcome change from all the terrible 80s groups we usually have to endure in these kind of movies.
In contrast to other slasher movies of this period there isn't even a final girl!
So is it any good? Well, i guess if you are a devoted slasher fan and you are in a good (read forgiving) mood then you'll probably like it and you'll be able to oversee its shortcomings ( too many silly characters, somewhat lacking in suspense....etc.) I unashamedly like Girls nite out. At display here are a bunch of mostly sympathetic teens, the movie benefits from an above average cast (serious actor Hal Holbrook as the camp guard especially lends the movie some class) and it has a genuine dreadlike atmosphere only those 80s slasher seem to know how to evoke. Avoiding the usual battle between the final girl and the killer but instead opting for a more subtle "sleepaway camp"-like final moment evoke a legitamate chill.

Girls Nite Out (Robert Deubel, 1984)

What was it, exactly, about low-budget mid-eighties slasher films? While you occasionally had an amusing and clever one (the highly underrated April Fools' Day, from 1985, stands out in my mind in this regard), by 1984 we were reduced to garbage like, well, this, a slasher film whose first forty-five minutes are some of the least bloody in all of cinema, unless you've spent that time doing something more productive than watching this movie, like amputating your fingers with a butter knife.

The plot concerns a rural Ohio college's scavenger hunt (though you won't find that out until after a long, boring section of film about the big game and its aftermath that, I assume, was meant to be character development. The problem is, folks, you can only put so much paint on cardboard before it gets soggy) and a serial killer in a bear suit (yes, a bear suit) who's hunting coeds while they're hunting useless gewgaws. Perhaps the scariest thing about this movie-- unless the idea of someone who is, yes, in a bear suit, with knives substituting for the claws (do you think someone had seen Nightmare on Elm Street a few times?), unduly distresses you-- is that they somehow managed to get Hal Holbrook to play the town sheriff. (It may have had something to do with the fact that Holbrook's son David started his short career with this film. Between this and Creepshow 2 the next year, the kid never had a chance.)

Ludicrous is the only word I can come up with to describe this. I'm not sure even watching it in a profoundly altered state would help, but hey, you might as well try. *