One Dark Night - 1983

Reviewed by Sammi



Year: 1983

Director: Tom McLoughlin

Starring: Meg Tilly, Elizabeth Daily, Adam West

Synopsis: I'll try to be as concise as I can. A famed occultist dies mysteriously and his corpse is laid to rest in the local mausoleum. His daughter finds out he was a psychic vampire and was draining energy from teenage girls that he was abducting.
Meanwhile, Julie is trying to become a "Sister" (a trio of popular girls in school who all wear matching purple jackets). Carol, leader of the sisters, wants Julie to fail because Julie is dating her ex, Steve. So, she decides that Julie's final test is to spend a night in, of all places, the mausoleum!!
So, Julie gets locked in the mausoleum and takes what she thinks is sleeping pills, but is actually Demerol. Carol and Kitty sneak into the mausoleum to scare her. What none of them realize is that the occultist isn't quite ready to lay down yet...

Screens:








Review: This was a fun little film. I didn't notice 98 minutes pass, which is always a plus. There were definitely some drawbacks, though. The animated dead looked like dolls being pushed around, there was practically no gore, except for a neat effect at the climax, and it almost seemed like too much plot. Fortunately, McLoughlin is a solid writer/director and he's able to hold it all together.
The acting is some of the best you can get in a low budget film from the 80's. Seriously...Adam West, Meg Tilly, and Elizabeth Daily? I have nothing more to say about that.
This is basically a ghost story. McLoughlin loves gothic horror, this much is obvious. Between this and "Jason Lives", he's gone out of his way to show the world this very fact. The downside is, the corpses...did they all have to look like they were just being hung from wires or stuck on poles? The end was pretty ridiculous, as well, but that's fine. I didn't realize it until later. At the time it made sense, I guess.
You do get to see a girl get killed by being smothered with corpses, though. That scene, alone, is worth watching the film. How many times do you get to see a girl die because corpses keep falling on her? Not often enough.
I'm going to say, if you can find a copy used, or for rent somewhere, pick it up. I don't think it's worth paying full price for new, though. This feels like a "watch once every year or two" type of film. You may want to see it more than once, but it's too story driven to be just thrown in whenever you need something on screen.

Score: 5.0/11

Trivia: Tom McLoughlin's first film, he later wrote and directed "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" as well as a number of episodes of both "Freddy's Nightmares" and "Friday the 13th: The Series".
Elizabeth Daily went on to play Dottie in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and was the voice of Mrs. Incredible in "The Incredibles". Horror fans may also remember her as Lana from "Bad Dreams".
Meg Tilly's following role was Mary Loomis in "Psycho 2".

Availability: Amazon has used and new copies starting at $10.