David likes to play football and has just gotten himself a scholarship to play college ball. The one thing he does not like is his overbearing parents. If they would just lay off, maybe he could enjoy the things he does. To celebrate his achievements, his friends throw him a party while his parents are out, not knowing that there are three escaped convicts hiding out in the basement. Eventually, people start getting killed and not all of those bodies are from the men who just so happen to be on the run. There is more than one killer and David is definitely going to have his hands full if he intends on making it through the night.

Released in 1987, Night Screams is both unoriginal and full of cliches yet also a lot of fun and a good way to waste away an hour and a half. One might wonder how it can be both and that is the simple fact that it was made decently by director Allen Plone who filled it with B actors who would end up doing a decent job despite some clunky dialogue and even better, some great kills. This alone would set it apart from many other slashers which tended to get lazy by the end of the decade and while not overly gory, a couple of the scenes would tend to get slightly brutal. One of those would involve the killings of some innocent people at a diner by the escaped prisoners and the other, the grilling of a man’s face. Both would be disturbing for different reasons but no less cold-blooded. Other kills would involve a stabbing through the neck, another man strangled, a woman electrocuted, an axe to the head of another unfortunate and of course, nothing would be complete without a fire poker through the chest.

Perhaps the worst thing about this film which is not that bad at all is that one can immediately guess who the killer will be, not that the makers of this movie fail to supply a red herring or two. There is a moment where a person might waiver in their conviction as another is painted as the murderer, but that happens in many a movie and as usual, one’s first instinct is usually correct. There is always the chance to be proven wrong which is why the slasher genre can be so much fun and here, there is no shortage of suspects. The reveal would be slightly disappointing as it was seen coming a mile away but everything else in this picture more than made up for it.

There is a bit of strangeness to this movie as some might notice as director Allen Plone would lift some nudity from another film, a baffling decision though not one that would hurt the ongoing proceedings in any way, it simply did not make sense. As for the rest, it would turn out to be a decent yarn when all was said and done. There was enough suspense to keep one hooked despite the overall familiarity to other movies and the kills were bloody and different than the norm one would usually see in a film such as this. As it is, Night Screams worked more than it did not and that is a good thing.

3 out of 5