Movie star Lance Hayward used to be a big deal but after going missing for the last twenty years, people have moved on and his house which has lain abandoned for all that time is set to be demolished. So it is that some kids decide to party it up at his place before that happens. Soon enough though, they start to get killed off from who the audience is made to assume, is the missing Hayward thanks to some throwback clips from his ‘films’.

Terror Night is or was a little known film made in 1987 that never had a proper release until some twenty-odd years later. Despite sitting on a shelf and gathering a copious amount of dust, it is not clear as to the why of it but one can say that it is worth a look now that it has been released into the world. The abondoned house theme has been played up a million times and watching this, the audience will not be overtly frightened about any of it but it is novel in a way given how directors Nick Marino and the uncredited Andre de Toth and Fred Lincoln spliced in older silent movie footage to make for something slightly original, at least during those scenes where someone is about to die. The killings are quite gruesome in some instances, one person being chopped up while another dies by the sword. Another gets their head cut off while a spear is even used during one particular scene. There are no complaints about the way the kids and others are dispatched as those murders are perhaps the best thing in the entire affair and splicing it together with the old footage immediately lets the viewer know what is to come even if it spoils it just a little.

Also making this movie something of a curiosity is its cast as it features a number of notable names from the past, somewhat fitting given the killer is an old-timey movie star. Alan Hale, Aldo Ray, John Ireland and Cameron Mitchell all have bit parts, for whatever reason is unknown. Given the year the film was made, their asking price could not have been all that much and yet, given the probable budget of this picture, maybe it would not have mattered. Dan Haggerty, the one and only Grizzly Adams also pops his head in for a moment, the man instantly recognizable and more so than anyone else in the film so it is a bit of a shame that he was killed off quite promptly. As for the rest of the players, most were forgettable aside from scream queen Michelle Bauer who would bare it all for a few minutes, captivating the attention of most until soon enough, she too would be murdered.

Odd enough was the ending of the movie, where it went in a surprising direction when it really should have ended minutes earlier at the logical point. Suffice it to say, even with the creative choices that made it to print, Terror Night is a slasher that goes its own way. It manages to give those who are looking for the familiar enough to chew on and it tries to satisfy those horror aficinados who want something a little different just enough to keep them in their seats. On one hand, it is easy to see why this was shelved but given all the bad films that made it out into the world before this one finally saw the light of day, this one should have been given a chance.

2.5 out of 5