A group of rich college brats conspire to play a prank on Jimmy Fisher,the school nerd.But when Jimmy ends up unconscious,the co-eds leave him and head out to a party.What they don't realize is that when Jimmy wakes up the evil inside of him triggers and he sets out for revenge as he offs his tormentors in some very original ways:exploding cigarettes,beer bottles,mops,spiked frat paddles and more.It's impossible to take "Evil Night" seriously.The film is horrible in almost every aspect but it certainly delivers the gore.The killer even has telekinetic powers.The plot rips-off "Slaughter High" adding more gore and insanity.The acting is spectacularly bad and several scenes drag without mercy,but if you are a fan of zero-budget slasher flicks give "Evil Night" a chance.The clown costume is pretty creepy and I must admit that I enjoyed metal soundtrack.Meshuggah is always fine to my ears.4 out of 10.
6 Reviews
Another killer clown in a gory Slaughter High rip-off....
LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez15 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
It's always been intriguing for me how a clown can be one part children's entertainer and one part icon of horror. A circus clown is family entertainment personified, but would you feel comfortable sharing a dimly lighted alleyway with him in the early hours of the morning? That instantly recognisable figure has been used throughout the slasher genre almost since its birth. Rumour has it that Michael Myers would have worn clown attire had John Carpenter not found that iconic Shatner mask. It's interesting how we humans can take the comforts of our youth and twist them into the depths of horrific imagery.
Evil Night continues the trend set way back in the annals of slasher history, by giving its bogeyman the guise of a circus jester. Although unoriginal, movies such as the excellent House on Sorority Row and Stephen King's IT have proved that if used correctly, a clown can successively invade your innermost fears and mix the comforts of childhood serenity with the malevolence of a psychopathic imposter.
Todd Jason Cook's slasher opus treads the familiar territory of a bullied school boy that seeks revenge on those who have taunted him. In the opening we get to meet Jimmy Fisher (Spencer Trask), a high school geek that has a crush on the girlfriend of one of the school's most popular rebels. Jimmy has been subjected to various humiliating taunts by the gang of bullies, so he has lost faith in the humanity of his classmates. However he is flattered and shocked when lead bully Peter (Joseph Pautinos) invites him to a party. Foolishly, Jimmy accepts the invitation and if you haven't already guessed, it turns out to be yet another vicious prank. Humiliated and left unconscious in his boxer shorts, Jimmy finally loses his cool and sets out to seek revenge on those who have taunted him.....
OK so first things first, Evil Night was originally released DTV in 1992 and pretty much vanished in to obscurity almost immediately. After the popularity of the DVD phenomenon, slasher director Todd Cook (Night of the Clown/Demon Dolls) gave his movie a second shot at recognition on a budget disk, which can be picked up from Amazon at an agreeable price. As I have stated previously in my review list, I am all for young and ambitious directors having a crack at making their own independent features. The beauty of the slasher genre is the fact that you don't need a six figure budget to make a profitable schlockbuster. But keeping that in mind, the cast and crew behind the production of this rancid entry lacked the one key criterion that can make or break an ambitious offering talent.
If you are kind enough to forgive the camcorder like quality of the picture or you are forgiving enough to accept the rotten Thrash Metal soundtrack; then you will still struggle to understand how a movie can be produced without a logical concept. In fact the scenario seems to take place in a dimension where logic is an uncommon word. I searched and I searched, but all I uncovered was a screenplay that works along the lines of, 'unknown guy walks in front of the camera, gets killed and then the scene fades to black'. Forget character development, because it's simply non-existent. Cast members appear without rhyme or reason, like products from a production line to the slaughter; and despite some impressive gore effects, Evil Night rapidly loses its momentum.
I have noticed that I am the only person to post a review here, which is probably because watching Evil Night is almost an impossible mission. The film lacks even the slightest of structures and there's no pay-off in viewing the plot through to its conclusion. The cast sound like they're reading their lines from The New York Times and the most memorable slice of dialogue spoken throughout the runtime is, "Eric are you taking a dump again?" The whole movie looks to have been edited by a blind man with a blunt razor-blade and the lighting for the night scenes seems to have been provided by a pencil-sized torch.
On the plus side, there are a few imaginative gore effects and kudos to Clark for the creepy killer costume. However, his attempt to build a competitive Slaughter High imitation falls drastically short and Evil Night in all fairness cannot even lace the boots of the average aforementioned slasher hit. Bad, bad, bad and not in a good way, Evil Night is destined for obscurity once again....
Evil Night continues the trend set way back in the annals of slasher history, by giving its bogeyman the guise of a circus jester. Although unoriginal, movies such as the excellent House on Sorority Row and Stephen King's IT have proved that if used correctly, a clown can successively invade your innermost fears and mix the comforts of childhood serenity with the malevolence of a psychopathic imposter.
Todd Jason Cook's slasher opus treads the familiar territory of a bullied school boy that seeks revenge on those who have taunted him. In the opening we get to meet Jimmy Fisher (Spencer Trask), a high school geek that has a crush on the girlfriend of one of the school's most popular rebels. Jimmy has been subjected to various humiliating taunts by the gang of bullies, so he has lost faith in the humanity of his classmates. However he is flattered and shocked when lead bully Peter (Joseph Pautinos) invites him to a party. Foolishly, Jimmy accepts the invitation and if you haven't already guessed, it turns out to be yet another vicious prank. Humiliated and left unconscious in his boxer shorts, Jimmy finally loses his cool and sets out to seek revenge on those who have taunted him.....
OK so first things first, Evil Night was originally released DTV in 1992 and pretty much vanished in to obscurity almost immediately. After the popularity of the DVD phenomenon, slasher director Todd Cook (Night of the Clown/Demon Dolls) gave his movie a second shot at recognition on a budget disk, which can be picked up from Amazon at an agreeable price. As I have stated previously in my review list, I am all for young and ambitious directors having a crack at making their own independent features. The beauty of the slasher genre is the fact that you don't need a six figure budget to make a profitable schlockbuster. But keeping that in mind, the cast and crew behind the production of this rancid entry lacked the one key criterion that can make or break an ambitious offering talent.
If you are kind enough to forgive the camcorder like quality of the picture or you are forgiving enough to accept the rotten Thrash Metal soundtrack; then you will still struggle to understand how a movie can be produced without a logical concept. In fact the scenario seems to take place in a dimension where logic is an uncommon word. I searched and I searched, but all I uncovered was a screenplay that works along the lines of, 'unknown guy walks in front of the camera, gets killed and then the scene fades to black'. Forget character development, because it's simply non-existent. Cast members appear without rhyme or reason, like products from a production line to the slaughter; and despite some impressive gore effects, Evil Night rapidly loses its momentum.
I have noticed that I am the only person to post a review here, which is probably because watching Evil Night is almost an impossible mission. The film lacks even the slightest of structures and there's no pay-off in viewing the plot through to its conclusion. The cast sound like they're reading their lines from The New York Times and the most memorable slice of dialogue spoken throughout the runtime is, "Eric are you taking a dump again?" The whole movie looks to have been edited by a blind man with a blunt razor-blade and the lighting for the night scenes seems to have been provided by a pencil-sized torch.
On the plus side, there are a few imaginative gore effects and kudos to Clark for the creepy killer costume. However, his attempt to build a competitive Slaughter High imitation falls drastically short and Evil Night in all fairness cannot even lace the boots of the average aforementioned slasher hit. Bad, bad, bad and not in a good way, Evil Night is destined for obscurity once again....
Evil Crap...
Deliberate_Stranger21 October 2010
I bought 'Evil Night' on DVD released some time ago by the director's company. First of all I have to warn everyone who would possibly think about buying it. Be prepared for worst transfer you have ever seen and I mean it! I have no problem with dvds with good VHS quality,not everything has to be remastered and as a VHS collector I know not everything is perfect, but image in 'Evil Night' is terrible and few times it 'jumps' strong like it would be heavily used rental tape. I know that director of the movie probably hadn't any better version but releasing it on DVD and charging around 15usd for a copy is just unfair to the audience.
About the movie - It's beyond bad. I know it was made for joke but for God's sake it should stay as an amateur effort in director's cellar. Plot is very simple. Class nerd drinks serum and after that he changes into different person to kill people who tortured him in school. What can I say - I saw many movies like that and none of them were so bad. It feel like a copy of forgotten flick called 'Horror High'(aka 'Twisted Brain) which was recently released by Code Red DVD. I didn't liked 'Horror High' much, but comparing with 'Evil Night' it is truly masterpiece. There is no gore because there was no money and everything looks terrible. Don't believe it was made for 20k. It's impossible. One thousand dollars maximum and even this is too much! I don't feel any happiness giving it 1 but truly this is all what this piece of crap deserves. Do yourself a favor and avoid it at any costs.
About the movie - It's beyond bad. I know it was made for joke but for God's sake it should stay as an amateur effort in director's cellar. Plot is very simple. Class nerd drinks serum and after that he changes into different person to kill people who tortured him in school. What can I say - I saw many movies like that and none of them were so bad. It feel like a copy of forgotten flick called 'Horror High'(aka 'Twisted Brain) which was recently released by Code Red DVD. I didn't liked 'Horror High' much, but comparing with 'Evil Night' it is truly masterpiece. There is no gore because there was no money and everything looks terrible. Don't believe it was made for 20k. It's impossible. One thousand dollars maximum and even this is too much! I don't feel any happiness giving it 1 but truly this is all what this piece of crap deserves. Do yourself a favor and avoid it at any costs.
Worse even than Camp Blood
Leofwine_draca22 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
EVIL NIGHT is a cheap and grubby slasher movie with touches of supernatural horror. The main thing working against it is that it was shot on the cheapest video stock imaginable, which means that the whole thing has the lousy look of a home movie; it's very nearly unwatchable in terms of quality. The story is nothing new, about a bullied kid getting revenge on the bullies, and most of the running time consists of a guy in a clown mask prowling around. It's worse even than CAMP BLOOD, and the only enjoyment coming from it is to experience a time capsule of early '90s fashions and music.
Campy low budget horror fun!
galaxyfunstuff16 January 2008
I am a big fan of independent movies. While this one plays like an imitation of all the "nerd gets revenge" horror movies, it still manages some very original kill scenes, decent acting, and a fun story line.
What sets Evil Night apart from the rest is the nerd's science genius which he uses to create a potion that gives him telekinesis which he uses to get revenge on those who wronged him.
This appears to be Todd Cook's first movie. You can tell by quality alone because it is not as clean as his later efforts. Some of the scenes are very dark and the film is quite grainy as a result. I agree that it has good gore effects (also done by Cook). The new DVD release seems to have generated a newfound success and even found distribution by a company called Screamtime Films (which hosts other movies directed by Todd Cook).
Evil Night was obviously made as a fun, campy style movie with black humor and it succeeds because on the surface it isn't made to be taken seriously, like any horror movie.
With that in mind, this film is a fun way to kill 90 minutes and it's a definite tribute to the glorious 80's slasher boom!
What sets Evil Night apart from the rest is the nerd's science genius which he uses to create a potion that gives him telekinesis which he uses to get revenge on those who wronged him.
This appears to be Todd Cook's first movie. You can tell by quality alone because it is not as clean as his later efforts. Some of the scenes are very dark and the film is quite grainy as a result. I agree that it has good gore effects (also done by Cook). The new DVD release seems to have generated a newfound success and even found distribution by a company called Screamtime Films (which hosts other movies directed by Todd Cook).
Evil Night was obviously made as a fun, campy style movie with black humor and it succeeds because on the surface it isn't made to be taken seriously, like any horror movie.
With that in mind, this film is a fun way to kill 90 minutes and it's a definite tribute to the glorious 80's slasher boom!
Campy SOV horror Awesomeness!
socialxcancer31 May 2022
I really enjoy this movie. The plot is cool, the music is awesome. The kill scenes are great. And personally I think all the actors did a great job. A real fun movie with good amount of humor and blood. I Enjoy Todd Jason Cooks Directing and acting very much!. A very underrated guy. I would recommend this to anybody who likes SOV horror Fun!
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