Written by- Ruth Avergon Article by JUSTIN HUGH DICKINSON
NIGHT SCHOOL has some good things in it: The look of the killer with the all black motorcycle helmet and the atmosphere and suspense when then killer attacks/chases the girls. These are almost few and far between, because the story turns into more of a police procedural and somewhat of a domestic drama than a straight out slasher.
Perhaps the setting should have been limited to the college to give it more of a claustrophobic atmosphere. They could have had a WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? type of thing (not ripping it off of course). The focus could have been on the girls more, rather than the professor and cop.
Obviously, that is not the story that the filmmakers wanted to tell and instead we wound up with a movie that just rides that very fine line between “a driven policeman chasing down a psycho” and a true blue slasher film. Not the worst (except the very end), just disappointing. And in this instance it is a case of two great genres tastes not tasting great together.
Michael Callan plays Adrian Wilde, a photographer of models for men's magazines. He's is continually plagued by dreams of the girls that he has just film and the next day they turn up dead. His brother B.J. Wilde (James Stacy) has some anger issues and has recently left his family. Seymour Cassel plays Michael psychologist to whom he tells these coincindences to. These scenes are where Callan really overacts.
Despite the good cast and decent if sometimes melodramatic acting, this so called psycho/slasher has an insulting cheat of an ending when you discover who has been doing the killing. Some of the characters' traits go up and down; this way and that. The fault is most likely on the script. The production has the feel of a made for tv movie except when delving into the the sleazy sheen of the back alleys, prostitutes, and the mud wrestling scene with the one armed and legged James Stacy rolling around in the pit with Kathy Shower.
This film is not bloody for a slasher film. It plays more like a police procedural at times than a real psycho-thriller, with Cleavon Little (who deserved better parts) in a throwaway role as police chief in charge of the case and Pamela Hensley as Sgt. Fontain. The relationship between the two brothers Adrian and B.J. (James Stacy, who really did lose an arm and leg from a motorcycle accident in real life) has a few nice scenes. Joanna Petit as Michael's new girlfriend, Mindy Jordache, is fine as usual (but deserves better).
Even as a suspense film it doesn't work, because there really isn't any. Everything is telegraphed. It seems as if the director wanted to make a drama between two brothers and threw in a shoddy "whodunit". The thing about how they "cheat" the ending (which I won't give away) is that they could have fixed it so easily. It wouldn't have fixed the movie, but you would not have felt had. It's just lazy. Also appearing are: Robert Tessier, Misty Rowe, and Frances Bay. If you must see this, pick it up in one of those 50 movie packs from Mill Creek.
THE KILLING OF SATAN(1983, PHILIPPINES) a.k.a LUMABANKA, SATANAS
Dir. Efren C. Pinon
Written by: Joe Mari Avellana
A
RECOMMENDATION
By
JUSTIN HUGH DICKINSON
One of the more imaginative Filipino Action/Fantasy/Exploitation films out there concerns Lando, a simple, mild-mannered guy who
had been in prison for killing a man that threatened his village. Now raising a family, Lando is receiving messages in his dreams from his
Holy Man Uncle Miguel who, along with his followers, has dedicated his life to fight The Prince of Magic and Satan.
When three goons come into the village looking to kill Lando, they manage to shoot him, but they also inadvertently kill his young son.
While Lando is laid to rest in bed, a bullet wound in his head, miles away on another island, Uncle Miguel is lying in bed as well, meditating.
As he is doing this he mentally absorbs Lando's mortal wounds into his own head saving Lando in the process.
Lando is drawn to the island by the chanting of his Uncle's devout followers. He, his wife, and his daughter Louisa set forth across the
short distance of sea. Heavy, foreboding winds pick up out of nowhere, trying to impede their progress. They make it to the beach and are
met by a strange, mute child who leads them across rocky terrain. The top of a cliff explodes, showering boulders. The family takes cover.
When the dust clears and they come out, the child has vanished.
Lando and family are greeted at the village and he is told by Renzo (the second most powerful Magician in the village) that his Uncle has died from a bullet wound but he had not been shot.
Renzo shows Lando where his Uncle was buried at sea. Lando rows out there and stops, grasping his head in pain from some sort of psionic attack. He shakes it off and continues on. A piece of driftwood bumps the boat. He pushes it away. It floats back. When Lando reaches for it this time, a rotten, grey-skinned hand grabs his arm, and a decomposed corpse bursts out of the water and says in a horrifying voice, "I am your Uncle Miguel!" Then it disappears back into the water. It is a pretty jolting scene.
Renzo and Lando are still at the shore when the Prince of Magic and his underlings raid the village for girls. They use their hypno-wheel, magic hand blasts and psionic staring contests to take down the men and carry off the women including Louisa. Lando and Renzo enter they village while there are a few baddies left. Renzo tells Lando to use his hitherto unknown powers. Lando creates a swirling force field from his arm to deflect bullets as well as becoming invincible to the underlings' fisticuffs while his punches do damage them.
He also discovers he can use his newfound powers to heal the injuries his wife sustained when the village was attacked.
Now, Lando and Renzo must travel to where the Prince of Magic dwells and serves Satan to rescue Louisa who is being held captive in a cave in an electrified cage full of naked women. Lando fights off the Snake Man and lower henchmen of the cave and meets up with the Prince of Magic. He is overtaken before he can activate his powers and is thrown off a waterfall by the Minions.
Lando floats unconscious down a river until he reaches a riverbank where the little boy from earlier (Nino) is waiting. Nino leads him to a small, crumbling stone church where there is an old man (God ?) with long white hair and a beard. He gives Lando a magic staff that, along with Lando's own powers, will be able to destroy Satan.
With that, Lando treks back to the cave to fight the Prince of Magic, temptation used by Ava, the Sexy Snake Woman; and finally Satan himself, to save his daughter.
THE KILLING OF SATAN is one fun film. It is a horror cartoon come to life with sufficient f/x, goofy costumes, and some cool/surreal images i.e. the aforementioned corpse popping out of the water, clear waterfalls turning into blood, the pulsar shields and firing of magic energy from one's hands, and most notably the sequence where a character is completely rolled over by a boulder revealing his body to be a red, pulpy mess only for his head to go right on talking. With all this going on how could you not like this movie?
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