On/off documentary filmmaker and television
director Robert Deubel’s one-and-done forgotten but unearthed regional slasher
horror flick Girls Nite Out despite being the director’s only theatrical
feature is something of a homegrown horror gem recently rescued from near total
oblivion from Arrow Video.
Originally
released under the title The Scaremaker in 1982 before being rereleased
a year later in Detroit under the present title, the fledgling production
hastily produced by two Ohio based attorneys and shot on a real college campus
on weekends was released as a double bill alongside Pieces before
eventually languishing in VHS Hell until the mid-2000s when Media Blasters put
out a DVD edition. Now thanks to the
painstaking efforts of Arrow Video, the film has been meticulously restored
using a handful of surviving prints provided by the producers and while picture
quality isn’t stellar, it is the best we will ever possibly have with this obscure
little college campus slasher.
The
scavenger hunt itself, aided by a local DJ, leads the kids everywhere from
bedrooms to bathrooms and even old graveyards.
But then the film slowly takes a turn as a masked killer dressed in the
college football bear mascot costume armed with kitchen knives starts offing
students one by one, sparking the attention of campus cop Jim MacVey (screen
legend Hal Holbrook) who begins noticing a pattern between the killings. Eventually the film makes the transition all
the way from college party comedy to Friday the 13th with
some startlingly weird surprises on the horizon.
Reportedly shot in full in just three
days with Rutanya Alda to this day contending she remains unpaid for her work
on the film, Girls Nite Out is for all intents and purposes a nasty
little number that starts off innocent but then delivers some of the meaner
bloodier more misogynistic slasher kills of early 80s regional horror. With suspicion cast across many characters
including but not limited to an embittered young man who assaults and then
berates his girlfriend at a public setting, the film initially works to establish
the arena afoot before turning the killer loose in it while we constantly guess
who it might be.
While the film penned
by three screenwriters is a little bit of a tonal mess, it starts out being a
cacophony of hip needle drops including several tracks by The Lovin’ Spoonful,
Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum Company and Tommy James & The Shondells. Though no soundtrack album exists and no
credit is given to any of the ambient musical interludes for the horror scenes,
watching Girls Nite Out initially shapes up to have a hit album tie-in
to the movie.
Visually the film in Joe Rivers’ one
and only cinematographic effort is a tad rough around the edges compounded by
the fact that no pre-print materials could be located for this restoration and
several of the producer’s personal prints were scanned and reassembled to make
a new composite print. Also certain
sections required inserts from an SD tape master though the editing is seamless
so its hard to notice them without really looking. The finished print is scratchy, dark and at
times faded with scratches, dust and cigarette burns ever present. Still, it is better than not having the film
at all.
The cast of characters is your usual
roundup of horny teenagers wanting to get drunk, eat and get laid while Hal
Holbrook who shot all of his scenes in a day edited to look like he’s there for
the whole picture. Acting in this isn’t
necessarily the best but what how many regional exploitation slashers have
Oscar worthy performances? The main
reason to watch this are for the collegiate slasher thrills which do gradually
sneak up on you unsuspectingly. If you
think you know where and how all the actual slayings of this thing will go, you’re
very wrong.
--Andrew Kotwicki