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One Dark Night (1982) - Blu-ray Review

4 beers

Purple satin jackets and the dead walk again and again and again in this genre gem from director Tom McLoughlin (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and Sometimes They Come Back).  One Dark Night is given a brand new lease on life with this blu-ray release from Code Red.  It doesn’t disappoint either.  Ripe with classic 1980’s nods and video game beeps, this is indeed a neglected title that any fan of horror should arm their collection with.

And it all centers around one girl’s desire to join a club called the Sisters.  She wants to be a normal problem-causing teenager and not the wholesome goodie-goodie type she’s been labeled as.  This is the plight of new pledge Julie (Meg Tilly) when snobbishly tasked by Carol (Robin Evans), Leslie (Elizabeth Daily), and Kitty (Leslie Speights) to stay overnight in a mausoleum that houses a psychic vampire, capable of reanimating corpses even after his sudden passing.

We get a sneak peak of his powers after the discovery of his cold and dead body at the beginning of the movie.  Found alongside a pile of dead women, Russian occultist Karl Raymarseivich Raymar’s body actually emits sparks from his fingertips when loaded onto a gurney.   Off to the morgue with you!  His estranged daughter Olivia McKenna (Melissa Newman) and her husband Allan (Adam West) are left in the dark concerning his strange powers.   Only writer Samuel Dockstader (Donald Hotton) knows enough to try and clue them in on Raymar’s abilities, but it is too late. 

And the mausoleum, big and cold, is where the two storylines collide.  Poor Julie.  She has no idea that her willingness to be a part of the Sisters, who are led by a girl that’s merely jealous, will bring her a front row seat to a murderous madness most illuminating as the psychic vampire, now laid to rest within the mausoleum walls, decides to slide right out, along with an army of the undead.

Even Julie’s boyfriend, Steve (David Mason Daniels) who used to go bump in the night with Carol, is powerless to hold back the pulsating power of the electrified undead.  The creepy flick is filled with enough spooky images – even if some are staged by the Sisters – to be a memorable midnight movie.  And when the shit REALLY hits the fan, well, all bets are off for anybody’s safety.  Even the toothbrush sucking Kitty, who seems to tire of the anti-Julie antics fairly quickly, has little chance of surviving the night.

McLoughlin and co-writer Michael Hawes, after getting backing by a Mormon-based company, knew they couldn’t pull off an R-rating.  Gone are the boobs, the butts, and the beer.  The church’s involvement meant some concessions would have to be made.  What they did do was ground the picture in the mausoleum and surround it with a Roger Corman-esque thriller that is less heavy on exploitation but successfully doubles down on atmosphere in order to creep audiences out.  It works.

I had a lot of fun returning to the world of this quiet thriller.  Hell, some of the scenes still managed to make me jump.  I mean, it’s not everyday that you see a fully formed spectral image come charging at you.  The movie is also full of some of my favorite cuts, the jump to an Atari screen being at the very top.  It’s suspenseful and surprisingly energetic, even if it takes a bit longer to get going.  Plus, there’s Elizabeth Daily and, while she might disappear from the movie after quitting the Sisters, she remains my first celebrity crush.

Thanks to Code Red, One Dark Night just got a little longer.

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One Dark Night (1982) - Blu-ray Review

MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime:
89 mins
Director
: Tom McLoughlin
Writer:
Tom McLoughlin
Cast:
Meg Tilly, Melissa Newman, Robin Evans
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
A night to remember - until the day until you die!
Memorable Movie Quote: "I wanna get there before it closes, nerdle brain!"
Theatrical Distributor:
Comworld Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date:
February, 1983
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
August 1, 2017
Synopsis: World famous psychic Raymar is found dead – along with several victims of his bizarre experiments. On the same day his body is interred in a mausoleum, high schooler Julie Wells (Meg Tilly, Psycho 2, The Big Chill, Agnes Of God) agrees to spend the night there all alone – as part of a hazing to join the clique, the Sisters (Robin Evans, Leslie Speights and E.G Daily, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Bad Dreams).

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

One Dark Night (1982) - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Code Red DVD
Available on Blu-ray
- Augsut 1, 2017
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: None
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc;single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Code Red has simply outdone itself with the blu-ray release of this film.  With an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the new 1080p MPEG-4 AVC upgrade of One Dark Night is pretty appealing.  The film has never looked as crisp and clean as it does here.  Blues are steadier and the location is detailed.  Shadows a bit more engaged and the film just looks a bit more professional than remembered.  Thanks to Code Red, the title certainly looks better than it ever did on previous releases.  Cleaner and with a bit more life, the audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • There are two commentaries attached to this new release.  The first features director Tom McLoughlin and co-writer Michael Hawes.  The second one features McLoughlin and producer Michael Schroeder.

Special Features:

Now, this is what I am talking about.  Loaded with new interviews from the cast and crew, there’s simply no way to watch the supplemental items and walk away without a new appreciation for the film.  Complete with some very cool behind the scenes bits from the making of the movie, this release from Code Red is sure to please fans of the movie, as well as recruit some new ones.

  • Workprint (90 min)
  • Behind the Scenes (39 min)
  • Tom McLoughlin Interview (16 min)
  • Elizabeth Daily Interview (32 min)
  • Michael Schroeder Interview (15 min)
  • Cinematographer Hal Trussel Interview (18 min)
  • Actress Nancy McLoughlin Interview (11 min)
  • Craig Stearns Interview (11 min)
  • Paul Clemens Interview (17: min)
  • Scrapbook (3 min)
  • Theatrical Trailer

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One Dark Night (1982) - Blu-ray Review

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