[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

NIGHT SCHOOL - Another slasher. This time the killer has a gimmick - they're into biker gear and collecting heads. If nothing else, you should stick it to the end to hear their motive, it's hilarious. 'Night School' takes a fairly by-the-numbers approach to what was a tired formula even by 1981, weaving a police procedural and a subplot about a lecturer's many affairs around a set of slightly anaemic kills. It has a few cards up its sleeve. The gore may be lacking, but there's a theatricality to the way some of the kills are set up that brings the occasional note of strangeness, with odd scenes such as the roundabout head chop, or the one where a severed head floats slowly to the bottom of the tank in a darkened aquarium. The presence of people like Rachel Ward lends an air of fake class, and there's something really nice about the overall look, wintry browns framing twisted trees and Hitchcockian staircases. If you want a full throttle slasher look somewhere else, but this is a competent murder mystery that hides its derivative nature and basic silliness behind a few tasteful moves.

It was directed bu Ken Hughes, who also helmed the 1967 version of 'Casino Royale', 'Chitty Chitty bang Bang' and... um... 'Sextette'!