(University/Hazing/House/Family/Slasher) 6******skulls

*Blood* *Violent* *Strong Language* *No Nudity* *Sexual Situations* *Gory*

Director.........Tom DeSimone (The Concrete Jungle, Reform School Girls)

Screenplay...Randolph Feldman

Music............Dan Wyman

Producer.......Irwin Yablans & Bruce Cohn Curtis

Executive Producer......

Special Effects Make-up by Kenneth Horn & Tom Schwartz

Dramatis Personae

Marti................Linda Blair (The Exorcist, Summer of Fear, Witchery)

Jeff..................Peter Barton (Friday the 13th-The Final Chapter)

Seth................Vincent Van Patten (Rock 'n' Roll High School)

Peter...............Kevin Brophy (Lucan-TV, Time Walker, The Delos Adventure)

Denise............Suki Goodwin

May.................Jenny Neumann (The Delos Adventure)

Scott...............Jimmy Sturtevant

Older Cop.......Hal Ralston

Younger Cop..Cary Fox

Driver.............Ronald Gans

Party Girl.......Gloria Heilman

Critique: The Garth family is really pretty scary, and the movie would have benefited by more of it. The attempts to build up suspense by long silent passages generally only accomplish deep lulls in the action. If this film does one thing best, it is to give the viewer an overwhelming sense of superiority at watching the stupid college students. Linda Blair and Peter Barton are the least sizzling couple to make out since Chris Atkins and Brooke Shields first put the nation to sleep in Blue Lagoon. Despite this and other disadvantages like the plodding pace and bad jokes, this isn't unwatchable for patient viewers.

Plot Summary: It's hell night for the university house pledges and the early evening activities consist of dancing drinking and leering. When things have come to a rolling boil at the frat house, a procession takes the pledges for a ride to a scary old house and slimy frat president Peter, who lives for Hell Night, shoots the lock off the gate. To be a member of alpha sigma ro one must spend a night at Garth Manor where Peter tells his audience of frat idiots the sad tale of the life and death of the mansions last inhabitants, the Garths. Twelve years ago Raymond Garth killed his simpleton wife Lillian, his unfortunate family and himself. Son Morris was a mongoloid, Suzanne was hideously deformed and crippled, little Margaret deaf, dumb and blind, and Andrew never spoke but made sounds like wild animals for 14 years. This unhappy troop lived a reclusive life until they were all slaughtered by Raymond before Andrew's eyes. No one knows what became of Andrew. When the police arrived there was a note detailing the deaths of the five Garths, but mysteriously only 3 bodies were found.

The pledges pair off very quickly into two obvious couples, the obnoxious one and the boring one. The obnoxious couple goes to bed and the bores, Marti and Jeff, tell each other their life stories. Meanwhile, more boring and obnoxious upper classmen are busy readying a hazing for the pledges. The tricks fall a bit flat, and the pledges are barely and only briefly scared, but the manor provides its own contributions to the hazing process, as it soon becomes apparent that either the hazing is going a bit too far or there are one or more homicidal maniacs in the mansion. The mansion, by the way, may be the best part of this movie. It's pretty scary. One of the stupid college students manages to avoid being minced by the remnant or remnants of the Garth family, but, in sound horror tradition, is unable to evoke much interest in the police. The action is punctuated by some extremely poor decision making such as following a monster down into dark, narrow passage ways rather than waiting for the police to arrive. Down in the caverns below the grounds, the poor decision makers find one of the Garth boys in his gruesome lair, and are forced one again to run off screaming. Seth, the escapee, comes back with a shot gun and starts blasting away at monsters to little effect. The