Taglines: A lesson in terror.
Night School movie storyline. At the Jack-n-Jill Daycare Center, teachers aide Anne Barron (Meb Boden) is saying goodnight to the young child Lisa who gets picked up by her mother. Anne sits alone on the merry-go-round when a person wearing all black leather with a black motorcycle helmet, rides up on a motorcycle to the daycare center. After looking around and seeing that Anne is alone, the black-clad person accosts Anne by spinning the merry-go-around and holds out a kukri knife at Anne as she passes, until finally the blade is lifted and Anne screams.
The next morning, Boston Police Lieutenant Judd Austin (Leonard Mann) is with his girlfriend Stevie (Margo Skinner) on his day off, but his partner Taj (Joseph R. Sicari) calls him and Judd leaves to go to his “lousy job”. He arrives at the scene of the crime and is told by the coroner that the murder of Anne Barron is similar to an earlier one the previous month where a young woman was decapitated. Judd is shown Anne’s severed head, resting in a nearby bucket of water. The previous victim’s head was found in a lake. The director of the daycare center, Miss Armand, tells the cops that Anne attended evening classes at Wendell College, a local girls school. Judd sets off to try to find a meaning in the decapitated heads in the water.
Judd goes to the school and stands in the back of Professor Millett’s (Drew Snyder) anthropology class as the teacher is finishing a lecture. When the class is dismissed, Judd approaches Millett to ask him questions about Anne, and Millett says that his student Kim Morrison (Elizabeth Barnitz) was Anne’s friend. Kim is clearly distraught when she learns about Anne’s murder and is consoled by Millett. Eleanor (Rachel Ward), a British exchange student at the college, walks in and tells Millett that she has finished his notes. Kim tells Judd that Anne had a boyfriend but she would not tell her who it was.
That evening, Eleanor goes to the Lamplight Restaurant near the college for some coffee where the weird busboy Gus (Nicolas Cairis) stares at her. Carol (Karen McDonald) a middle-aged waitress, asks Eleanor if she is in Millett’s class and if the teacher “fools around”. Eleanor evades talking about Professor Millett and she instead pays for her coffee and leaves. Eleanor is walking home alone when she is frightened by the shadowing Gus who follows her.
She runs and gets inside a row house and locks the doors. Eleanor begins to take a shower when someone begins rigging the front doorbell, but Eleanor doesn’t hear the bell. A few minutes later, a man walks in through the back door and walks upstairs to the bathroom where Eleanor is scared by Millett. The two of them kiss and then enjoy themselves in the shower as the professor paints his student’s nude body. It is clear that Eleanor and Millett are lovers and live together in the professor’s house.
The next day, Kim is in scuba gear at the local aquarium feeding fish and turtles as people watch through the aquarium glass. The girl gets out of the water and goes to the locker room to take off her scuba diving suit when the black helmeted killer jumps out of a locker and slashes her several times with his kukri until he finally beheads her and drops her severed head into the tank so the people can see.
After leaving the latest crime scene, Judd goes to see Millett at his home where Eleanor is there, saying that she is the professor’s live-in “research assistant”. Judd goes to the university where he finds Millett in his office to question him about the latest beheading murder, whom was another one of his students he questioned the previous day.
Millett says that the only animal that kills for pleasure is man. Judd tells Millett that Kim used to be his student and asks Millett if he had an affair with Kim or any other student. The teacher denies that he is having affairs with any of his female students as well as being responsible for the murders. With no evidence to arrest him, Judd leaves but he tells Millett: “People don’t go out and kill just for the hell of it. There’s always a reason.”
After Judd leaves, Millett meets with a tearful Eleanor where she tells him about Judd visiting her at the house earlier and that he thinks that Millett is responsible for the murders. Millett again denies that he’s responsible for the killings and Eleanor seems to believe him. Eleanor tells Millett that she loves him and will do anything for him, but there is always another person.
Night School (also known as Terror Eyes in the United Kingdom) is a 1981 American thriller slasher film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Rachel Ward, in her film debut, Leonard Mann, and Drew Snyder. The plot revolves around a series of brutal decapitation murders in Boston, Massachusetts. Alfred Sole was the film’s original director, but he passed on the project. Hughes was ultimately brought in to direct, and Night School was his final film. The music score was composed by Brad Fiedel.
Night School premiered at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in 1981. It was released theatrically in the United States on September 11, 1981, and was panned by critics upon release. In England, it became a video nasty. The film has developed a small cult following among slasher fans, and was given its first DVD release by Warner Archive with a remastered transfer in 2011.
Night School (1981)
Directed by: Ken Hughes
Starring: Rachel Ward, Leonard Mann, Drew Snyder, Joseph R. Sicari, Nicholas Cairis, Karen MacDonald, Annette Miller, Bill McCann, Margo Skinner, Kevin Fennessy, Elizabeth Barnitz
Screenplay by: Ruth Avergon
Production Design by: William De Seta
Cinematography by: Mark Irwin
Film Editing by: Robert Reitano
Makeup Department: Rita Ogden
Music by: Brad Fiedel
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: September 11, 1981 (United States)
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