I have seen so many flicks coming out the hands of The Asylum and the latest were full of cheap CGI. Luckily, this one doesn't has any CGI. The effects used are done on-camera. So far so good, but there are still some problems. The story itself is a pure rip-off of Halloween (1978). A killer returns to town to do some killings on Halloween night. But just have a look toward the killer. He's a mixture between, Jason (Friday the 13th) and Michael (Halloween). But it's so easy to see that the burned face is just a mask. So on part of the make-up it's rather ridiculous. But what did surprise me for a Asylum flick is that it do has some gory shots with intestines being teared out and throats being sliced on-camera. Not only that, there is also a bit of juggs to see here and there and some lesbian love scenes. Some parts are boring and doesn't add a thing, others are word picking up. Not that bad at all for an Asylum flick.Gore 1/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

It's too bad that the makers of "Halloween Night" didn't submit the cover art to their DVD to IMDb. It's awesome: an evil looking jack-o-lantern has a hand gripping a butcher knife coming out of the top of it. The hand is covered with pumpkin guts which, if you look closely, has the bodies of the killer's victims blended into it. It is far and away the best thing about the movie.But now, if you will, consider the rest of the DVD box. It claims to be based on a true story. The plot has a young boy see his mom raped and murdered in 1982. He is horribly burned in the attack, but ten years later he escapes from an asylum and returns to his home, where a huge Halloween party is going on, steals a costume from a victim, and infiltrates the party. Because the party involves a huge prank, no one realizes he's actually a killer, even as he goes around murdering partygoers.So...based on a true story, huh? Apparently one of the producers used to throw Halloween parties involving pranks, and once someone escaped from an asylum while one of his parties was going on. But the escapee never came it to the party and no one was actually killed, making the 'based on a true story' claim even more meaningless than usual. It's kind of like me making a movie where I marry Sarah Michelle Gellar and say it's based on a true story because we were both alive at the same time. Sub-moronic.The cover art also says, "In 1982, Christopher Vail was sent away after his family was brutally murdered...10 years later, on Halloween night, he returned". The back cover elaborates: "Based on the terrifying true story that started it all! Based on the actual events on Halloween night, 1982, an inmate of a maximum security medical facility escapes after brutally murdering two guards. Upon returning to the house when he was born, he goes on a killing spree that will make him Southern California's greatest mass murderer".And let's break it down. The true story that started what all, exactly? If the events occurred in 1982 or 1992, that's still years after such films as "Halloween" or "Friday The 13th" used similar story lines, so I doubt it inspired them. And again, nothing like this ever actually happened, so how is he Southern California's greatest mass murderer? And why limit it just to Southern Cali; why not just say California since the whole thing is a lie anyway?Most confusing is the fact that the film, according to everything the cover art claims, takes place in 1992. Yet everyone drives modern cars and uses cell phones and laptops of models which were not around in 1992. There's a lame reference to Melissa Etheridge when two lesbians take the screen; the singer didn't actually come out until after the release of 1993's 'Yes I Am' album.Some other things:The killer (supposedly burned, clearly wearing a bad mask) stuffs a rag into a girl's mouth but doesn't tape over it, yet the girl is unable to easily push it out with her tongue.A body is hidden in a closet; someone then boards over the door frame and covers it with what appears to be contact paper. Despite the fact it doesn't match the pattern of the rest of the wall, sticks out a good three inches from the rest of the wall, and has a smelly, decomposing corpse in it, no one notices it for ten years. I would assume, since two people were murdered there, a cop might have noticed it at some point.When a girl taking a bath has her throat slit, blood dribbles out of a make-up appliance on her neck which doesn't even match her natural skin tone. Yet two seconds later, the tub is filled with blood.A blonde bimbo is somehow able to disarm a cop and shoot at someone over his shoulder before he can react. In addition, most of the gunshots leave exit wounds that splatter the walls but have no entry wounds.The cops set up roadblocks and have photos of the escaped killer, but never think to check his old house to see if he might be there.As for the rest of the film? It was filmed pretty well and had a couple of decent effects shots. But there is zero suspense, the acting is simply atrocious (I'm talking sub-porn level here, which makes sense because I'm guessing most of the actresses came straight from that industry), and the film's tone veers between boring and improbable (my favorite scene has one the lesbians, while naked, kicking the killer's ass). Asylum Home Entertainment is quickly becoming to go-to company for really bad, cheap rip-offs of better movies, and "Halloween Night" shows why.

It's a blatant rip-off of "Halloween," that's obvious, but what's inside is a stock slasher flick that's terrible on its own merits. Immediately the desperation from the director and writer to keep the audiences attention is shown, as they feature a lesbian sex scene not ten minutes in for no reason whatsoever. But with Asylum this is basically par for the course. Even in a "serious" film like "9/11 Commission Report," they featured an obligatory sex scene. But that's only one problem with "Halloween Night." Invariably, you'll be left with a plethora of questions that will never really be answered. Why is Christopher on a killing spree? Why did he escape and where was he going? Why would he kill if he saw his mom brutally murdered? "Duh… he's insane." Nah, I don't buy it.Not to mention Gingold rips elements from previous slashers. Christopher doesn't kill a girl because she reminds him of his mom, his mask looks similar to Jason's, and the whole mental patient angle is very derivative of a certain film that drops on the same holiday. Gingold pads the film with plodding characterization, terrible dialogue, especially from the lead actor who performs the worst ad-libbing I've ever seen anywhere, and characters that I could give two shits about. It's as hard to list the endless flaws as it was to sit through this, but in the end "Halloween Night" is the result of monkeys on a typewriter who finished off "Halloween" hours before. Boo.In spite of my best attempted enthusiasm, I just couldn't muster the excitement in watching what I can safely consider one of the worst slasher movies ever made. Only from Asylum could that be accomplished.

What do Slasher films need to be good? Pretty simple. Cool looking slasher. No, rubber mask covered by dorky knight helmet. Nudity. Yes lots of that in this one. Real breasts too. Cute enough girls mostly, but hey at least even the not so cute ones look better naked. Acting. Well no, slasher films don't need it, but the best ones usually have at least one good actor to prove good acting still exists. No, no acting here. Scream Queen who can scream. No no good screamers here. You don't expect actors but ones who can at least look scared and girls who can scream. But that is beyond the ability of this movie to achieve. Seems like lots of improvising from one guy lots of mutter profanity. Blood, cool killings. Well, fair amount of blood, killings aren't too convincing or cool. A few moments about two actually but no spoilers here. Excitement. No none here however you define excitement, other than the nudity, oh there's a lesbian scene if you're still awake by then. Style. No no style here. Style over substance is a key element to these films. No style here to speak of. Logic, no slasher films don't need that and this one doesn't have any. 3 people get killed at a large party right in the doorway. The police arrive a bit after that and there is one kind of mild plot twist. Plot twist, well slasher films don't need those, this one has one, but that can't be counted in its favor. Anyway 3 people die and disappear from the story so the story can go on and on. Short running time. Yes this film is short but you sure won't know it unless you constantly look at your watch, which you will be doing especially if your DVD player is too far away to read those little numbers. Cool music either scary or hip or both. No almost no music here and it's all lousy.To wrap things up if you've seen Asylum movies in the past you probably have a lot of pent up rage at them. If you watched them all you've seen that about one in 5 is pretty good. This is not a pretty good one, nor is it their worst. Though you can't call it a near miss. I guess the final element is good direction that you need in a slasher film and this film definitely doesn't have that. Listless, there is not a memorable shot in the whole film and many unconvincing moments that ruin anything that might build to something. Mostly it has some degree of professionalism to it, until the end credits. The roll starts in a way that the credits vanish half way up the screen and then suddenly they all fill the screen. I Guess they couldn't be bothered to fix that, though they do bother to make them run real slow so they reach that shortest possible length a feature can be, well they actually come up a few seconds short. But it is 85 dullish minutes. But this approach to producing is like those things on the side of a cereal box that says "contents measured by weight" so you can't complain when the mashed to dust cereal only fills the bottom third of a large empty sealed plastic bag. That is too often the approach to movies from THE ASYLUM and it hampers the hell out of a possibly decent by the numbers script by Fangoria's Michael Gingold. The production left out most of the numbers as I've tried to spell out above.