Ken Hughes directed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mae West's Sextette. Did that prepare him for this Western take on a giallo?As the last child is picked up from a daycare center, Anne is menaced by a man clad in black leather, wearing a motorcycle helmet and wielding a traditional African kukri. He or she chases her to a merry-go-round and spins her into being decapitated, her head found the next morning floating in a bucket.Judd Austin (Leonard Mann, star of many Italian productions including The Humanoid) is the cop who wants to solve the case, which takes him to the night classes at Wendall College. This isn't the first murder with a severed head being found in water and it seems like there may be a serial killer. But who could it be?It turns out that many of the murdered girls all went to the school and were all involved with Professor Millett. Or maybe it was Gary, the mental busboy. Or it could even be Miss Griffin, the administrator of the school. But surely it isn't Eleanor, Millett's live-in love and a starring role for Rachel Ward.There are the bones of a great slasher here. There's a girl in a diving suit who gets decapitated and we see her head fall into a turtle tank. There's a head that was used to make some soup. There's even a head in the toilet.What it does need is just a little bit more gore and plenty more style. It's competently directed and the mystery is decent, but imagine how this film would have played out with just a little more panache. I'm not saying it's a horrible film. I'm just saying that it could be so much more.

Someone is killing off the female students who are taking night classes at a local college.Each victim is decapitated and has her head thrown into the nearest body of water for some unknown reason.The detectives working the case discover a connection between the victims and a certain professor at the college, which makes him their prime suspect in the killings.Is the professor really responsible for the murders or is someone else to blame.........Regarded as one of the notorious video nasties here in the U.K. for a number of years, Night School isn't just your average run of the mill stalk n' slasher set in a school, it's actually quite a compelling whodunnit.It's only weak link is the fact that the red herring may as well be wearing a jacket saying 'hey audience!! it's not me!!'.Anyone with a knowledge of horror, especially the wonderful eighties horror movement will know that the prime suspect in this is certainly not the antagonist, even more so when he appears to be less than bothered when his students are literally losing their heads.But then there's no one else whom really appears suspect, until one of the characters starts to act just that little bit too strange. And the makers must have thought we would have been duped with the Professer hook, line, and sinker at this time.Most of the characters have some sort of ulterior motive against someone else, and for some reason, the Dean decides to take a huge offence to the professor just when she becomes more amorous toward another student.There are moments of great tension though. The opening kill where the killer teases their victim is pretty sadistic, and another scene, set in a kitchen with just the owner looking for something, is really nerve wracking, and it's obvious that the Final Destination franchise borrowed this particular scene on many occasion.The final act lets the film down a little, as it's pretty clear during one scene earlier who the killer is, and what their motivation is.So all in all, if your a fan of the eighties slasher movement, it's a must, there are some pretty tense moments in the film, and it's very well acted, especially from Ward and that bloke who gets shot at the beginning of Commando putting his bins out.But it's the final scene, where the detectives partner dresses up as the killer and hides in the back of his car, that just gives the film the cult following it has today.It's hilarious, and just mocks the previous ninety minutes.Classy...

Probably best recognised for being the debut feature for of the ravishing British actress Rachel Ward, but "Night School" deserves a little more credit for that lone reason. I wasn't expecting it be as good it was, but while it's your by-the-numbers mystery psycho slasher it managed to resourcefully up the suspense and intrigue in some well presented set-pieces. The usual revelation behind it all doesn't come as much as a surprise (where we seem to be quite ahead of the clueless detective/s scratching their heads), along with the second twist (which is even more foreseeable), but then it ends with a neat final one which seems to be a mock send-up of the typical shock closing. "Don't you ever take your job seriously". I'm kind of surprised by its middling to poor reputation, as I found it more than competent than its 80s crop. Good atmospheric, authentic locations are masterfully framed by cinematographer Mark Irwin. His expressively flowing camera stages some inventive frames and effectively helps building up the tension before the initial shock. He films the ominous looking killer (decked in black leather and bike helmet) quite well. Director Ken Hughes' slick touch lets it flow, nailing the terrorising tension with a real sting to its tail. Hughes style kind of reminded me off Hitchcock, but the modern unpleasantness is evident (slicing and dicing with ritual decapitation on mind, but little is seen) and lurking within is a sneering sleazy undertone. The black and white story remains interesting, due to the solid performances (Leonard Mann, Drew Snyder, Rachel Ward and an amusing Joseph R. Sicari) and particularly sharp script. Brad Fiedel composes the score in an understated manner, but it eerily works. A modest psycho slasher offering.

Someone, dressed in black helmet, jacket and pants, is attacking students who attend the anthropology class of Professor Millet, an established womanizer bedding his students under the nose of his girlfriend Eleanor Adjai(Rachel Ward, lovely, but lacking in performance, having trouble with the dialogue under her thick accent). The killer uses a curving knife as a decapitation device, leaving the severed heads in liquid, whether it be bucket, pond or aquarium. It's up to Harvard grad lieutenant Judd Austin(Leonard Mann)to find the killer, who leaves little-to-no trace of evidence, except the unorthodox methods of the crime scene.Okay psycho-thriller benefits from Fiedel's terrific score which is, at times, melodic, menacing & piercing. The music provides the director, along with his moody neo-noir photography of the city streets at night as the killer stalks his/her prey, to build good suspense even if the pay-off is less satisfying. The twist isn't much of one if the viewer is paying the least bit of attention. A certain waitress in a bar, for instance..who would kill her in such a fashion? Or, the method of execution on those who attended the class of Professor Millet..who'd have a reason to use such a method and why place the heads in liquid? You even get an answer towards the end, so the reveal leaves little impact. A good twist can work wonders, but this film suffers because of that, I felt. The film also is lacking in delivering really strong attacks, an essential ingredient in the slasher genre for which this belongs. We see the biker-outfitted psychopath, with his/her curving blade, slice at the victims, whose face displays the horror they find themselves with blood spread across walls, but nothing is ever elaborated, and practically everything happens off-screen. There are some moments of depraved kink such as a tribal sex sequence between Eleanor and Millet using bits of meat and blood while bathing. And, it's sleazy..the lifestyle of Millet who sleeps with his female students or the night school's lesbian superintendent who attempts to seduce a conquest of her teacher's before the killer interrupts. The decapitated heads are hinted at, some discovered by surprised folks like citizens who find the severed head of an employee in a fish aquarium, or the bar owner noticing his waitress' head in the sink, immersed in water. The film, typical of both giallo thrillers and 80's slashers has a a couple of red herrings, such as a peeping tom who works as a garbage man at the local tavern which yields the murdered waitress and Professor Millet himself(..for he's quite the authority in tribal customs and methods).There's a stab of black comedy at the very end regarding the lieutenant, who is the only one who knows who the true killer is yet can not prove it, and someone behind the seat of his car, which finishes this with a nice, tasteless touch. I think the low IMDb score is ridiculous. This may not be a shining example of cinematic grace, but it's got some fine elements that deserve better than a 2.9/10.