GIRLS NITE OUT (1984)

GIRLS NITE OUT is an odd little slasher from the sub-genre craze of the early 80's, but take my word for it, that doesnt make it great. dont get me wrong, there are some highly enjoyable parts of this movie, but most of them were during the middle part, which could also be known as the "slasher-part". so, in the end, im left with a beginning that plays out like a comedic drama about sexed up college kids and a final act that is more like a "whodunit" cop-thriller. sometimes thats the typical slasher formula, but this time, when you add them all together, youre in for some serious confusion.

the movie starts at West Hills Sanitarium where we are immediately introduced to the hanging corpse of Dickie Cavanaugh. just as quick as youre saying "who the hell is this guy", we are whisked away to a small midwestern college where the Dewitt Bears are about to win the big basketball game that will land them in the championship. at this point we are introduced to all of the movies characters. the unfortunate part is that although the movie spends an excruciatingly long time giving a story to each of these kids, youre still stuck asking yourself throughout the movie- who "he" or "she" is again. the one trait that holds true though is that all of these kids are a bunch of over-sexed, unfaithful, and over-dramatic jerks. you have the head of the basketball team who goes behind his girlfriends back every chance he gets to sleep with (or at least tries to sleep with) anything that moves, his best friend who is emotionally destroyed over a lost love, and the weird-o mullet sporting boyfriend with a jealous mind, just to name a few. the comic relief resides between 2 class clowns who are more annoying than funny, and a ultra-cool-guy radio DJ who plays on every stereotype of what a "cool guy" should look like. there is an especially memorable part in the movie where one of the girls talks about how it hurts for her to sit down as a result of a thorough screwing from some top notch stud, which happened to be her cousin. yeah. gross. im guessing this was a good way to give you an idea of how promiscuous these college kids are.

that night there is a big party on campus called "The Golden Oldies" party, where, you guessed it, they play a bunch of oldies songs. im sure this was due to the fact that these songs were probably the cheapest ones to buy the rights to, but oddly enough, the soundtrack is part of the enjoyable aspects of this movie. you get kids getting slaughtered to the sounds of great pop-hits from the 60's. anyway, during the party sequence where drugs are smoked, whiskey is downed like water, and people are all up on other peoples people, we are clipped away to 2 gravediggers preparing the final resting spot for old suicide Dickie from the beginning. they ramble on drunkenly to eachother about how Dickie's sister paid them to bury him. well before they finish the job, some mysterious person brains both of them with a shovel. cue possible killer plot #1. however, back at the party there are some cheating shenanigans that blow up into a huge fight from one of the members of the basketball team who then swears vengeance on everyone. cue possible killer plot #2. and from there it continues on. little quips and issues that spring up possible killers everywhere. the writers of the film were really trying to mindfuck the viewer by introducing every character as having a reason to go on a kill rampage. they may have succeeded, in a bad way.

during this time, the students are prepping themselves for a campus scavenger hunt. this is an annual event where clues are given out over the radio by the cool DJ and the students form teams, but then split up for some reason, and head out alone to opposites ends of campus to locate the hidden items (a bad idea maybe?). well, even from the start this scavenger hunt has a bloody past, and this is where the legend of Dickie Cavanaugh is told. it seems Dickie was a former student at the college some years back who went crazy over a cheerleader and ended up killing her during the scavenger hunt, which landed him in West Hills. that murdered cheerleader also happened to be the daughter of the campus head of police, who still happens to be running a tight ship on campus to that day. cue possible killer plot #200. at the end of the night, the Dewitt Bears Mascot is slashed to death in his dorm room by someone you think you may know. this "killer" steals the mascot costume which then brings us to the most interesting, notable, and odd aspect of the movie. the slasher wears this huge and ridiculous looking bear costume for the duration of the film.

with a contraption fashioned out of tape and 4 steak knives, the mascot slasher hunts down the scavenger hunters one by one, slicing them up and saying really off the wall misogynistic things while doing so. if you can picture a really silly looking bear slicing some girls throat open and calling her a "dirty whore", then that should give you an idea of what youre in for. the killer then prank calls the radio DJ leaving cryptic messages about the murders. the DJ then calls the head of police and reports the calls which conjure up memories of his own daughters murder during the scavenger hunt and then all hell breaks loose. we are greeted with even more sub-plots involving cheating lovers and more possible murderers. and just when you think the movie is about to burst at the seams with confusing twists and open-ended scenes, we are quickly met with the "surprise" ending and then the rolling credits. which, if youre like me, should leave you saying ".....hmmmmmm"

GIRLS NITE OUT is not a classic slasher by any means. its impossible to overlook the obvious number of things wrong with it. sometimes it was hard for me to get over the "humor" of the characters in the movie, which was about as funny and entertaining as nails on a blackboard. the plot kind of jumped around aimlessly and never really recovered itself fully in the end. there were only a few scenes of gore and, unlike the title suggests, it was surprisingly devoid of any nudity- even the obligatory slasher film shower scene. however, if you fit into that particular category of slasher-fan, then you should definitely check it out, even for its nostalgic purposes. as a sidenote, although there were other films that utilized a costumed slasher, GIRLS NITE OUT gets the award for most ridiculous costume used. also, keep an eye out for Carrick Glenn who played Sally in THE BURNING and Lauren-Marie Taylor who played Vicky in FRIDAY THE 13th Part 2.

BODYCOUNT- 9