Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 15: Night School (1980)

I think the only reason I thought Night School might be worth a watch is because it was the film debut of Rachel Ward, an actress I always liked back in the 1980's, primarily in the miniseries The Thorn Birds, but also in the movies Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and Against All Odds. And for a first film, she does give a pretty good performance, even if the movie isn't that great. And gosh, just look at her. Is she pretty or what?

Night School is basically a slasher film, though it could be argued it's actually a giallo, especially since one of the film's other stars is Leonard Mann, who appeared in a few Italian giallos (and spaghetti westerns). He plays the detective on the hunt for a black leather-clad, motorcycle-helmeted killer who decapitates victims and then submerges their heads in water, to be discovered later. When it turns out two of the victims were students of the same anthropology professor at a local all girls college, suspicion falls on him. His being a serial philanderer doesn't help his case with the police, or the latest research assistant he's having an affair with (played by Ward).

Having the detective be the center of the story also makes it sound like a giallo, and some of the kills - or at least, discovery of those kills, especially a morbidly hilarious discovery in a restaurant - are lurid. But a sex scene involving red paint in a shower (!) is the most colorful thing in the movie, and the ultimate whodunit reveal is not nearly convoluted enough by giallo standards. So it probably falls more accurately into the realm of mediocre 80's slashers.

Night School is available to rent online, but I watched it on a Blu-ray from my local library.