'Happy Hell Night' (1991) - Brian Owens.

The diabolically divined 90s shocker 'Happy Hell Night' remains a hellishly f'd up, indie horror film that certainly did its 'un-level headed' best to revivify the supine slasher movie. The slayed out genre, corrupted by cliché, now happily reborn in the early 90s by the diabolically destructive malediction, misguidedly manifested by the fateful occult tinkering of cherubic frat boy, Sam Rockwell! Satanically reawakened, the brutal slayings of drily death-quipping, gruesomely teen-creaming hell-priest, Zachary Malius (Charles Cragin)proves righteous! Malius belongs in the pantheon of heroically hottie-hacking, serially skull-splitting, mask wearing maniacs that provided such a franchise building lure for splatter mad hatters during the wide-scream dreaming 80s!

Shifting wildly from splashy 'stalk n' slash' to a psychotic squall of rampant devilry, Happy Hell Night's singularly disorientating mix of Canadian/Slovenian locations merely increases its agreeably schizoid atmosphere. For me, these innate eccentricities provide much of this quirky slasher's deliciously defective, satanically slashing fascination! All that being said, over diligent analysis of 'Happy Hell Night' may well dilute the perverse pleasures of these pickaxe happy shenanigans! Once this boozy hootenanny is savagely crashed by perfidious party pooper Malius, his prodigious death repertoire is a joy to behold.

Technical aspects of 'Happy Hell Night' are uniformly top-notch, especially notable being the magnificently moody photography by ace cameraman, Sol Negrin. Making excellent use of eerie chiaroscuro lighting effects, starkly effective when we first (partially) see the disturbing, preternaturally still figure of imprisoned demonic priest, Malius, festering anciently within his neglected, mustily cobwebbed cell! The splendidly splashy make-up FX by notoriously chunk-blowing wizard, Gabe 'Spookies' Bartolos remain a phantasmagorical, flesh-flaying highlight. Director, Brian Owens excitingly keeps all the demon-charged carnage careening along at a bracingly blasphemous speed! Bafflingly underappreciated, creep-celebrating cinephiles can finally worship Malius's malefic murder spree in gorgeously grisly, razor-sharp HD.