NIGHT SCHOOL

US, 1981, 88 minutes, Colour.
Leonard Mann, Rachel Ward.
Directed by Ken Hughes.

Night School (Terror Eyes) is directed by British director Ken Hughes (Cromwell). It comes in the immediate aftermath of the initial Halloween films and such thrillers as Dressed to Kill. The film is set in Boston, is brief, highlights rather melodramatic murders, has an anthropological background which of course, the explanation for the mad murders.

The film introduced Rachel Ward who soon made the Thorn Birds and became an international star. Gruesome in some aspects - but efficient enough of its kind.

1. Murder thriller? Serial murderer? Action, detection, explanations?

2. The title (and the British title with its pronunciation, terrorise)? The popularity of this genre during the 80s?

3. Boston settings, homes and apartments, the night school, special locations like the aquarium, chases on the street? Atmospheric score?

4. Judd Austin and his investigations? The dead women, decapitations, the connection with water?, His assistant Taj and his wisecracks? The contrast between Harvard education and education on the street? The enquiries, police examinations? Photographs? The connection with the night school, discussion with the principal? With Professor Millett? His lecture on anthropology and head hunting? The next victims? The puzzle? Suspicions on Professor Millett? The encounters with Eleanor? Her protecting the Professor? The final confrontation, the pursuit of the murderer, the murderer on the bike - and the professor's death? Austin as a police officer, experience? Detection? His final remarks to Eleanor at the funeral? Taj giving him a fright?

5. Professor Millett, his womanising, the lectures on anthropology? His relationship with the dead women? Affairs, living with Eleanor and her protection? Discussions with her? Her pregnancy? The deaths of the students, the death of the waitress? The death of the principal and the student?

6. Eleanor, British, the exchange student, at the school, with the professor? Research, her explanations of head hunting and purification to Austin? Audiences suspicions of her after she was chased by Gaty? The revelation that she was the killer? The motives? Her icy reasonableness? The confrontation with the professor, his escaping on her bike - and his death? The solution of the case for the police? Eleanor and the child living on?

7. The night school, the students, their studies, affairs with the professor? The principal, lesbian, her comforting the student? Their deaths?

8. Carol, the friendly waitress, the professor flirting? Her becoming a victim of Eleanor? Gary, suspicious,-following Eleanor in the street and frightening her? Taj and his suspicions of Gary, examining, his room, the peeping tom - not the murderer?

9. The genre: Serial killer, brutal deaths and their being visualised? The mystery Motivations? Detection - and audiences being invited to share in the bizarre experience?