Girls Nite Out/Review

Despite a title that inspires thoughts of good girls gone bad or drunken female reverie, Girls Nite Out is actually a slasher flick revolving around a sorority's annual scavenger hunt. The film even takes an interesting stance on the sexuality hinted at by its moniker, portraying relationships in ruins due to promiscuity and the lengths jilted lovers will go to get back at their exes. Even the film's killer (or... who we think is the killer) is out to avenge lost love; a love he murdered a few years prior. It's interesting diversions from the norm that make this flick a quality entry into the slasher subgenre.

After Dicky Cavanaugh killed his cheating ex-girlfriend, he was sent off to Weston Hill Sanitarium in hopes to reform his warped and delusional mind. His recent suicide has caused the torrid tales of his murderous behavior to resurface in the halls of Dewitt U., where the deceased girl's father still runs campus security. Yet, when dead bodies start to pop up on the campus grounds and a mysterious caller starts to make "requests" on the University radio station, Mac (aforementioned security head and Academy Award nominated actor Hal Holbrook) starts to think that Cavanaugh may not be the body buried in the cemetery.

Despite some annoying college boy banter and a Teen Wolf-esque basketball showdown, Girls Nite Out is cliche free. It offers up a believable friendship between the two leads, an awesome oldies soundtrack (The Lovin' Spoonfuls entire catalog practically makes its way on screen), a surreal smiling bear costume for our killer and a creepy little ending that can best be described as "Sleepaway Camp lite." As for the slashings, we get some decent chest stabs and throat slittings, all dispatched by a really cool, homemade bear claw composed of steak knives. It's these little nuances that make Girls Nite Out a worthy pick for a dark and rainy October evening.

Reviewed by Mdeapo