You know 80s retro nostalgia has spun out of control when no-budget late-night-cable teen scream flicks like this are primed for prime Blu-ray viewing. Although you can’t say this early 1980s horror/sci-fi turkey lacks star power or high-concept story and production values. The producers did manage the casting coup of getting not only the original TV Batman/Bruce Wayne (Adam West) to sign up for a phoned-in supporting role as a Bruce Wayne-like millionaire living in a stately manor. But they also scored fledgling 80s starlet Meg Tilly, who would soon nab roles in Psycho II, The Big Chill, and win Best Supporting Actress in 1985’s Agnes of God for her memorable role as a pregnant nun.
In One Dark Night, it’s safe to say, Tilly’s acting chops are not tested: here she plays Julie Wells, the daughter of a recently deceased mad scientist/psychic whose particular experiments with telekinesis drain the energy of human beings in order to move inanimate objects with his mind. As it happens, Julie’s psychic psycho father dies and is interred in the local mausoleum, the same place that Julie is forced to spend the night in as part of an initiation ritual in “The Sisters,” a sorority-like local clique of girls (E.G. Daily, Leslie Speights, Robin Evans) whose fashion requirements evidently include coordinated rip-off Pinky Tuscadero satin jackets, Nike running shoes, circulation-impeding designer jeans, and the occasional naughty puff on a marijuana cigarette.
The Sisters decide to show up at the mausoleum in the middle of the night to try and scare poor Julie (who just wants to get some sleep) and end up getting the fright of their lives. As it turns out, Julie’s dad may be dead, but that doesn’t mean he has to stop his experiments: and this time he’s reanimating the dead! The ensuing climactic scene is a morbid meet-and-greet social mixer where the Sisters get up close and personal with lots of dead people. It’s hard to believe any of what’s on offer in One Dark Night was shocking, even for 1982, as you could get the same sort of cheap scares and bad makeup from your local Jaycees-sponsored haunted house. If One Dark Night has any selling point, it’s the “sophisticated” sci-fi angle and its status as something other than a then-trendy slasher film wherein teenage premarital sex leads to certain death by random kitchen utensil. Not Recommended.