The film stars pornographic actress Samantha Fox as a psychotic young woman, recently released from a psychiatric institution, who is driven to kill by an ancestral curse.

In August 2018, a video master of the original "destroyed" cut of the film–previously thought lost–was discovered in the possession of the film's cinematographer, C. Davis Smith, and uploaded on YouTube.

Later while ruminating at the lake, Vicki is chased by a zombie-like male figure who emerges from the water, only later to find it was Billy attempting to scare her.

Later, Vicki attempts to seduce Tim O'Malley, a detective investigating the murders of Sebastian, Ann, and Bea, by performing a striptease.

Billy finds his parents' bodies and flees the house, only to be clobbered to death with a rock by Mary, who, convinced her family had tried to kill her, murdered him out of fear.

Back in the house, she hears a voice beckoning her, and traces it to a hat box, in which she has a vision of Vicki's severed head.

Realizing she is in fact responsible for the murders, Mary retreats to the basement where she continues to hear disembodied voices calling her name.

O'Malley arrives at the house and finds the numerous bodies, along with Vicki, who appears to be in a fugue state, and holding a bloody hatchet.

[6] In order to secure financing, Wishman made a trailer for the film using stock footage and snippets shot specifically for advertising.

[7] A financer from Chicago agreed to fund the production based on Wishman's trailer, giving her what she described as "a hefty deposit to finish the film.

[18] Louis Birdi, an editor who had worked with Wishman on previous film projects, appears as a stand-in for Billy during the sequences in which the character wears a Halloween mask.

[30] Elite Entertainment released a special edition DVD of the film in 2001, which featured an audio commentary with Wishman and cinematographer C. Davis Smith.

[35] Buzz McClain of AllMovie called the film "insultingly bad, infuriatingly terrible, and, worse, it's somehow managed to achieve cult status over the years.

"[27] In a review published by Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog, it was noted: "A Night to Dismember is to narrative film what falling down the stairs is to walking erect.

[37] James Craddock in the Video Sourcebook gave the film its lowest rating (a "bomb"), noting: "Wishman has the reputation that equals Ed Wood Jr.'s as an auteur of alternative classics.

Club wrote of the film: "Between the artful nature scenes, the ugly interiors, and the kitchen-sink soundtrack, A Night To Dismember could almost be an avant-garde Guy Maddin homage to wincingly awful cinema.

Instead, it's likely sheer coincidence that A Night To Dismember has become its own entity, a convoluted exercise in viewer endurance that perfectly evokes its title.

"[41] On August 9, 2018, Bloody Disgusting reported that the extended cut of the film, previously thought destroyed, had been posted on YouTube.

[42] The print was discovered when Ben Ruffett, the founder of the Hamilton Trash Cinema, inquired to cinematographer C. Davis Smith about acquiring a copy of the film to screen.

[43]Smith also divulged in the letter that he had been hired as a replacement cinematographer, and that Wishman recast Fox in the lead role as she needed revenue to "salvage" the remaining footage after the reels had purportedly been destroyed.