Hell Night is a 1981 American supernatural slasher film directed by Tom DeSimone, and starring Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Kevin Brophy, and Peter Barton.

The film depicts a night of fraternity hazing set in an old manor—the site of a familial mass murder—during which a deformed killer terrorizes and murders many of the college students.

Hell Night was written by Randy Feldman, then a recent college graduate who shopped the spec script to several film studios, among them Irwin Yablans's Compass International Pictures.

Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis subsequently became involved with the project and secured the lead role for Blair, with whom he had collaborated on several films, among them Roller Boogie (1979), another Compass International release.

James Tucker of Rue Morgue magazine notes that Hell Night contains a subtext regarding social class in both the central characters (the working-class Marti and wealthy Jeff discuss at length the differences between their respective low and high-class backgrounds)[5] as well as the villains of Andrew and Morris Garth, deformed brothers who were neglected by their wealthy father and concealed in the family's sprawling mansion.

[9] Literary critic and film scholar John Kenneth Muir cites the character of Marti as emblematic of the working class, writing: "She's a smart young woman (her father is a garage mechanic), is resolutely blue collar, in contrast to the other pledges, and shares an interesting conversation regarding capitalism and the division between the rich and poor with the ill-fated Jeff.

"[5] Randy Feldman, then a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote the screenplay for Hell Night over an approximate five-week period.

[10] Feldman stated in a 2018 interview that he approached the writing of the screenplay in a literary manner, owing to his background as a college English major, and admitted the original draft was excessively detailed.

[10] Feldman shopped the spec script to several film studios, among them Irwin Yablans's Compass International Pictures, who had distributed John Carpenter's Halloween (1978).

[10] Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis, a colleague of Yablans, subsequently contacted Feldman, and expressed interest in purchasing the film rights.

[3][11] Feldman's screenplay was slightly altered after it was purchased by Curtis, mainly in its implementation of an additional villain; the original draft had only featured one of the Garth brothers as a killer instead of two.

Hell Night was given a regional limited theatrical release in the United States beginning August 7, 1981 by Compass International Pictures,[24] opening in cities such as Detroit[25] and Miami.

[26] During its opening week in Detroit, the film was the highest-grossing release in the city, out-earning Raiders of the Lost Ark, with box office receipts totaling $187,000.

[28] John Corry of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, concluding that, "Hell Night does make one original contribution to the genre.

"[29] Time Out wrote "Amazing [...] what a competent director, cameraman and cast can do to help out a soggy plot", calling the film "tolerably watchable by comparison with the average Halloween rip-off.

"[17] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a one-star review, writing: "You know a movie is in trouble when what is happening on the screen inspires daydreams.

"[32] Critic Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the film favorably, praising Blair's performance, and remarking that its art direction and costume design "contribute substantially to Hell Night's overall superior craftsmanship...

"[34] The Evansville Courier & Press's Patrice Smith felt the screenplay was "penned with a moderate dose of intelligence" and praised the film's cinematography and performances, adding that it "reverts to classical directorial approaches to suspense...  That method alone is praiseworthy.

"[35] Linda Blair was nominated for a Razzie Award in the category of Worst Actress for her performance, losing to Faye Dunaway for Mommie Dearest and Bo Derek for Tarzan, the Ape Man, who were tied.

[12][39] This release featured an audio commentary with Linda Blair, producers Bruce Cohn Curtis and Irwin Yablans, and director Tom DeSimone; it also included television spots and the original theatrical trailer as bonus material.

[39] On January 2, 2018, Scream Factory released the film for the first time on Blu-ray in a Collector's Edition set, which features four hours of new interviews, as well as the bonus materials contained on the 1999 Anchor Bay DVD.

[12] Critic Robin Wood retrospectively praised the film for portraying a strong lead character, Marti, calling her "an active and resourceful heroine capable of doing more than screaming and falling over.

"[8] Anton Bitel, writing for Little White Lies in 2021, similarly observes that the film "reconfigures the slasher as social struggle, with Marti not just its final girl, but also its working-class heroine.

[1] In 2013, Ray Fulk, a Lincoln, Illinois resident, bequeathed his $1 million estate—including a 165-acre (67 ha) farm—to the film's two stars, Peter Barton and Kevin Brophy, of whom he was a fan.