Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Slasher!

About the Author: Parker Simpson is a writer and podcaster focusing on cult films and their social impacts. They currently cohost Where Is My Mind, a podcast focusing on underappreciated films from a variety of genres and countries. They have also held panels, chartered local organizations, and written articles to their blog. When not writing or studying, they like to spend time with their pets and go outside. Check out the podcast Linktree and blog.

Dang, this thing is slo- wait, is that a Confederate flag on the wall? Where does this movie take place? Ohio? That was a union state!

Girls Nite Out lives in the same vein of small town slashers, its brethren being My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler, and Sleepaway Camp. You could also safely say elements of Halloween and Friday the 13th are spliced in for good measure. The basic plot is simple: young people put in a precarious situation involving an unknown killer taking them down, one by one. Girls Nite Out’s spin on this is putting them in a scavenger hunt in this small town, and having the killer be a dude in a mascot suit (to any of my friends who are Five Nights at Freddy’s fans: DOWN BOY, DOWN! SIT. STAY. HEEL!). As someone who has lived in a small college town, how poorly attended is this university to have the student body participate in a scavenger hunt?

Nothing. Happens. For. A. Very. Long. Time. I think that’s how it normally is in Ohio anyhow, unless Joe Burrow is playing football. It’s not a terribly eventful film, relying on the small-town hijinks of several college kids. I know a lot of people get annoyed when a movie just relies on its coziness, but I never really mind it. Jess Franco does the same thing in several of his films, only the cozy is broken up by sex instead of brutal murders. I have no issue either way. The bear mascot is creepy as fuck, constantly calling his female victims “whores” and killing people via knives on his paws (proto-Freddy Krueger?), filling the requirement that there be some gore (however minimal). He’s really the most noticeable character, along with Hal Holbrook’s policeman and the radio DJ. Everyone else blurs together, being treated like meatbags (particularly the women).

Listen, I feel bad not having much to talk about with this. It’s pretty straight to the point, with little attraction outside of the slasher gimmick. Everyone clearly has a good time despite the cookie-cutter plot, setting, and character archetypes. It’s a good “background” movie, if you want to be cruel, and a good comfort movie if you’re tired and just want to watch an old-school slasher. I know my local drive-in double-billed this with Madman, in what I imagine was a very fun, old-timey screening perfect for the beginning of fall. I wonder how many people came to that after the mass exodus that Society produced the previous weekend (more on that later this month!). As for this film (and this review), just like the one meme from several years ago said, “It isn’t much, but it’s honest work.”