Night School is a 1981 American Slasher Film. It was directed by Ken Hughes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and stars Rachel Ward (in her feature debut), Leonard Mann, and Drew Snyder. The score was composed by Brad Fiedel (The Terminator, Fright Night).
Set in Boston, Massachusetts, the story follows Lt. Judd Austin (Mann), a police detective, who investigates a series of gruesome decapitations of various female night college coeds committed by a helmeted, black-leather clad serial killer who rides a motorcycle; this soon leads him to suspect Vincent Millett (Snyder), a well-known anthropology professor at the college, as well as his female live-in assistant/lover, Eleanor Adjai (Ward).
Night School contains examples of:
- Calling Card: The killer always leaves the severed head of their victim submerged in the nearest body of water.
- Chairman of the Brawl: During a fight at the café one night, the waitress Carol attempts to hit the killer with a chair, but the killer just shrugs it off.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: At the end of the film, the killer seemingly rises from the backseat of Lt. Austin's car, and holds a knife to his throat. It turns out to be his colleague, Taj, playing a practical joke.
- Giallo: Has elements of this, particularly with regards to the killer's wardrobe.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: It is raining during Professor Millett's Lonely Funeral.
- Karma Houdini: Eleanor ultimately gets away with the murders due to Professor Millett taking the fall for her, losing his life in the process; Lt. Austin also doesn't have any concrete evidence to implicate Eleanor, but it's implied he knows the truth anyways.
- Kukris are Kool: The killer's weapon of choice is a kukri, using it to slash at their victims before decapitating them with a single stroke.
- Lonely Funeral: Eleanor is the only mourner at Professor Millett's funeral.
- Love Makes You Crazy: The motivation for the killer. When Eleanor learns she is pregnant with Professor Millett's child, she starts eliminating everyone she sees as a threat to her new family, including all of the other students Millett has been unfaithful to her with. She also murders the headmaster of the college, Helene Griffin, for threatening to fire Millett at one point.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The killer, at one point, vanishes and reappears inside a cupboard, with no indication of how they could have gotten in there. At another point, they disappear from the café and turn up at the mouth of the alley ahead of Carol (who was attempting to escape them), despite the fact this would have involved them completely looping the block.
- Off with Her Head!: All of the victims are female, and are murdered by being decapitated.
- The Peeping Tom: Gus is a dishwasher at the diner that Carol works at; he is also a peeping tom, which, naturally, leads Taj to suspect him of being the killer. Gus' actions catch up to him when he is arrested while caught spying on Helene Griffin's home, where the final murders take place.
- Pregnancy Makes You Crazy: Combined with Love Makes You Crazy. After learning she is pregnant, Eleanor starts murdering all of the students that Professor Millett has been unfaithful to her with, and also anyone who threatens him or his career.
- Pun-Based Title: The film's European/working title sounds an awful lot like the word "terrorize".
- Shower of Love: Professor Millett and Eleanor have sex in the shower while Millett rubs a red berry paste on Eleanor's body.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Professor Millett has affairs with many of his students, all the while living and sleeping with Eleanor, as well.
- You Just Told Me: Following a loaded question from Lt. Austin, Eleanor explains the ritual significance of a headhunter placing their victim's head in water. She then asks him how he knew about it, and he replies that she just told him.