As a final act of initiation into a high school sorority called The Sisters, Julie Wells must spend the night locked in the local mausoleum. The other members don't plan on making it easy for her and sneak in, intent on scaring poor Julie half to death. Unfortunately, the mausoleum happens to be the not-so-resting place of the recently buried Karl Raymar, a psychic vampire who believed that death was the key to unlocking the full extent of his horrific powers. Trapped in the mausoleum with the reawakening Raymar, Julie and The Sisters are now in for the most terrifying night of their lives.

Filmed in only 28 days for less than a million dollars, One Dark Night is an enjoyable but little-known horror movie that has a lot of things going for it. The concept for the villain, combining the paranormal with the occult, was very original. Raymar is already dead when the movie starts, but you can feel his evil presence throughout the entire film.

You really get the feeling that death is only a short nap for this guy. Another key element is atmosphere. The opening scenes, especially the scene in Raymar's apartment, do an excellent job of setting the tone and mood. The director does a great job of reminding you of your mortality throughout the movie.

There is one shot towards the beginning where the camera moves through the tombstones in the graveyard, into the halls of the mausoleum, and finally right into an empty tomb. Good stuff. The majority of the film takes place in the mausoleum. The characters are surrounded by the dead on all sides. And what is atmosphere without music? One Dark Night has one of those great creepy synthesizer themes that stays in your head for days after you watch it. I'd rank it right up there with the themes from Zombie or Day Of The Dead.

The acting is above par for a film of this type. I also have to mention the corpses in this flick. They're not the uber-grotesque Fulci zombies, or even Romero-esque zombies. The corpses in this movie seem almost familiar, which makes them all the more creepy. They could be your grandparents, your spouse, your daughter, etc.

One Dark Night is not without its faults though. With all of the originality that went into the villain and the story, absolutely none went into the teen characters. Not to say that the actors/actresses didn't do a decent job. It's just that we've seen these exact same characters over and over again. The good girl. The athlete boyfriend who is never seen without his letter jacket. The bad/popular/easy girl and her lackeys. Blah blah blah. Also some of the dialogue was cheesy even by 80's standards. Another thing that bothered me was the way the corpses moved. They looked great when they were still, but when they collided with an object, you could tell they were fake. And no offense to Batman, but I really could have done without Adam West's role as Olivia Raymar's skeptic husband. Every time he came on the screen, I wanted him to get off of it. I must also mention that the movie is somewhat slow paced. Most of the action and scares come in the last twenty minutes. Personally I enjoy films like this, but if your looking for a fast-paced action/horrorfest you are going to be very disappointed.

That being said, One Dark Night gets my vote as the most underrated low budget horror movie of the 80's. It had a successful theatrical release and was even nominated for Best Horror Film of 1983 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. After that, it virtually disappeared from existence, which is quite a shame. Don't get me wrong. One Dark Night is no masterpiece by any means. But it's a heck of a lot harder to name movies that are better than One Dark Night, than it is to name ones that are worse. If you can find it, watch it.

7.5 out of 10 dead girls in Raymar's closet