Like so many contemporary horror efforts, this extremely cheap but nifty and entertaining Canadian production is known under a number of titles, including "Night of Retribution" (the version that I watched), the official title "Skull: A Night of Terror" and – according to yours truly – the most appropriate title "Don't Turn out the Light". The latter is the most suitable title because there's a clear link with the lead villain and simply also because I have a soft spot for those typical "don't do this, don't do that" horror movie titles. The film is very unoriginal and often quite inept, but it has a moody atmosphere and the lead characters are strangely compelling. During the first five minutes, you already know this will be a seriously messed up and politically incorrect movie. We open with a series of rather pointless images of the so-called Skull; a wickedly snarling psychopath who looks exactly like Telly "Kojak" Savalas. By the way, on the cover image Skull wears the eye-patch over a different eye than throughout the entire film
Also during the opening minutes we witness how the "heroic" lead character David King suffers from a horrible nightmare, yet his lovely wife Jennifer uses his sweaty and trembling hand to masturbate herself! I told you it was messed up
Police officer David King is supposed to be likable hero, but he's really just a sleazy bastard because he fools around with his partner's wife in a barn and stupidly allows some dangerous criminals – including the aforementioned Telly Savalas – to escape during prison transport. Skull and his mates seek shelter in David's isolated countryside mansion and terrorize his family. The concept may sound very familiar, but there are nevertheless a couple of nicely absurd twists. For example: in spite of his grim looks and macho behavior, Skull turns out to be afraid of the dark and psychologically quite unstable, while David turns out to be a genuine Robin Hood with bow and arrows. There's very little suspense, but the killings are gruesome and cruel. The remote setting is definitely advantage and there's a fair amount of nudity provided by typical 80's beauties Nadia Capone and Bonnie Beck. "Don't Turn out the Light" is hardly a gem, but I certainly I wasn't bored and therefore I recommend it to undemanding fans of raw 70's/80's exploitation flicks.
5 Reviews
If this were a Sci-fi, it wouldn't be good enough for MST3K
Garand_EMT16 October 2000
After reviewing a copy of the directers cut, I can safely say that "Puma man" and "Hobgoblins" are far better movies. With it's pointless start with "Skull" in his prison cell, and his yelling when the lights go out, not exactly cluing you in on anything useful. Following that is Jennifer King (played by Nadia Capone)taking a few liberties with her sleeping husband David, (Robert Bidaman). If this was a Sci-Fi flick, it would have not been shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's not good enough.
Surprisingly not too bad.
poolandrews26 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Skull: A Night of Terror is set in the small Canadian town of New Ithaca where two local policemen David King (Robert Bidaman) & Neil Adams (Paul Saunders) are assigned to transport a serial killer known as Skull (Robbie Rox) & his two accomplices Lucas (Paul Babiak) & Hammet (Banito Brown) to Johnson Creek. En route David decides to stop off & help a woman on the side of the road whose car has broken down, unfortunately it turns out to be an ambush & Skull's girl Ash (Isabelle Merchant) manges to free him. The four fugitives make it to a farmhouse which just happens to belong to David the police officer whose family is inside, miles from anywhere & wanting to make up for his mistake David has to take on the four killers in an attempt to save his family...
More commonly known under the title Don't Turn Out the Light! this Canadian production was edited, photographed, co-written, produced & directed by Robert Bergman & one has to say it's much better than it has any right to be although it's still nothing like a masterpiece. The script by Bergman & Jerry Ciccoritti is a 70's style house under siege vigilante exploitation flick where someone has to take the law into his own hands to protect his property & family against vicious thugs & killers. Rather strangely it just so happens that the interestingly named Skull (does he sign cheques 'Skull'?) is actually afraid of the dark which is on odd character trait for a ruthless serial killer to have, the film doesn't really use this potentially unusual angle that much & he overcomes his fears pretty quickly at the end anyway. There's something that makes one feel uncomfortable while watching a film like Skull: A Night of Terror, maybe it's that we all consider our homes to be safe & secure. A place where we can go & forget about the outside world so when we see that outside world invades our homes with violent consequences it makes us feel uneasy. At only 80 odd minutes at least it's short, it moves along at a decent pace, it's fairly straight forward & easy to follow although one has to say that I was disappointed by the exploitation level or rather the lack of it. There is one scene when two guy's cut a woman's clothes off with a pair of scissors but then the film cuts & the next time we see her she is seen crouching in the corner what they did to her never revealed, a couple of people get shot & that's actually about it. There's not really enough exploitation, sleaze or grimness here to make Skull: A Night of Terror a classic but it is watchable & fairly fun seeing policeman Dave do a MacGyver (1985 - 1992) & turn the tables on the scumbag killers.
Director Bergman films Skull: A Night of Terror like one of those 70's exploitation films it is so obviously aspiring to be, he uses really grainy film stock which instantly gives it a old feel about it. At least he did shoot it on film rather than horrible video so that's something to be thankful for. There are a few nice angles, it's well made with a functional look as opposed to a stylish one. The gore levels are virtually nil, a few people get shot including a couple with an arrow but otherwise there's nothing here. There's a fair amount of nudity & a couple of sex scenes but always between lovers, there's no rape in this. The end of Skull: A Night of Terror features a farmhouse being blown up that wouldn't look out of place in a 100 million dollar Hollywood blockbuster & it's an impressive shot & I'm not quite sure how the production had the budget to blow a proper house up so spectacularly. Maybe it was due to be demolished anyway & they were allowed to film it?
Technically the film is fine, alright it's not going to win any awards for style but it's competent if nothing else. Shot on location in Ontario in Canada. The acting is actually pretty good by no-one I've ever heard of, even the two little kids weren't that annoying.
Skull: A Night of Terror is a much better film than it has any right to be, the gore & exploitation levels are low so in that regard it's a little disappointing but it's still a good film.
More commonly known under the title Don't Turn Out the Light! this Canadian production was edited, photographed, co-written, produced & directed by Robert Bergman & one has to say it's much better than it has any right to be although it's still nothing like a masterpiece. The script by Bergman & Jerry Ciccoritti is a 70's style house under siege vigilante exploitation flick where someone has to take the law into his own hands to protect his property & family against vicious thugs & killers. Rather strangely it just so happens that the interestingly named Skull (does he sign cheques 'Skull'?) is actually afraid of the dark which is on odd character trait for a ruthless serial killer to have, the film doesn't really use this potentially unusual angle that much & he overcomes his fears pretty quickly at the end anyway. There's something that makes one feel uncomfortable while watching a film like Skull: A Night of Terror, maybe it's that we all consider our homes to be safe & secure. A place where we can go & forget about the outside world so when we see that outside world invades our homes with violent consequences it makes us feel uneasy. At only 80 odd minutes at least it's short, it moves along at a decent pace, it's fairly straight forward & easy to follow although one has to say that I was disappointed by the exploitation level or rather the lack of it. There is one scene when two guy's cut a woman's clothes off with a pair of scissors but then the film cuts & the next time we see her she is seen crouching in the corner what they did to her never revealed, a couple of people get shot & that's actually about it. There's not really enough exploitation, sleaze or grimness here to make Skull: A Night of Terror a classic but it is watchable & fairly fun seeing policeman Dave do a MacGyver (1985 - 1992) & turn the tables on the scumbag killers.
Director Bergman films Skull: A Night of Terror like one of those 70's exploitation films it is so obviously aspiring to be, he uses really grainy film stock which instantly gives it a old feel about it. At least he did shoot it on film rather than horrible video so that's something to be thankful for. There are a few nice angles, it's well made with a functional look as opposed to a stylish one. The gore levels are virtually nil, a few people get shot including a couple with an arrow but otherwise there's nothing here. There's a fair amount of nudity & a couple of sex scenes but always between lovers, there's no rape in this. The end of Skull: A Night of Terror features a farmhouse being blown up that wouldn't look out of place in a 100 million dollar Hollywood blockbuster & it's an impressive shot & I'm not quite sure how the production had the budget to blow a proper house up so spectacularly. Maybe it was due to be demolished anyway & they were allowed to film it?
Technically the film is fine, alright it's not going to win any awards for style but it's competent if nothing else. Shot on location in Ontario in Canada. The acting is actually pretty good by no-one I've ever heard of, even the two little kids weren't that annoying.
Skull: A Night of Terror is a much better film than it has any right to be, the gore & exploitation levels are low so in that regard it's a little disappointing but it's still a good film.
Negligible hostage movie
lor_12 April 2023
My review was written in June 1989 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.
"Skull: A Night of Terror" is an uninvolving hostage pic from Canada. Direct-to-video title originally was called "Don't Turn Out the Light".
Robert Bideman is a cop haunted by nightmares of the time he killed an innocent girl while she was being used as a human shield by thugs. Now he's living in the country with wife Nadia Capone and two cute kids, when the nightmare literally comes back to haunt him: cons use a woman as shield and this time he backs down, allowing them to escape.
They coincidentally take over his farmhouse, torment Capone and kill Bonnie Bec, Bideman's secret mistress who also is the wife of Bideman's partner, Paul Saunders. Final siege, sort of "Straw Dogs" in reverse, is not very exciting.
Title heavy Robbie Rox is not as menacing as one would expect, and his scenes with Capone's little daughter are almost fatherly rather than exploitation-oriented. Both monikers for the film are misnomers, as very little action takes place at night.
"Skull: A Night of Terror" is an uninvolving hostage pic from Canada. Direct-to-video title originally was called "Don't Turn Out the Light".
Robert Bideman is a cop haunted by nightmares of the time he killed an innocent girl while she was being used as a human shield by thugs. Now he's living in the country with wife Nadia Capone and two cute kids, when the nightmare literally comes back to haunt him: cons use a woman as shield and this time he backs down, allowing them to escape.
They coincidentally take over his farmhouse, torment Capone and kill Bonnie Bec, Bideman's secret mistress who also is the wife of Bideman's partner, Paul Saunders. Final siege, sort of "Straw Dogs" in reverse, is not very exciting.
Title heavy Robbie Rox is not as menacing as one would expect, and his scenes with Capone's little daughter are almost fatherly rather than exploitation-oriented. Both monikers for the film are misnomers, as very little action takes place at night.
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