Girls Nite Out (The Scaremaker) Blu-ray Review
By Paul Rudoff on May. 30, 2022 at 3:00 AM in Home Video, Horror

Arrow Video recently released Girls Nite Out (aka The Scaremaker) (1982) on Blu-ray. Read on to find out more about it...
[ SYNOPSIS ]
The students of DeWitt University are preparing themselves for a night of fun and frolic in the form of an all-night scavenger hunt. Little do they know that they are the ones being hunted. An unhinged assailant, disguised in the college's goofy bear mascot outfit - and bearing knives for claws, two years before Freddy donned his famous gloves - is stalking the campus hellbent on carving up co-eds.
[ SPECIFICATIONS ]
The movie is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:37:27 (the first 40-seconds is a disclaimer). The movie has been rated R. Audio languages include English. Subtitle languages include English SDH.
The movie is preceded by a 40-second disclaimer (chapter advance to skip it) which reads as follows:
Girls Nite Out has been restored from the best available film elements, which were a selection of 35mm release prints from the producer's personal vaults.Once the film starts, you will see what they mean. It's not that bad, but it's certainly not what I would consider a "restoration". To be fair, it's not like Arrow had the budget to do a frame-by-frame restoration like Warner Brothers did for a major title such as The Wizard of Oz. I do think Arrow should have removed the lines that appear on the ALL-BLACK background during the opening titles. It's such an easy thing to fix. Even I could do it, and my image editing skills aren't the greatest :-)
The prints were scanned in 2K, after which the scans were reviewed and the highest quality sections selected. A few very brief sections which were not present in the film material were sourced from an SD tape master. The assembled shots were graded and restored in 2K to create a new and complete restored master.
This restoration still exhibits many instances of film damage and wear, in keeping with the condition of the source materials, but represents the best possible presentation of the film. We hope you enjoy!
That said, there is an improvement over the 2005 DVD from Guilty Pleasures in some shots, and others look better on the DVD, which isn't as dark as the Blu-ray. Here are a few comparisons between the two releases. Click to view the original framegrabs.
As I said, some shots look better on the Blu-ray, and some look better on the DVD, which used a film print that wasn't as scratched up.
[ SPECIAL FEATURES ]
All of the content listed below can be found on the Blu-ray disc. The archival interview, alternate title, and Girls Nite Out trailer were all ported over from the 2005 Guilty Pleasures DVD.
- Audio Commentary - with genre film critic/author Justin Kerswell and film historian/author Amanda Reyes.
- Staying Alive (19:25) - A new interview with actress Julia Montgomery.
- A Savage Mauling (15:30) - A new interview with actress Laura Summer. She briefly discusses her animation voice work, including her role in The Real Ghostbusters.
- Alone in the Dark (8:44) - A new interview with actress Lois Robbins.
- It Was a Party! (20:55) - A new interview with actor Paul Christie.
- Love and Death (16:56) - A new interview conducted via Zoom with actors Lauren-Marie Taylor and John Didrichsen.
- Archival Interview (6:45) - An interview with Julia Montgomery from 2005.
- Alternate Title Card (0:23) - Alternate The Scaremaker title screen.
- The Scaremaker Trailer (2:52) - Presented in 1920x1080 with some scratches and dirt present in the film print.
- Girls Nite Out Trailer (1:10) - Presented in 1280x720.
As is usually the case with Arrow Video, included inside the thick one-disc clear Blu-ray case is an illustrated collector's booklet featuring an essay (by Michael Gingold) and photographs, along with a cast & crew list, and information on the transfer/restoration. The case artwork is reversible, featuring the original poster artwork on one side and newly-commissioned artwork (by Justin Osbourn) on the other. An embossed slipcover is included in the first print run. I do wish the embossed parts (the title on all sides and the claws) had a glow-in-the-dark element to them. That would have been really cool. I have the 2005 Guilty Pleasure DVD, with packaging that looks like a bootleg (it's not). This is a HUGE step up from that.
The back of the slipcover recreates the back of the VHS case. This is why the sleeve doesn't have any Blu-ray logos, disc specs, or even legal text. It is completely clean! For reference, here is the original VHS artwork, which you can compare to the Blu-ray artwork at the top of this review.

[ NOTES ]
I first saw Girls Nite Out (originally released under the only marginally more appropriate title of The Scaremaker) in 2005 when the Guilty Pleasures DVD was released, as I was interested in the early on-screen work of Laura Summer; the first voice of Janine Melnitz on The Real Ghostbusters. (Please read this Spook Central Cast Spotlight article for a clip from the new Laura Summer interview and a detailed look at her role in this film.) Laura plays Jane, one of the sorority sisters (with a voice that will be eerily familiar to Ghostheads), alongside a host of more familiar faces, such as Hal Holbrook (Creepshow), Rutanya Alda (Amityville II: The Possession), Julia Montgomery (Revenge of the Nerds) and Lauren-Marie Taylor (Friday the 13th Part 2). Girls Nite Out is a decidedly singular slasher flick which comes on like a frenetic cross between Animal House and Friday the 13th, veering from jovial frat antics to jarringly disturbing scenes of the killer shrieking obscenities as he slices up his victims. It's not a genre classic, but it's a gloriously mean-spirited slice from the golden age of slasher films.
Girls Nite Out is available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video. If you don't have a Blu-ray player, used copies of the 2005 Guilty Pleasures DVD are still available, but aftermarket sellers have it priced for as much as a new copy of the Blu-ray! All of the special features from it are on the Blu-ray, along with many more, so the Blu-ray is the version to get.
This item has been provided by Arrow Video for review on this site.
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