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[DVD Review] ‘The Mooring’ Is Confusing
“There is more to relationships than pressing buttons.”
This line from the opening of The Mooring is the very first thing that struck me in this film. From here, however, it became very confusing. Not because the plot itself is contradictory or unclear, it’s more because for the 90 minute running time, it induces a confusion of if the film is good or not. The Mooring starts with a group of normal teenage girls who love their technology being sent on a retreat on a boat into nature. They have caused accidents due to talking while driving, blown up their parents cell phone bills, and cyber bullied. The great thing about this scenario is that the actresses look exactly like their characters should. They are not Hollywood by any means. This immediately adds a sense of dread to the events to come. A nutcase couple of drifters pull their own boat next to the girls and their counselor and immediately begin to harass them. Over the next day, the girls are picked off one by one in a very real and cruel manner.
Confusion grows while watching The Mooring because of the meandering nature of the film. We know that these girls more than likely won’t survive as they succumb to the elements, things left in the woods (of course a bear trap would be involved), the drifters themselves, and so on and so forth. However, there are moments we think they can make it, and we’re rooting for them to run and survive. This adds a sense of greatness to this simple little movie. But there are certain things, including elements of the special features of the DVD, that drive me off into confusion yet again.
First off, the film is directed by Glenn Withrow who co-wrote the movie with his daughter Ivy, and lead actress Hallie Todd. While this isn’t a shameful thing, as the three boast about how amazing the movie is on the ‘Making Of’ featurette, it makes it a bit uneasy. Most of the time filmmakers are modest in their interviews for these features, but here they are all about selling not just the movie but themselves. Ivy is even seen playing violin for the score in the special feature as well. The soundtrack and the scoring is actually one of the most confusing elements of The Mooring. The music simply doesn’t fit at times then at others it’s incredibly perfect.
The Making Of The Mooring is the only special feature on the disc besides a trailer. Yet there is a certain element to this DVD which makes me weary. The artwork shows one of the girls being hunted down by drifter Richard, who is poised, ready to kill her with girlfriend Mickey looking emotionless over the situation. The cover reminds me too much of countless DVDs that are out there, selling a movie they simply aren’t. The Mooring is, as exactly stated in the making of, an ode to movies like Deliverance – not a torture porn movie – which is what the cover and even the description look like. I was hesitant to watch it due to this. Also, the tagline, “Missing Persons Don’t Just Vanish.” is confusing. How does this exactly fit into the film? Ultimately in the end, it does…sort of. Still, for advertising the movie it really is, it doesn’t fully work and, in the end, I think all of it damages what could be a great movie.
Side note, killer drifter, Richard, is played by Thomas Wilson Brown who was oldest brother, Russ, in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I found this out after watching the movie, which I think was a good thing, because knowing it now, I would’ve never taken him seriously. And he did a pretty damn good job. All of the actors did – especially Brooklyn Tate who played Mickey, Richard’s psycho girlfriend. She was downright convincing in her role.
If you think The Mooring is going to be what the packaging portrays, you’ll be severely disappointed. While it isn’t a perfect movie, if one goes into it with the right view of what it is, it’s entertaining.
DVD Score: 5/10
Night School, director Ken Hughes and writer Ruth Avergon‘s tale of a headhunting slasher on the streets of Boston, arrived in the early Golden Age of the slasher film and never quite broke through the endurance test that other films in the subgenre, like Friday the 13th, managed to pass with flying colors. Blame it on a more cerebral tone, a crowded market, whatever you like, but saying it’s a shame that the film didn’t break through doesn’t begin to cover it.
Night School isn’t just an underrated slasher, or an underseen one. For my money, it’s one of the best films the subgenre has ever produced, full stop, and Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K UHD restoration, arriving just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, is must-have proof. Stacked with special features highlighting the craft of the film and its place in slasher history, and headlined by a gorgeous restoration showcasing the wonderfully textured production, this is Night School as it’s meant to be seen for slasher devotees everywhere.
So, what makes the film so effective? It starts very simply, with the revelation that a killer with a very cool knife and a motorcycle helmet as a mask is murdering young women in Boston, taking off their heads, and dropping those heads in the nearest body of water (no matter how small).
Solving the case falls on Judd Austin (Leonard Mann), a detective with an academic background who traces all of the victims in one way or another back to a local night school. There, suspicion falls on a womanizing professor (Drew Snyder) who sleeps around on his research assistant and romantic partner, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), whose own death could be right around the corner.
I’m doing my best to stay as spoiler-free as possible here, not just because I think plenty of slasher fans still need to see Night School, but because the film is quite determined to be a whodunit in the classic Italian giallo sense. The kills are brutal and elaborate, the killer deliberately covered head-to-toe in leather and a gleaming black helmet, the knife and the headhunting a disturbing signature. Avergon’s script is well-versed in the trappings of exactly this kind of story, complete with red herrings galore. And yet, by the time it’s all wrapping up, there’s also the sense that the answer was right there in front of you the entire time, something the very best films by legends like Mario Bava and Dario Argento could also achieve.
But on to the restoration: Like the best of the gialli, Night School is also a beautifully engineered film full of colors and delicate camera compositions and sound design. The opening kill, which takes place on a playground carousel outside of a daycare, is rich in exactly this kind of thing, from the cityscapes that lead into the scene to the sound of a motorcycle slowly rolling forward, its engine already dead. Cinematographer Mark Irwin, best known for his many collaborations with David Cronenberg, paints the film in rich reds, absinthe greens, and haunting, chilled blue-white light on wet Boston streets, all of which are preserved beautifully by the restoration team at work on this one.
It’s a movie that very deliberately evokes a specific place – the aging streets of Boston in the 1980s, and the halls of relatively low-level academia – and then takes that place into haunted territory, saturating every frame with color and shadow that suggests a killer lurking just out of view.
Night School is not a massively gore-heavy film, but it does deliver the slasher goods with a series of tense, often unpredictable kills and body discoveries that range from the darkly comic to the flat-out jaw-dropping. That’s thanks to the sound design, the score, the editing from Robert Reitano, and more, all of which add to the film’s giallo soul.
In every case, the scene’s geography is outstanding, and it’s easy to see where the simplest possible kill shot might land, but the film never goes for the obvious. Throw in a surprisingly (for 1981, anyway) feminist bent to the storytelling and some very progressive moments for an early slasher film, and this one fits right in with Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre as a film with depth you can just keep unpacking.
That depth, helped along by a load of featurettes and two new commentary tracks featuring members of the crew, is what stands out the most in this new 4K set. Night School may be a niche film recognized mostly by horror addicts and the slasher faithful, but it deserves to be something more, a landmark on the roadmap of slasher cinema history. It’s one of the best in the genre, and this restoration highlights, underlines, and shouts that from the rooftops.
Night School is now available in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome.
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