Blu-ray Review – Night Ripper

As demand for genre entertainment grew throughout the early 1980s, feeding the developing video store business, filmmakers hunted for ways to bring down costs, aiming to create rental fodder for next to no money, securing easy profits. 1986's "Night Ripper" is not the first shot-on-video endeavor to make it to store shelves, but it represents a shift in moviemaking demands, using commercial grade equipment to create a nightmare for viewers just looking for a few cheap thrills. Excitement is actually quite limited in "Night Ripper," with writer/director Jeff Hathcock refusing the lure of stylishness or suspense with his serial killer story, which accepts all cliches it can find while offering little tension for those who enjoy such entertainment. It's a snoozy slasher, but Hathcock remains somewhat earnest about his effort, trying to piece together a shocker concerning the love life of a photography studio co-owner and his horrible luck with women. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com