A Night to Dismember (1983)

Director:

Doris Wishman

Writer:

Judy J. Kushner (story)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A woman from a "cursed" family is released from a mental facility, and soon dismembered corpses start turning up. |

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Female Nudity | Gore | Slasher | Dismemberment

Cast

Samantha Fox	...	Vicki Kent
Diane Cummins	...	Mary Kent
Saul Meth	...	Adam Kent
Miriam Meth	...	Blanche Kent
William Szarka	...	Billy Kent (as Bill Szarka)
Chris Smith	...	Sam Kent
Dee Cummins	...	Vicki Todd
Larry Hunter	...	Larry Todd (as Norman Main)
Mary Lomay	...	Ann Todd
Rita Rogers	...	Aunt Bea Todd
Nina Stengel	...	Nina
Frankie Sabat	...	Frankie
Alexandria Cass	...	Nancy (as Alexandria)
Rob DeRosa	...	Marty
Heather Sabat	...	Sandy
John Szarka	...	John
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Longo Jr.	...	Timmy
Gino Colbert	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
Levi Richards	...	Broderick Kent (uncredited)

Directed by
Doris Wishman

Writing credits
Judy J. Kushner		(story and screenplay) (as Judith J. Kushner)

Produced by
Larry Marinelli	....	associate producer (as Lorenzo Marinelli)
Doris Wishman	....	producer

Original Music by
Danny Girlando

Cinematography by
C. Davis Smith

Film Editing by
Larry Marinelli		(as Lawrence Anthony)
Doris Wishman		(uncredited)

Casting by
Doris Wishman

Makeup Department
Miriam Meth	....	makeup artist

Production Management
James Proser	....	production manager (as Jim Proser)

Sound Department
Steve Deutsch	....	boom operator
Eli Haviv	....	sound: post-synchonization
Aaron Nathanson	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Lester Lorrain	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
John A. Bezich	....	visual effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Robert Lindsay	....	additional photographer
Tony Spalla	....	additional photographer (as Anthony J. Spala)
Robert Zimmerman	....	additional photographer (as Bob Zimmerman)

Other crew
Richard L. Kushner	....	technical advisor
Lynn Manwaring	....	coordinator

Production Companies

• Juri Productions

Distributors

• Gorgon Video (1989) (USA) (VHS)
• MPI (1989) (USA) (VHS)
• Elite Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Juri Productions

Trivia:

To raise money for the production Doris Wishman made a short trailer for the movie and sold it using the trailer, even before the principle photography had begun on the movie.

Movie Connections:

References The Ghastly Ones (1968)

An Awesome Low

A Night To Dismember makes any Ed Wood movie look like a Michael Bay production. Even Doris Wishman, God bless her, knew this film was a stinky disaster. According to the commentary on the DVD I unfortunately bought, Wishman says half of her rushes where lost by the lab, so she had to compensate by adding a voice-over that 'explained' the 'story'. Uh-oh. Her cameraman on the film, C. Davis Smith, is also featured on the commentary and asks Wishman if the lab lost the best parts or the worst parts. After actually sitting through the entire 67 grueling minutes of this film, I can only pray they lost the best parts.

The worst/best part of this film is that the voice-over itself sounds like it was written by Gertrude Stein. It features a lot of run-on sentences and repetition. "It was the darkest night Vicki had ever seen. Why was it so dark? Vicki wondered in the darkness. Darkness was all around Vicki.. etc... etc..." and so on and so on for an hour. The commentary never stops. It makes you wish you rented Derek Jarman's Blue or better, The Beast Of Yucca Flats! The DVD commentary for this disc is priceless. Basically, it's Wishman and Smith arguing about who should be blamed for the outcome of the film. They finally decide to blame each other. Convenient, no? As I mentioned, this film is around 70 minutes long but it feels like the longest movie you've ever seen. It makes Tarkovsky's Andrey Rublyov seem like a John Woo film. If you make it to the end, you are a true Z-film freak and should be mailed a badge.

To be fair, this isn't Wishman's worst film; that remarkable honour would go to her next film, a remake of her earlier flick Satan Was A Lady (And they say Van Sant's Psycho was unnecessary)! If you want to see a good Wishman film watch "Nude On The Moon" or "Bad Girls Go To Hell" and leave this one alone, especially if you haven't seen a Wishman film before. It's not the one to start with, that's for sure.