The Psychotronic Video Guide (1996) noted the film as "a disastrous meeting of Wishman and H.G. Lewis" accentuated by "gore, lots of it." Paper magazine, in a 1998 review, referred to the film as "a baffling utterly fascinating mess." In a review published by Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog, it was noted: "A Night to Dismember is to narrative film what falling down the stairs is to walking erect." Lucas specifically lambasted the film's narrative structure, and its tendency for events to be described via audio narration rather than shown. James Craddock in the Video Sourcebook gave the film its lowest rating (a "bomb"), noting: "Wishman has the reputation that equals Ed Wood Jr.'s as an auteur of alternative classics. This piece of junk cements her place in the cinematic hall of shame." Todd Martin from HorrorNews.net panned the film, calling it "pointless", also stating that the film "doesn’t have anything going for it whatsoever". DVD Talk awarded the film two out of five stars, writing, "if there is such a thing as BAD bloodletting this is certainly it." Mick Martin of Video Movie Guide wrote: "A must for bad-movie buffs, this insanely disjointed slasher movie features almost no dialogue, actors whose clothes and hairstyles change in mid-scene, and a tacked-on narration desperately trying to make sense of it all." Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote of the film: "Between the artful nature scenes, the ugly interiors, and the kitchen-sink soundtrack, A Night To Dismember could almost be an avant-garde Guy Maddin homage to wincingly awful cinema. Instead, it's likely sheer coincidence that A Night To Dismember has become its own entity, a convoluted exercise in viewer endurance that perfectly evokes its title." Discovery of lost print On August 9, 2018, Bloody Disgusting reported that the extended cut of the film, previously thought destroyed, had been posted on YouTube. The print was discovered when Ben Ruffett, the founder of the Hamilton Trash Cinema, inquired to cinematographer C. Davis Smith about acquiring a copy of the film to screen. Smith did not own the film's official VHS release, but did have a copy of the original extended cut on tape. This version features actress Diana Cummings in the lead role, and runs nine minutes longer than the previously released version. In letter correspondence, Smith noted: Smith also divulged in the letter that he had been hired as a replacement cinematographer,