Ho Ho Ho! This early post Halloween slash fest is intriguing and collectible for two significant reasons. It was the first slasher movie to include a Santa-suited psycho, before Silent Night-Deadly Night, Psycho Santa and Christmas Season Massacre made the costume a slasher cliché. Secondly it was the directorial debut of David Hess a man who was to the horror genre what Johan Cryuff was to football. Not many people know about Hess' hugely impressive contributions to show business and the things that he achieved prior to his acting exploits. His professional career began as a singer-songwriter for a small label called Shalimar Music in 1957. His first recording was a song called 'All Shook Up', which of course became a massive hit for Elvis Presley that same year.
Throughout the months that followed, Hess would see Conway Twitty, Andy Williams, Sal Mineo and Pat Boone take his tracks to the top end of the charts and then he settled for a career behind the scenes as head A & R man for Mercury Records. Then in 1972 his fortunes continued to improve when he was offered the lead role in Wes Craven's cult classic 'The Last House on the Left'. He gave such a nasty and memorable performance that he would continue to play tormented characters in movies like 'The Eleventh Commandment'. To all a Good Night gave him the chance to broaden his horizons in the film industry and it was a solid opportunity to express his talents in the director's chair. It's something that he'd like to try again, although he admits that he has neither the time nor the cash flow to direct a second feature. Nowadays David Hess says that his main priority is spending time with his family.
The opening scene is conveyed so rapidly that it felt like I had my finger on the fast forward button. It's Christmas vacation at the Calvin Finishing School for girls and the co-eds are celebrating by chasing one female around the dormitory. She heads out onto the balcony, trips over a plant pot and takes a fatal tumble to the concrete floor below. We can only presume that the girl died, although we're never given an explanation to the scene. We don't even know who any of these characters were?
Two years later and its Christmas time again. A large majority of the youngsters are going home, but a few party animals are preparing for their own on-site celebrations. The gang of fun-loving ladies includes a curvaceous man-eater called Melody (Linda Gentile), who spends her time being swapped among the guys like a football card. There's a suspiciously plum accented English girl named Trisha (Angela Bath), and then we have the traditional bed-hopper and inadvertently billed comic relief character, Leia (Judith Bridges). Finally we meet the Jamie Lee Curtis-lite goody-two-shoes called Nancy (Jennifer Runyon). Their house is run by Ruth Jensen (Katherine Herrington) and Trina Ronsoni (Judy Hess), who must be related to the director maybe his wife? She also shows a brilliant knack for comic timing, by quipping at one point, " I'll stop off on my way back. That is if the grim reaper doesn't come calling". Ho-hum!
Anyway, Christmas alone for the girls wouldn't be much fun, so they literally fly in a gang of randy would-be lotharios including the stereotypical geek, Alex (Forest Swanson). It doesn't take long for the masked Santa-suited slasher to turn up and begin cutting his way through the revellers. He then buries their bodies in the backyard with the professionalism and speed of a gang of landscape gardeners. So who will survive this Christmas Massacre?
To all a Good Night isn't as bad as its hideous reputation would lead you to believe. In fact it's actually fairly watchable in a so bad it's good kind of way. It's helped no end by some breathtaking dialogue from the dim-witted cast. At one point, Trisha bumps in to the maniac and goofs in her comical sub-Brit accent, "Oh Tom, take that bloody mask off and take me to bed!" She gets what she rightly deserves. Then on planet eye test, all the guys are captivated by the hilariously unattractive Leia, but they defy logic by completely ignoring the much better looking AND virginal Nancy. The aforementioned flat chested redhead also provides most of the nudity, while the buxom and shapely Melody remains fully clothed throughout? Not being content with constantly ripping off her clothes, Leia goes insane towards the conclusion of the movie and spends the final third of the runtime singing and ballet dancing round the corpses of her chums!
Mark Shostrum's gore effects may well be the most spectacular ever filmed. We'll never know if that's true however, because the picture is just too dark. Day for night filters are used without any other form of lighting, and at times the lack of clear vision ruins the movie. The only good killing that I remember featured the maniac dressed in a suit of armour and it was thankfully filmed inside the house, so the lighting was at least passable. Despite loosing about six of their colleagues in the first thirty minutes, the remaining victims fail to acknowledge that there is a maniac stalking the campus. Instead they continue to mouth inept comments the following morning, such as, "They must have gone to bed." Even when they uncover the heavily-mutilated body of Ralph the albino gardener, they still refuse to accept that a maniac is trying to cut down the guest list for their Xmas party. The utter stupidity of the youngsters destroys any sympathy for their eminent demise.
On the plus side, there is a humongous body count and as I said, it's fairly amusing in an inadvertent kind of way. Watch it with a few beers and you'll probably enjoy it a lot more.
Throughout the months that followed, Hess would see Conway Twitty, Andy Williams, Sal Mineo and Pat Boone take his tracks to the top end of the charts and then he settled for a career behind the scenes as head A & R man for Mercury Records. Then in 1972 his fortunes continued to improve when he was offered the lead role in Wes Craven's cult classic 'The Last House on the Left'. He gave such a nasty and memorable performance that he would continue to play tormented characters in movies like 'The Eleventh Commandment'. To all a Good Night gave him the chance to broaden his horizons in the film industry and it was a solid opportunity to express his talents in the director's chair. It's something that he'd like to try again, although he admits that he has neither the time nor the cash flow to direct a second feature. Nowadays David Hess says that his main priority is spending time with his family.
The opening scene is conveyed so rapidly that it felt like I had my finger on the fast forward button. It's Christmas vacation at the Calvin Finishing School for girls and the co-eds are celebrating by chasing one female around the dormitory. She heads out onto the balcony, trips over a plant pot and takes a fatal tumble to the concrete floor below. We can only presume that the girl died, although we're never given an explanation to the scene. We don't even know who any of these characters were?
Two years later and its Christmas time again. A large majority of the youngsters are going home, but a few party animals are preparing for their own on-site celebrations. The gang of fun-loving ladies includes a curvaceous man-eater called Melody (Linda Gentile), who spends her time being swapped among the guys like a football card. There's a suspiciously plum accented English girl named Trisha (Angela Bath), and then we have the traditional bed-hopper and inadvertently billed comic relief character, Leia (Judith Bridges). Finally we meet the Jamie Lee Curtis-lite goody-two-shoes called Nancy (Jennifer Runyon). Their house is run by Ruth Jensen (Katherine Herrington) and Trina Ronsoni (Judy Hess), who must be related to the director maybe his wife? She also shows a brilliant knack for comic timing, by quipping at one point, " I'll stop off on my way back. That is if the grim reaper doesn't come calling". Ho-hum!
Anyway, Christmas alone for the girls wouldn't be much fun, so they literally fly in a gang of randy would-be lotharios including the stereotypical geek, Alex (Forest Swanson). It doesn't take long for the masked Santa-suited slasher to turn up and begin cutting his way through the revellers. He then buries their bodies in the backyard with the professionalism and speed of a gang of landscape gardeners. So who will survive this Christmas Massacre?
To all a Good Night isn't as bad as its hideous reputation would lead you to believe. In fact it's actually fairly watchable in a so bad it's good kind of way. It's helped no end by some breathtaking dialogue from the dim-witted cast. At one point, Trisha bumps in to the maniac and goofs in her comical sub-Brit accent, "Oh Tom, take that bloody mask off and take me to bed!" She gets what she rightly deserves. Then on planet eye test, all the guys are captivated by the hilariously unattractive Leia, but they defy logic by completely ignoring the much better looking AND virginal Nancy. The aforementioned flat chested redhead also provides most of the nudity, while the buxom and shapely Melody remains fully clothed throughout? Not being content with constantly ripping off her clothes, Leia goes insane towards the conclusion of the movie and spends the final third of the runtime singing and ballet dancing round the corpses of her chums!
Mark Shostrum's gore effects may well be the most spectacular ever filmed. We'll never know if that's true however, because the picture is just too dark. Day for night filters are used without any other form of lighting, and at times the lack of clear vision ruins the movie. The only good killing that I remember featured the maniac dressed in a suit of armour and it was thankfully filmed inside the house, so the lighting was at least passable. Despite loosing about six of their colleagues in the first thirty minutes, the remaining victims fail to acknowledge that there is a maniac stalking the campus. Instead they continue to mouth inept comments the following morning, such as, "They must have gone to bed." Even when they uncover the heavily-mutilated body of Ralph the albino gardener, they still refuse to accept that a maniac is trying to cut down the guest list for their Xmas party. The utter stupidity of the youngsters destroys any sympathy for their eminent demise.
On the plus side, there is a humongous body count and as I said, it's fairly amusing in an inadvertent kind of way. Watch it with a few beers and you'll probably enjoy it a lot more.