To All a Goodnight (1980)

Better times for the young ladies hanging around at Calvin's School Christmas vacation

I realized that the last time I watched this was almost ten years ago, December 2009 (the 23^rd). It was on the mind for a Christmas marathon of various horrors to accompany the usual suspects last year. I just didn’t have the time available but I have been incorporating the lesser Christmas horrors for late November just so I can go ahead and get the viewings in. This was supposed to be the first film, but I chose Black Christmas (2006) instead. Neither will be mandatory Holiday Season viewing going forward. I don’t hate To All a Good Night (1980), a David Hess-directed Santa Claus suit killer flick at a posh sorority /boarding school for young women, but it isn’t the kind of slasher flick that really paces itself well. That middle part of the film, after the first thirty minutes, is a dog to get through…just practically dead space. With interesting characters, at that 35-ish minute mark, this film might not have nearly croaked on screen, but Runyon, as lovely and sweet as she is, doesn’t have the chops to really keep us necessarily compelled. She isn’t exactly helped by anyone else and that hurts. What is so crazy is the first thirty minutes kills off like five or so people, as the killer(s) in Santa suit (and during one perplexing murder sequence, in a suit of armor!) before the handyman/gardener (yes, the Crazy Ralph archetype who proclaims doom on the premises) is found under some leaves with blunt force trauma to the head and the film screeches to a halt before the killer(s) picks back up. I feature my review from 2009 here, no longer on my IMDb account. The blu-ray I almost recently purchased because I read and later had confirmed by YouTube reviewers that the picture quality is so much better. In the relic VHS version, the day for night and murky interior scenes inside the dark house are a chore to watch. And the audio isn’t always crisp, either. But I just don’t really like the film that much to throw down 15 bucks for a blu copy. Maybe I should, if just because To All a Good Night (1980) isn’t all that especially well known except for those who try to checkmark each and every obscure 80s slasher they can find.

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Promiscuous college girls, who remain at their school for the Christmas holiday, coerce their resident cook to go to bed, awaiting gleefully for their boyfriends to arrive by plane(..one of the boys has a rich daddy)so they can gather together and enjoy a night of naughty debauchery, not knowing that a psycho in Santa costume plans to ruin the festivities.

The film opens with a game that ends disappointingly as one of the female students falls off of a balcony, stoned, falling to the ground below..it seems this unfortunate incident might just be the root cause of the Christmas slayer's mayhem.

There's a nerd who talks about the advances in medical science with great detail, some wannabe lothario with an acoustic guitar, an obvious nympho who doesn't get a chance to bed her man, a virginal blonde with a soft voice the gardener wishes to protect, a couple of practical jokers(often criticizing the blonde girl and anyone else they find annoying or bothersome, these two girls are the kind you see in school whispering to each other about people they don't like), etc. As usual, the medical nerd is uneasy about making a move on the girl(..she's this lovely gal with a great body who is practically throwing herself at him, yet, as often was the case, he's too nervous, or focused on his studies, to get a clue). There's a funny scene where our 'final girl' is drinking her milk and listening to the moans of passion from another room! The gardener is one of those old religious kooks dispelling doom to Nancy, the pretty innocent he wishes to protect("There's something wrong, I feel it."). Nancy spends time skulking about being lonely, until her and nerd Alex(..having lost his virginity with one of the girls, Melody)hook up, forming amateur detectives, and searching out the place in the dark.

One of the funniest scenes, to me anyway, has a naked Leia, who had just bedded one of the cops assigned to protect them, finding the severed head of her pal stuck on the shower head! I was amused as I watched this flick how characters are blunt and honest about others giggling and insulting them while they are still in the room(..such as gardener Ralph who seems to be the butt of everyone's jokes, even though he moves about, saying little, without really warranting such constant ridicule, despite the fact that he's a wee bit creepy).

To All a Good Night is what it is, a prototypical slasher which doesn't distinguish itself from the others of it's ilk. The cast of characters have little personality and will probably not appeal to the masses who look for obscure slasher fare, and when they die you could care less or feel little pity.

Jennifer Runyon is Nancy, Forrest Swanson(Alex), Linda Gentile(Melody), William Lauer(..as TJ, the rich jock with the plane), and Judith Bridges(..whose Leia goes bonkers, singing to herself a lullaby as she dances around in her own little world after discovering the decapitated head and killer Santa with a butcher knife)round out some of the cast in trouble of being chop suey. Sam Shamshak is Chief of Police, Polansky and Katherine Herrington is cook Mrs. Jensen, both of which have pivotal parts of importance as the film unfolds. Buck West is the weirdo gardener. Neither cult star David Hess' direction nor Alex Rebar's writing seem very inspired(..it feels like the cash-in of a fad, with little spirit or innovation), although the concept of a killer dressed as Santa was somewhat fresh at this time. I guess the most memorable murder sequence will be when Santa starts up the plane while a pilot is working on the engine, the spinning propeller blade chopping him and a female student to pieces. Something to think about..it seems impossible that one Santa can be at two places at one time, even in the wonderful land of movie time where a killer can move at warp speed.

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The weird moment in the film where the detective in charge grips Runyon's chin and talks directly to her in this seemingly intimate way makes a lot of sense when the second of two killers is revealed later. It is still rather strange--why is he holding her that way, looking into her eyes, directly focused on her opposed to anyone or anything else? That was something that always bugged me but the light bulb went off on this evening's viewing so that is something at least. 2/5