Don't Go into that House on Christmas Eve!

 

I think I might see myself in the coming years adding Gershuny's Silent Night Bloody Night (1974) to my ever-expanding Christmas watch schedule, featuring Woronov (and other Warhol Factory members) as a mayor's daughter, involved in this odd tragic story regarding a returning grandson of a derelict manor's supposedly dead owner, burned alive in the opening sequence. Woronov obviously survives as it is her walking about narrating the ongoing film. Patterson (who died not longer this film's release of cancer in his 40s) is the grandson eventually learning a dark secret about the manor's former owner. With ax murders and a heavy throttling with a shovel, a creepy killer with a lantern and whisper in a phone communicating outside the manor his sinister presence, this film is a precursor to classics like "Black Christmas" and "When a Stranger Calls", with some eerie moments, unease, good use of POV and just the right music to punch up the history of the manor and its aftermath; Silent Night Bloody Night is a gem with some pacing issues and overwhelming mood. You don't want to be anywhere near this house...the sheer residue of the tragedy that happened years before remains and a key character supposedly gone is not just a spooky story to tell around a campfire. The low budget and Long Island locations actually benefit the film and the 70s aesthetic itself definitely lends a hand. Maybe the "Christmas" part of the film is understated, but enough of it is there.