To All a Goodnight

1980 "You'll Scream 'til Dawn"
4.6| 1h27m| R| en| More Info
Released: 30 January 1980 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A group of teenagers at a party find themselves being stalked by a maniacal killer in a Santa Claus costume.

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Director

David Hess

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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To All a Goodnight Audience Reviews

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!
BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
Chantel Contreras It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
kamikaze-4 To All A Good Night (1980) It takes creativity to make a low budget film that doesn't look low budget. If I am to believe the IMDb, this movie was made for 25K. It looked like it was made for a lot more. The producers were very creative in the production of this film, and it shows. Sadly, the writers weren't creative with this killer Santa movie, and it shows. An early performance by Jennifer Runyon. Also with Harry Reems.
GL84 Staying late over the holiday break, a group of girls at a boarding school find themselves stalked by a psychotic killer wearing a Santa outfit in retribution for an earlier prank and must find a way to escape the killer's wrath.Overall this one here was a pretty disappointing slasher. One of the main issues here is the fact that the film is just unbelievably slow and doesn't really offer up much of an enjoyable pace here, content merely to cruise along without really getting much of anything going. The early scenes of the girls getting ready for their party and ensuring that their festivities go uninterrupted is a long, never-ending series of bland, wholly unappealing moments here that just grind the film to a halt, not the least of which here is also caused by the film's seemingly curious decision to start the massacre fairly early on, then instead let the bodies be discovered the next day and wait until the following night to continue things. While the decision not to carry out the single-night rampage is rather unique, instead this causes the film to appear as though it has two character-building montages here as we get the initial arrival and pairing off in day one then we get them doing this again on day two as now that they're aware of the killer at the beginning of the day it wastes all the time until later that night to finally unleash the killer again and this set-up isn't that enjoyable. Still, beyond this the film's main detrimental strike comes from the majority of the actual horror factors involved not really being of much interest here, from bland and wholly un-suspenseful stalking scenes to bland kills that don't offer up much of any blood or gore and never really lets itself play with the supposedly-chilling idea of a killer loose in a dorm-room house the way this one could've as this one just goes about in a round- about way of getting to the carnage. There's almost nothing scary about the killer here beyond the damage done to the victims' bodies, and that tends to really wash over this one quite easily with a series of forgettable scenes with a hilariously-nonthreatening Santa-suited killer running around in a matter-of-factly manner that doesn't come close to giving this anything to get worked up over, and all combined really takes this down a notch. There's a few areas here that this does get right, namely from the fact that the film's body count offers up some potentially intriguing fun here with a lot of bland-conceptually but gruesomely-executed kills here, as the fact that there's two big rampages that knock them off in groups makes for a generally fun time in those parts with some decent chasing being done to satisfy the slasher fan in those moments. Those in and of themselves are much better than expected here just for the sheer cheesy fun they offer here as there's not much else about this one that works here only than the body count and how many stalking scenes there are, even though they're not always impressive.Rated R: Violence, Language, Nudity, sexual discussions and mild drug use.
Michael_Elliott To All a Goodnight (1980) * 1/2 (out of 4) At a sorority house, a prank turns deadly as a young woman being chased by her sisters falls off a balcony and dies. Flash forward two years and a group of girls invite their boyfriends over just as a psycho shows up to kill them off.TO ALL A GOODNIGHT is a really bad slasher from first-time director David Hess who is of course best remembered for playing the bad guy in Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. It turned out 1980 was a very big year for him as he not only directed his first movie but also appeared in the highly controversial Ruggero Deodato shocker HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK. Sadly, this film here just doesn't have a whole lot working for it, although I will praise Hess for at least making a very professional looking film on less than $70,000 and in under ten days. I was really shocked to hear those figures because this film at least looks professionally done so I'm a little curious why Hess didn't try his hand at directing again.As far as the film goes, it's a pretty sluggish affair because there are obviously all kinds of corners being cut. It's obvious watching the film because some scenes just appear to be first takes that they had to use because they didn't have more time. I say this during a couple sequence where the killer goes to stab at people and it just looks like it's a rehearsal or being done in slow motion (the knife going towards people). Another problem with the film is that there's really nothing too memorable going on. There's no question that this was an attempt to cash in on the slasher genre that was just taking off and it's clear this was rushed to try and cash in on that. The screenplay itself throws in the various clichés that by this time were already old-fashioned. There's a bit of BLACK Christmas thrown into the film and you can also at least say this featured a killer Santa Claus several years before SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT.The special effects really aren't the greatest as the majority of the stuff happens off screen. The stabbings are good enough but no one will mistake them for the work of Tom Savini. There was one very memorable throat slashing where you see the throat pretty much pull apart. I'm a little surprised that this here made it past the MPAA. As far as the performances go, they're what you'd expect in this type of film but for the most part they're all good enough. Jennifer Runyon is the most known name in the cast, although porn star Harry Reems can be seen briefly. The film does offer up quite a bit of nudity so director Hess at least had that going for him.TO ALL A GOODNIGHT is a pretty forgettable slasher but I'm sure some fans of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT will want to see it just as a curio.
Scott LeBrun The set-up is somewhat like that of "Black Christmas", with an opening minute that will remind the slasher fan of "Prom Night". At a finishing school for girls, one poor lass plummets to her death (or rather, a dummy does) after being chased around by her peers. A year later, a small group of gals who've stuck around during the Christmas holidays will find themselves stalked by a murdering fiend in a Santa Claus costume. The cops show up on the scene, but much like most things in this movie, they're not very good at their jobs, so our killer isn't going to face very much of a challenge.This demands a viewing on the basis of its curiosity value. It's scripted by The Incredible Melting Man (a.k.a. actor Alex Rebar), and is the feature directorial debut for Krug (a.k.a. actor / composer David Hess). Rebars' sorry excuse for a screenplay is bad enough to make one think that he and everybody else were just sort of winging it throughout the shoot. Hess delivers no tension or suspense. Then again, you DO get the impression that they're not taking themselves that seriously. You couldn't, not with dialogue and performances as bad as this. The one rather cool moment occurs when the maniac is actually wearing something other than a Santa Claus suit.The lovely Jennifer Runyon ("Ghost Busters", "Up the Creek") made her film debut as Nancy, a standard issue Nice Girl. Forrest Swanson is nerdy Alex, who seems to take a while to really notice the girls. Kiva Lawrence is not that bad as the kindly housemother Mrs. Jensen. And that's porn star Harry Reems playing the hapless pilot. Gore effects are supplied by the young Mark Shostrom ("Evil Dead 2"), and some T & A is delivered by Judith Bridges as the slutty Leia (however, some may be disappointed by the latter).This doesn't go on too long, and tends to alternate between being dull and being uproarious. Only die hard devotees of slashers and bad movies really should bother with it.Five out of 10.