Happy Festivus, Reaplings. I've got my aluminum pole sitting in the corner, I wrestled my cat Penny in the Feats of Strength(I lost), and now I roll on with the Airing of Grievances. This year, I lower my verbal rapier upon this less-than-known Christmas-themed slasher from the Golden Age of the Slasher:1980's To All A Good Night.
Upon initial glance, Good Night has the pedigree to be a fun view. The movie is directed by the late, great David Hess. Its vcr distribution was handled by the golden gods over at Media Home Entertainment(R.I.P.). Yet, if wishes were pigs, Cousin Eddie's RV would have broken down before he made it to the Griswold's home.
The movie follows the standard by-the-numbers format established in the slasher genre by this time. Two years prior, during a rockin' Christmas party, a nubile collegiate falls off stair railing(without being touched) and dies. Flash forward two years and some promiscuous sorority babes forgo a trip to the Slime-Bowl-A-Rama to stay behind for some Pin the tail on the donkey. Needless to say, the killing begin anew.
Overall, this movie needs to have to Media logo stripped, replaced with the word SHIT. The acting is semi-decent but there is no suspense, no backstory until the end(and it's very weak at that), the kill scenes are sporadic and when someone meets their demise, it's almost always done in shadow or not shown at all(exception for two scenes and they were mediocre). In addition, there is a particular character that has no reason or rhyme for even being there. The strength of this film lays in the twist ending and even then you are so bored and/or pissed, you could care less.
In the realm of the Christmas horror sub-genre, To All A Good Night should just stay in permanent midnight. It's not original Black Christmas or original Silent Night, Deadly Night, hell it's not even on par with Christmas Evil or the fried pussycat scene from Christmas Vacation. Welp, grievances aired, I hope yins have a wonderful holiday season:-)
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