To All a Goodnight

To All a Goodnight
Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Hess
Produced by Sandy Cobe
Jay Rasumny
Alex Rebar
Sharyon Reis Cobe
Rick Whitfield
Written by Alex Rebar
Starring Jennifer Runyon
Forrest Swanson
Linda Gentile
Music by Richard Tufo
Cinematography Bil Godsey
Edited by William J. Waters
Production
company
Four Features Partners
Intercontinental Releasing Corporation (IRC)
Distributed by Intercontinental Releasing Corporation (IRC)
Release date
 January 30, 1980
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English

To All a Goodnight is a 1980 American slasher film directed by David Hess and starring Jennifer Runyon and Forrest Swanson. Its plot follows a group of female finishing school students and their boyfriends being murdered during a Christmas party by a vengeful psychopath dressed as Santa Claus.

Plot

During Christmas vacation at Calvin Finishing School For Girls, a student is killed when she is accidentally pushed over a balcony by a bunch of students and falls to her death during a chase prank. Two years later as Christmas vacation has started, many of the students go home for the holidays. However five students - Nancy, Melody, Leia, Trisha, and Sam - decide to stay at their school for Christmas.

Later that night the girls sit down to dinner and Leia says that the groups boyfriends will be coming by plane that night. A man outside the school waits for his girlfriend Cynthia to come out of the building. As he waits, an unseen person attacks and kills him with a hunting knife.

Nancy gives their house mother Mrs. Jensen sleeping pills in warm milk to make her fall asleep faster. Meanwhile, Cynthia finally comes outside and is stabbed in the chest by the killer.

After Mrs. Jensen falls asleep, the group goes the airport to meet their boyfriends - T.J, Alex, Tom, and Blake. They go back to the house where Blake plays guitar for everyone. Trisha decides to get beers for her and Tom. As she gets the beers the killer - dressed in a Santa Claus suit and mask - appears. Trisha, believing the killer to be Tom playing a prank, starts to leave until the killer grabs her and slits her throat.

After waiting impatiently, Tom goes to search for Trisha, eventually stumbling upon her corpse. The killer appears and Tom attempts to flee, but he is killed by a giant rock crushing his head. Sam and Blake chase each other around the school for fun, then finally decide to have sex in a parlor. The killer, disguised in a decorative suit of armor, shoots Blake with a crossbow and decapitates Sam.

Meanwhile, the school's groundskeeper Ralph tells Nancy that he suspects there is something evil going on. Later, Melody seduces Alex into bed with her and gives him a hand job. The next morning, Alex hysterically chases Nancy into the woods resulting into her tripping over Ralph's corpse with an axe wound to his forehead.

The survivors call Detective Polansky to help investigate, and he recommends that everyone stays indoors for the night. Before leaving, Polansky leaves two police men, Jim and Dan, to watch the area for the night. While guarding the area Jim comes into contact with the killer and is killed with a double-bit axe.

Leia seduces Dan and they have sex. Leia goes to take a shower and discovers Sam's severed head in the shower and screams, while Dan is stabbed in the back with a knife. Leia, now traumatized, dances around the school. Nancy and Alex come up stairs to discover Sam's head and Dan's corpse.

Meanwhile, Melody is walking with T.J outside the school. They stop under a tree to kiss, and the killer, hiding in the treetop, kills T.J by strangling him with a metal rope. Melody screams and runs back to the school. Suddenly, the killer appears and is revealed to be Mrs. Jensen. It is also revealed that the girl who was killed in the prank two years ago was her daughter. Mrs. Jensen blames Nancy for her daughter's death and chases her around the school.

Melody flees to the plane and finds the pilot sleeping under it. The pilot tries to fix one of the engines until another person wearing a Santa Claus costume appears inside the cockpit and starts up the plane, killing Melody and the pilot when they get caught in the engine. Mrs. Jensen chases Nancy to the same balcony where her daughter died. When she tries to stab her, Mrs. Jensen trips and falls to her death. Later, the other killer comes into the room carrying Mrs. Jensen's corpse and is revealed to be Polansky. It is also revealed that he was Mrs. Jensen's husband. Polanksy tries to strangle Nancy, but Alex appears and shoots Polansky with a crossbow, killing him.

Alex and Nancy flee the school, leaving Leia behind. The film ends with Leia dancing on a balcony before the screen turns red and the credits roll.

Cast

  • Jennifer Runyon as Nancy
  • Forrest Swanson as Alex
  • Linda Gentile as Melody
  • William Lauer as T. J.
  • Judith Bridges as Leia
  • Katherine Herrington as Mrs. Jensen
  • Buck West as Ralph
  • Sam Shamshak as Polansky
  • Angela Bath as Trisha
  • Denise Stearns as Sam
  • Solomon Trager as Tom
  • Jeff Butts as Blake
  • Harry Reems (credited as Dan Stryker) as Pilot

Release

The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on January 30, 1980 by Intercontinental Releasing Corporation (IRC). It was released on VHS in the United States by Media Home Entertainment in 1983. Due to the film's poor lighting, many scenes have been hard to see in VHS quality. Scorpion Releasing, under license from current rights holder MGM, released the film for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray on October 21, 2014.[1] Special features include interviews with actors Jennifer Runyon and Katherine Herrington and co-producer and writer Alex Rebar and the original theatrical trailer.

Critical reception

To All a Goodnight was poorly received by critics. AllMovie's Eleanor Mannikka called it an "undistinguished, clichéd slasher film".[2] In his book Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978–1986, film scholar Adam Rockoff notes the film as "borrowing" elements from Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), including the "muted lighting" and sets adorned in Christmas decorations, and deemed the film's twist ending ineffective.[3] HorrorTalk.com gave the film a negative review, writing, "To All a Good Night is neither a scary movie nor is it truly satisfying either. It is an elusive title that comes with a reputation for establishing the rules of the sub-genre. It is true that Hess and company have lucked into leading the pack of slashers that followed for the next couple of decades. Unfortunately many of these successors handled the material more competently and have left this film behind for many a clear reason."[4] Hysteria Lives! awarded the film 2/5 stars, writing, "All-in-all TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT is the kind of slasher movie the Surrealists would have made if they had been around in the early 80’s; confounding, nonsensical, by turns grindingly dull and startlingly wiggy."[5] Ian Jane from DVD Talk called the film "a moderately entertaining low budget horror picture with some fun performances (and some bad ones!) and a decent twist."[6]

References

  1. ↑ "To All a Goodnight Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  2. ↑ Mannikka, Eleanor. "To All a Goodnight (1980) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  3. ↑ Rockoff, Adam (2016). Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978–1986. McFarland. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0-786-49192-6.
  4. ↑ "To All a Good Night". HorrorTalk.com. ZigZag. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT". Hysteria Lives.co.uk. Hysteria Lives!. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  6. ↑ Jane, Ian. "To All a Goodnight (Blu-ray) : DVD Talk Review of the Blu-ray". DVD Talk.com. Ian Jane. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
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