Horror Movie Review: To All A Good Night (1980)

To All a Good Night is a 1980 Christmas slasher horror directed by David Hess & starring Jennifer Runyon and Forrest Swanson.

In the vein of Black Christmas with a little of Prom Night thrown in, the movie opens at the Calvin Finishing School for Girls. It’s Christmas & a prank goes horribly wrong resulting in the death of a girl after she falls from a balcony.

Two years later & it’s Christmas time again. Most of the students go home for the holidays but a handful decide to stay & spend Christmas at the school with their house mother. To make the Christmas break that little more fun, the girls’ boyfriends are coming to stay too!

Cue lots of drinking, partying & sex. All good fun in the name of the Christmas. Unfortunately for the youngsters though someone has plans to spoil their good time. There is a killer with revenge in mind. It’s not long before the bodies begin to pile up & the person responsible is dressed in a Santa suit!

To All a Good Night is as slasher as they come. Any regular watcher won’t find any surprises here & even the villain is obvious from a very early stage. The opening scenes explain the motives & it all ties together in a nice neat little bow.

Is it a good movie though? Well, yes & no.

Visually there is a major issue with the lighting in this film. Everything is dark & it makes some scenes difficult to watch. It’s distracting & with such a bland cast it makes things even less appealing. The acting is pretty poor from most & with such a huge cast absolutely no-one stands out. Stunted dialogue, silly reactions & awkward sex scenes drag down the more fun parts.

These parts come from the killings, unsurprisingly. Not that there is anything particularly special here. It’s standard slasher stuff but considering how boring most of the movie is, they instantly entertain by comparison.

There isn’t much in the way of tension here, absolutely no scares but the finale is fine if unsurprising. A few too many dull moments stop To All a Good Night being a good film but for the most part it’s worth watching if you’re trying to see all the classic Christmas horrors.

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