Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

hwg1957-102-265704 A group of female teenagers at the Calvin Finishing School are menaced during the holiday break by a maniacal killer in a Santa Claus costume. The motive of the killer is easy to work out and so is the identity of the killer. The teenagers and their boy friends (who come in a plane to meet them) are stalked and most of them get killed. So a pretty routine slasher movie. The gore is OK but apart from that it is rather dull. There is a final twist at the end which comes out of nowhere and is not necessary.The cast are ordinary and the characters on the whole are annoying so one looks forward to them being bumped off, which they are in standard slasher movie ways. As normal for a teen horror film they act stupidly most of the time. The director David Hess has genre connections but only in acting. His direction is routine. I was puzzled about the title of the film but an erudite friend told me it is the last line of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' by Major Henry Livingston Jr.

Woodyanders A handful of college students at the Calvin Finishing School for Girls find themselves being terrorized by a psycho dressed as Santa Claus during Christmas break. The strictly workmanlike direction by David Hess (yep, Krug Stillo from "The Last House on the Left") manages to keep the formulaic, yet still fairly enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a reasonably steady pace, but alas crucially fails to generate much in the way of either suspense or spooky atmosphere. The gore f/x are decent enough, although the murder set pieces could have been staged with a bit more punch. The by-the-numbers hackneyed script by Alex Rebar (yep, he played the titular hideously goopy fellow in "The Incredible Melting Man") trots out all the tried'n'true body count clichés in an almost endearingly clunky fashion: We've got a creepy handyman (hulking West Buchanan), carefree young folks who mark themselves for doom by smoking pot and doing the deed prior to meeting brutal untimely ends, a past tragedy that gets gruesomely avenged a few years down the road, a couple of lame last reel twists, and so on. Bill Godsey's bland cinematography and the wonky synthesizer score both leave something to be desired. Fortunately, the sturdy acting by the able cast keeps this movie watchable: Jennifer Runyon in her film debut makes for an appealing final girl as token nice gal Nancy, Forrest Swanson contributes a likable turn as the nerdy Alex, buxom babe Linda Gentile heats up the screen as seductive strumpet Melody, foxy slender redhead Judith Bridges brings a winningly brash spirit to her role as the sassy Leia (and also even bares her tasty tight body in a shower scene), Kiva Lawrence does well as kind-hearted house mother Mrs. Jensen, and Angela Bath snarks it up delightfully as snooty bitch Trisha. 70's porn legend Harry Reems pops up in a small part as an airplane pilot. An okay slice'n'dice opus.

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.

trashgang To All A Goodnight has two reason to search for it, one, it's a slasher made when Friday the 13th was made and secondly, it was directed by David Hess most famous of Last House On The Left. It is in fact his only film he directed. But up to this writing it never had any proper release. It's only available on ex-rental NTSC VHS. Was it worth searching, well, it's low on gore or even blood. There are killings all through the movie but there are almost no effects so they used editing to shown the killings. Axes do go in heads and beheadings and stabbing take place but not as in the much acclaimed Friday The 13th made the same year. There is a bit too much blah blah in it to keep you attracted although all things to make it a slasher are available, some full frontal nudity with pubic hair, shower scene, first person shots of the killer but still, it do has his failures. If you watch with attention you will know who's the killer from the first minutes but luckily there are some surprises concerning the killer. Surely a low budget but being searched due David Hess and one of the earlier attempts of a slasher.