BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Hayden Kane 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.

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.

Toronto85 The idea of a killer dressed as Santa Claus attacking a group of young people at a sorority house sounds great to a horror fan like myself! Which is why I was so excited to this the other day. Unfortunately, 'To All A Goodnight' was a major disappointment. It had so much potential, but with so many flaws to me this is a below average slasher film that I wouldn't care to see again.The movie begins with a girl accidentally falling to her death during a prank/initiation. Flash forward two years, this time with a group of new girls who are staying at the sorority house over Christmas. They invite a bunch of boys over to spend the holidays with them which of course was added just to increase the body count. Eventually, a killer dressed as Santa kills a few people and one of the body is discovered the next morning. A cop comes to the house and tells them to stay and lock up for the night (not sure why they listened, I would have gotten the hell out). Anyways, a few more murders happen that evening leading to the killer's revelation.There are so many things wrong with the movie. The main group of characters are so annoying and make it hard to get through the film at times. The dialogue and acting are so bad, it just makes most scenes seem awkward. Plus, it's Christmas. Where is the snow? I feel that the movie could have been much more moody and creepier with a snowstorm outside or something. And why would they stay at the house an entire day after finding a bloody corpse. It makes no sense. Also, the lighting is pretty bad so don't expect to see everything clearly, including some of the kills. The killers identity was sort of obvious to me anyways, but there is a second twist which came out of nowhere for me. It felt rushed and fell flat. 'To All A Goodnight' has it's moments, like a helicopter propeller kill and making one of the characters go completely insane after finding a decapitated head in the shower. But after I had so much anticipation in seeing this, I felt that it wasn't a very good movie and could have been so much better.4/10

Dagon This Christmas, avoid if you're smart It's a bad one you'll say, Let's make no delay, This year, to save you from fear, I'm reviewing a title unspecial.To All a Good Night is probably the rarest Christmas revenge Slasher from the 1980's. Wow, what a treat! It manages to drop the audience straight into the action with barely a minute's worth of back-story. As if you've woken up in a field with a concussion and no recollection of the events that precluded your dilemma. During Christmas break, at Calvin Finishing School for Girls (what the hell is a Finishing School?), a soon-to-be sorority sister is accidentally murdered during the onset of typical college hijinks. Fast forward 2 years to the present time; the girls are prepping for the upcoming holiday break – only this time, a knife-wielding lunatic donning a Santa suit and plastic mask is on the prowl.To reference my introductory statement in this review, this film manages to shotgun the audience straight into the killing grounds. How about some back-story? Nah. Perhaps a bit of a story arc so the suspense builds some substantialness? Nope. To All a Good Night just whiplashes you straight into the premise and says "forget all of that" and ignores your pleas for a bit of reasonable pacing in its hurried execution. I suppose we could agree that getting to the chewy center is a good thing; how many times have we witnessed Slasher films that came chock-full of filler that was completely unnecessary? It's a tall order to request a balance of both worlds with so many films shoved carelessly into the Slasher sub-genre. The film quality is dodgy – there's no denying it. The lighting is so poor you can barely make out what's happening in the outdoor segments, most notably those filmed by moonlight. It matters not in the end, however, because the film in its entirety barely manages to showcase a level of competency as it is. This is a rank amateur piece of celluloid. The players in this production must've needed an additional paycheck, going a step further to ruin a screenplay that was phished out of a sewer to begin with. To its credit, by 1980, Slashers weren't completely overdone and outplayed, so there's really no excuse – probably the only thing it has going for it is that it seems to be one of the first films of the 80's to feature a killer Santa, sharing a spot next to Christmas Evil, also released in the same year and equally as awful. What's a Slasher film without a twist ending, right? It's all here. The stereotypes, the clichés, the ending spelled out right from the beginning with a bit of a twist tacked on for good measure. The director, David Hess, is more experienced in the realm of acting than directing and we can see the results. Hess even gave himself a role in this Christmas feature, albeit uncredited; taking a part in the film's shocking, or as it were, less than shocking, conclusion. Stick to acting, David.If I were in the position of a casual fan, I'd want an experienced fanatic to warn me wholeheartedly about the impending doom that To All a Good Night brings to the campus. I am, for that purpose, the individual sought after; here to remind you that Christmas is for eggnog, gingerbread men, and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer – certainly not a sludge-inhabiting, D-rated feature wispier than an untamed plume of hair.