
by Ed Yourdon David Hess' To All a Goodnight (1980) Well, this is it -- the original killer Santa film, To All A Goodnight. Released to a handful of US theatres back in the wintry month of January 1980 (which would put its filming most likely during the second half of 1979), this energetic and eerie Santa slasher predates the better known Silent Night, Deadly Night (or SNDN) by over four years, yet has a higher body count and some surprise twists thrown into the mix. I imagine it was made at roughly the same time as the superb Lewis Jackson film Christmas Evil, which is more of a psychological suspense/black comedy than a slasher film but features a murderous Santa nonetheless, so I suppose it's really a tie between Christmas Evil and To All a Goodnight as far as being the original killer St. Nick flick, but this is definitely the first Santa slasher (set in a sorority house, The Calvin Finishing School for Girls), and I enjoyed every cheesy minute of … [Read more...]




