To All a Goodnight (1980)

"It sure doesn't feel like Christmas." - Nancy

A serial killer terrorizes teens over the holidays.
Starring: Jennifer Runyon, Forrest Swanson, Judith Bridges, Linda Gentile, William Lauer

Link to IMDB

Nancy

It's Christmas time at the Calvin Finishing School for Girls, so most of the students and faculty are going home for the holidays. The headmistress, Mrs. Jensen, is staying to keep an eye on the young ladies that didn't go home. Most of these girls are excited to party with a group of boys that will be visiting, but not Nancy. She's our main character but she's innocent, shy and not interested in drinking with guys.

What no one realizes is that there's a serial killer nearby, and two students have already been murdered! The killer eventually wears a Santa Clause mask and outfit and begins lurking around the campus, spying on everyone.

The movie does a really poor job of establishing the characters, but we spend a lot of time with the saucy Leah, the jock T.J., and the nerdy Alex who befriends Nancy.


A handful of other characters are here, which gives us many choices for which one might be the killer, but they also provide many victims for the psycho Santa to pick from. The kids are having a good time drinking, but the killer is always nearby, ready to strike again.

      Alex                                      Leah                         Mrs. Jensen

Eventually, Mrs. Jensen realizes that her students are going missing, so they get Detective Polanksy on the scene to investigate. The cops don't provide much help, but the last 20 minutes of the movie is where the excitement really gets going. Nancy and Alex are trying to uncover the killer's motives and stay alive, while the killer is intent on making sure no one survives the night!

"Everyone's running around like they got the heebee jeebees." - T.J.

Santa's got a stick !

The movie is trying to be dark and serious, but it never really captures the right vibes. It's all too poorly put together to really be an effective thriller, and it's definitely not as creepy as it wants to be. I just couldn't take it seriously, especially because of the unintentional humour caused by the peculiar displays of "acting" and the consistently awkward attempts at trying to inject romance into the story.

For a movie that calls itself a slasher, there's barely any gore or violence and even the twist ending was a bit predictable. Overall, it's far from a failure and was completely watchable, but there's nothing original or interesting enough to make it stand-out as special.


Be sure not to miss:
- Nothing like a hot meal to forget about all that pesky murder.
- "Thank god for airplanes!"
- This movie has some of the worst day-for-night I have ever seen! Sometimes it's broad daylight, but they're using flashlights anyways. This is made even more bizarre by the fact that some scenes are so damn dark you can't see anything!

Internet review:
"It pales in comparison to other killer Santa movies." - Ruzzeltoff

Should I watch it?
It's a rather bland entry in the genre.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

To all a Goodnight gets...