Bjorn (ODDBear) A killer dispatches a few people on Christmas at a finishing school. Give a film credit where credit's due. First of all; this is the first film depicting a killer Santa at Christmas (the "Tales From the Crypt" segment with Joan Collins is just that, a segment), it's a few months ahead of "Friday the 13th" with the undying formula of disposable people hacked to death at a secluded location, a minuscule budget and a 10 day shooting schedule definitely called for fast thinking and fast shooting (and a lot of painfully obvious day-for-night scenes). The fact that David Hess and co. managed to churn out a semi coherent slasher must be considered quite a feat in itself. Too bad that "To All a Goodnight" is such a bore. The kills are mostly clumsy and the extreme gore scenes look pretty bad, there's no suspense and any attempt at a creepy atmosphere in promising surroundings falls flat with cringe worthy dialog and well below par performances. For me; a William Lauer (never heard of him before) delivers the best performance as the typical horn dog of the pack while others quite literally stink. Kiva Lawrence, as the cook and overall watchdog of the girls at the finishing school, is the most experienced actress and she's not bad per se but doesn't come off any better than the rest. Future mini starlet Jennifer Runyon doesn't do any better either. There's also that killer second twist in the end where you think everything's wrapped up but it turns out not so much. Needless to say it doesn't better the film but it's another point in the flick's favor concerning how it beat most others with that indispensable routine. With no Christmas atmosphere to speak of, no real suspense, not any great gore or memorable scenes for that matter or any other small things associated with decent slashers to recommend; I hardly think "To All a Goodnight" will be a seasonal mandatory viewing in the yuletide season for slasher fans. I wanted to like...scratch that...Love "To All a Goodnight" but it's a plain old stinker in most respects.

Seamus Murphy as a big fan of horror films i do not like this film it could have been so good but sadly there were stuff in the film that just ruined the whole movieso 2 years ago a college girl was killed at her sorority house now we are in the present time 1980 and some of the girls Shy Nancy Pretty Melody funny Leia Sam Trisha Cynthiaalso we have their boyfriendsNerdy Alex T.J Tom BlakeCynthia gets stabbed to death walking outside to see her boyfriend Trisha has her throat slice while getting beer from the fridge Tom gets killed the next morning while searching for Trisha Blake gets shot in the head with a crospo while having sex with Sam Sam gets decapitated while having sex with Blakethe next day we are just down to Nancy, melody, Leia, Alex, and T.J all of whom seem to care less that half of their friends are missing ??????Nancy goes out for a walk by herself and find Ralph the creepy handyman of the sorority dead the group yet again seems to care less about it Leia decides to make out with the cop Melody and T.J decide to make out with each other Nancy and Alex decide to make out with each otherLeia goes to take a shower and finds Sam head in the shower and the cop dead to who has a knife in his back the killer appears right next to Leia what's gonna happen the world may never knowT.J and Melody are making out with T.J gets hanged with what appears to be a wire around his neckMelody runs away and bumps into Nancy and Alex who also find Sam's head in the showerLeia apparently is still alive but now she's dancing around and singing like she's on drugs or something Nancy and Melody run downstairs and find a Santa killer downstairs who is indeed ms.Jensen who is upset because her daughter was the one killed in the beginning of the film 2 years agoMelody runs outside to find the pilot to the airplane in which the boys arrived by while trying to start the plane the killer starts the helicopter propeller for them causing both to get brutally killedNancy knocks ms.Jensen off the balcony killing her but apparently there is a 2nd killer of the detectives who is ms.Jensen husband he tries to kill Nancy but Alex shoots him killing himAlex and Nancy run off while Leia continues to dance and sing like an idiot the endi don't like this film the main problem is the quality it is so dark at many parts of movie that you can barely ( if not ) see anything going on also it is very hard to hear what the characters say a lotThe killings are all really good but you don't really get to see them happeningalso half the group goes missing and the other don't seem to care even when the find the dead body of the handyman which does not make any sense to mealso there is very little detail in the movie like what did the killer do to Leia???? i don't like this film it could have been really good but there were so many things wrong with this movie so i don't like this movie at all

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

acidburn-10 A typical 80s slasher with teenage girls getting stalked and murdered by a masked killer. But giving the fact that this is one of the first slasher movies to come out, and has an original costume idea with the killer dressing up as Santa Claus.This movie does have a lot of gore and a high body count, but it can get a bit dull at times. This movie does have faults like at times it's so dark you can't really see what the hell is going on, and the best parts of the movie happens at night. The acting is anything but good. We get a lot of overacting and some of the most pathetic screams I have ever witnessed. These girls look like they have never experienced fear in their lives."To All A Goodnight" isn't a bad movie, it may be weak and slow in parts but it's still highly enjoyable and it follows the slasher formula quite well. I pretty much guessed who the killer was at the end but there is more this has a double twist ending and If you're a fan of masked slasher movies from the 80s I definitely suggest you give this one a shot because it is quite gory and as I said before, the body count is relatively high.The killings are brill though we get bloody stabs, some slit throats, a rock jammed into ones head a brutal decapitation, an arrow through head, an axe in head and the bit where the two people get chopped up by a helicopter propeller.All in all i'd say Fairly enjoyable slasher which gets a bit too slow at many times. Follows the basic slasher formula and has a high body count. A definite must for anyone who enjoys the occasional 80s slasher. If you've seen many of these before however, you might feel that it is a bit too unoriginal even though it was one of the first in its class.