This 1980 horror film features a crazed killer dressed as Santa Claus stalking a group of friends at an all-girl school where an accidental death occurred 2 years prior. What can I say? This film is disappointing. Many scenes are dark which makes me want to go to sleep, the characters are unlikable, except for the main girl, Nancy (Jennifer Runyon), the editing stinks and the ending is kind of predictable and ridiculous. Also, The film obviously rips off "Prom Night," "Black Christmas," "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th." The only plus is the girls showing some skin and a couple of kills/deaths. I'd only view this if you're into slasher flicks, but it's a weak one.

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.

I got this one for two reasons. First, to add to a collection of Christmas themed horror and fright films, and also because it's directed by David Hess. While he made a most convincing and despicable villain in Last House on the Left and House by the Edge of the Park, he really should have left the directing here to others. The story is fairly typical 80s teenager vs slasher fare, although the whole killer in a Santa costume is intriguing. The methods used to knock off the teens are fairly standard (except for one rather sharp effort that gets two teens at one time), yet generally well-done. The film suffers from a lack of pacing, pretty sluggish and slow in many places with a continuous repetition of the Are We Safe in the House or What? mantra, to the point of causing a viewer to wish the kids would all get killed quickly. The wish is mostly fulfilled, but it sure takes a while. The end is not particularly surprising unless you've not seen this type of film before. Still a worthwhile item to have if you keep a collection of Christmas scare flicks, as I have.

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.