Four years before Silent Night, Deadly Night sparked a moral outcry — a movie which critic Gene Siskel called “contemptible” — another slasher used Santa Claus’ image for its own bloodthirsty story. However, To All a Goodnight managed to avoid all the hand-wringing from panicky parents and busybodies only due to the fact that most people didn’t even know this movie existed. Not much has changed whenever it’s mentioned today.

Had David Hess and Alex Rebar’s Santa slasher been granted a larger theatrical rollout back in 1980, perhaps it would have been the target of what many deem the greatest moral uproar in horror history. It’s no exaggeration to say there was an overreaction to Silent Night, Deadly Night; from the creation of advocacy groups to one psychologist fearing the movie would undo kids’ potty training, the hubbub surrounding Charles Sellier’s Christmasploitative slasher was unprecedented for the time. 

As Silent Night, Deadly Night fans now know, the protests helped it in the long run, seeing as all the negative attention only made folks more aware of as well as curious to see the controversial Christmas movie. Perhaps a little notoriety would have benefitted To All a Goodnight, rather than letting the movie take its actual course in life. That isn’t to say, hiding beneath the obscurity lies an underrated and particularly well made flick. Plenty would agree To All a Goodnight was forgotten for good reasons. 

Image: Judith Bridges, Linda Gentile and William Lauer.

As with most slashers from this era, To All a Goodnight was made with Halloween in mind. Its success, to be more specific. The rush job on production — including a 10-day shoot at a seaside mansion in Santa Barbara — so the movie could make its deadline in December of 1979 was all for naught, seeing as potential distributor 20th Century Fox ultimately lost interest. Rebar suspected their withdrawal had to do with one of the movie’s stars: adult actor Harry Reems (credited as Dan Stryker). Despite the setback, Intercontinental Releasing Corporation came to the rescue and gave the picture a limited run that following January. The movie then didn’t see a VHS release until ‘83.

In a flashback set two years before To All a Goodnight’s current events unfold, a group of Calvin Finishing School for Girls’ finest is shown in hot pursuit, shouting “Sorority! Sorority!” at the petrified victim of their bizarre hazing ritual. Finally, the chasee plummets from a balcony and, as one might gather from the sight of her motionless body, dies. The audience barely has time to snicker over the scene’s use of an unmistakable dummy when the movie moves on to the present and commences with its foreseeable revenge story.

Christmas horror movies tend to juxtapose typical holiday cheer with dark disturbances. To All a Goodnight, however, looks more like Christmas in July than Christmas in December. Don’t expect to see any snow here, and whatever the movie has in the way of yuletide décor is limited. Being filmed and set in sunny California — “sunny” is exactly right because this movie’s notorious day-for-night scenes are even more obvious in high-def — and constrained by a $75,000 budget, the unseasonal look can’t be helped. Rebar also only cared about having the killer dressed as Santa Claus; a wintry environment was of less importance to him. Hess’ directorial debut, which comes after years of making music and his starring in movies like The Last House on the Left and The House on the Edge of the Park, does at least satisfy the more crucial component of Christmas horror. As several Calvin students stay behind over the holidays, they do what comes natural in any slasher: they have sex, then die at the hands of a costumed murderer.

Image: Jennifer Runyon as Nancy.

Silent Night, Deadly Night felt the sting of extreme moral policing because of its own unfortunate timing. Eighties America, after all, was conservative under Ronald Reagan’s rule. Nowadays, the pairing of Christmas and darker content is more accepted. Maybe normal. While To All a Goodnight certainly could have been lambasted for its twisted depiction of Santa and using the holidays as a massacre’s backdrop, it’s worth noting that the movie was born at the tail-end of the seventies. Above everything else here, the period’s more liberal attitudes toward sex are reflected in Rebar’s story as both male and female characters are libidinous, not to mention unapologetic. The sexual agenda is quickly apparent in a movie where the women’s soon-to-be bedpartners arrive via phallic object; the men’s private plane descends on a landing strip near a women-only campus. Oddly enough, though, the cast’s resident porn star was excluded from all the ensuing sex. Harry Reems’ mustachioed character instead hangs back at the plane, only to then later be cut to shreds by a wing propeller.

An air of weirdness already pervades this house in which a naughty Santa lurks and kills, and things only get weirder once the male suitors appear. What the central characters lack in depth they make up for in personality. Judith Bridges’ Leia can’t dethrone Barb from Black Christmas as the holidays’ queen of mean, but the theatrical leader and bad girl of the Calvin stragglers is shamelessly indulgent. Her kooky performance is one to remember. Also of note is all the unmeaningful dialogue; characters routinely say a lot without really saying anything at all. Overall, this slasher’s quirks leave more of a mark than its actual horror elements. To All a Goodnight doesn’t provoke scares or even stir up too much excitement, yet its offbeat execution of a now familiar formula is more fascinating than it’s given credit for.

The urge to call To All a Goodnight an overlooked influence on the first major slasher wave is tempting. However, it’s doubtful many budding filmmakers saw the movie back then, much less felt inclined to use it as a template. If anything, Rebar’s script plays out like a hornier and less vague reimagining of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. Even the inclusion of a Santa-suited killer isn’t groundbreaking; Amicus’ Tales from the Crypt adaptation already put a murderous Saint Nick on the big screen after the trope originated in comics. Still and all, this movie had the good luck of not only beating other Christmas slashers to the punch, it handles the concept rather differently without skimping on the necessary trimmings.

Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Image: The Santa-suited killer claims another victim.