David Hess' "To All A Goodnight" (1980) - October 21, 2014 - Kino Lorber

[Member-222782]

Was this David Hess's only directorial effort? Not that this is any indication of quality (or lack thereof) - I'm just curious. I'm not a big fan of Christmas horror flicks but have heard so much about this film so it's a definite blind buy.

[WesReviews]

If I were to rank the various Christmas-themed slasher movies I've seen, it would probably look something like this...

1. Black Christmas (original)
2. Tales From the Crypt (1972 movie segment "And All Through the House")
3. Silent Night Deadly Night
4. Black Christmas (remake)
5. To All A Goodnight
6. Christmas Evil
7. Don't Open Till Christmas

Haven't seen Silent Night Bloody Night, Santa's Slay, Silent Night,

[cropsy]

I love the "Black Christmas" remake, it might sound daft but its got a proper Christmassy feel to it with all the lights and decorations. I got the blu ray just after new years and have decided to wait till christmas to watch it.

[Dustin Putman]

My copy just shipped from Amazon. So excited to finally see this film for the first time, and in the best possible format.

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by cropsy

I love the "Black Christmas" remake, it might sound daft but its got a proper Christmassy feel to it with all the lights and decorations. I got the blu ray just after new years and have decided to wait till christmas to watch it.

I agree. It gets me in the mood for Christmas.
This might be a bit daring, but I think it's my go-to Christmas horror film.

[Bachelor73]

any updates on the movie "to all a goodnight"?.
anyone recieved their copy yet?.
any thoughts on how the movie turned out on bluray?.

[davidthenikonuser]

Originally Posted by Bachelor73

any updates on the movie "to all a goodnight"?.
anyone recieved their copy yet?.
any thoughts on how the movie turned out on bluray?.

Got it the other day. Looks and sounds beautiful.

[slasherdisc]

Originally Posted by Bachelor73

any updates on the movie "to all a goodnight"?.
anyone recieved their copy yet?.
any thoughts on how the movie turned out on bluray?.

I received my copy yesterday. Definitely will be checking it out over the weekend and will report back if no one gets to it before me.

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Bachelor73

any updates on the movie "to all a goodnight"?.
anyone recieved their copy yet?.
any thoughts on how the movie turned out on bluray?.

I posted some screenshots on another forum here.

[HorrorBlu]

Currently $15.99 at DeepDiscount.

[SilentNight]

Originally Posted by Katatonia

I posted some screenshots on another forum here.

watched it today and totally dug it. Pic quality is quite good for this type of movie and the sound quality was fine. I haven't dove into the special features yet but I'm very happy with this release. Fans of stuff like Graduation Day, Final Exam and other more obscure 80's slasher fare should enjoy this. The acting is hilarious!

[FarewelltotheFlesh]

To All A Goodnight looks excellent. Beautiful grain structure, some noise but not an egregious amount. Great detail and clarity. For those who had to suffer through that horrendous VHS, this will be a revelation! Scorpion is awesome!
Well worth it if you like bloody, sleazy slashers.

PQ- 4.5/5
AQ- 4/5
Extras- 3/5

For fans of the film, this will likely make you cry in joy.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by SilentNight

The acting is hilarious!

I watched this for the first time the other night and decided about five minutes in that the acting, across the board, was the worst I had seen in a film in several years. Each time a character spoke, it was like they were saying the words for the first time in their lives. Inflection, rhythm, and tone were all over the place. At one point, someone tells the others to 'Shut down!'. Presumably, she meant to say 'shut up!' but I'm guessing no one involved even noticed the error.

[jah13]

Couldn't get through this one. Horribly acted and staged. The interview with Jennifer Runyon--she still looks great--is pretty useless as well, as she has essentially nothing of substance or intelligence to say about working on this film or any of the others they go through. Nice that they went through the effort of tracking her down and getting her on record...but, the end result of all that effort is disappointing, unfortunately.

[Member-222782]

There are bad movies and then there are bad movies. Took 3 attempts to finish this. Amateur hour in every sense of the word

[HuggyBear73]

Just watched this. Terrible slasher film, but a solid transfer.

[SilentNight]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

I watched this for the first time the other night and decided about five minutes in that the acting, across the board, was the worst I had seen in a film in several years. Each time a character spoke, it was like they were saying the words for the first time in their lives. Inflection, rhythm, and tone were all over the place. At one point, someone tells the others to 'Shut down!'. Presumably, she meant to say 'shut up!' but I'm guessing no one involved even noticed the error.

the acting is about on par with Pieces and Final Exam. Bad...really bad. However, in a case like this is actually helps the movie beings it is a bad movie. Pieces is a great example of the bad acting fitting the movie perfectly. This is truly z-grade early 80's horror. Glad it's in my collection no matter how lousy it is. I had a blast with it.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by SilentNight

the acting is about on par with Pieces and Final Exam. Bad...really bad. However, in a case like this is actually helps the movie beings it is a bad movie. Pieces is a great example of the bad acting fitting the movie perfectly. This is truly z-grade early 80's horror. Glad it's in my collection no matter how lousy it is. I had a blast with it.

well after reading the last few posts I see I'm not in the minority... I was really looking forward to seeing this (one of the only ones from that time that I've never seen) and as I was watching it I was thinking "this is worse than most 80's slasher films, it can't be my imagination!". Like you, I'm always excited to get another horror flick in my collection from the 70's and 80's, even the mediocre ones....

[Torchur]

YES!!!!!

[jah13]

Originally Posted by BrianS

I never would have known that David Hess wrote Elvis' "I Got Stung" without that interview. It was nice to hear her opinions, too.

Would have been nice if the interviewer had been able to get more out of her than the "he was great" / "she was so sweet" variety of "answers"...but some subjects just aren't very good interviews no matter how hard the interviewer tries, which is likely the case here.

I already knew about Hess's career as a songwriter from reading it in the past and / or hearing him talk about it on previous DVD supplements.

More Hess songwriting credits here, if you're curious.