Rish Outfield's reviews
The Christmas season is upon us, and I found this little "gem" somewhere, and thought I'd share it with you fine folks. I'd never heard of it, and you probably haven't either. But that did not make it good.
Okay boys and girls, six years ago on Christmas break (in a prologue that was literally thirty seconds long), a girl was accidentally killed in an impossibly secluded boarding house. This Christmas break, a new group of girls hooks up with a planeful of guys and throw themselves a little ‘aren't you glad there's no maniacs around' party. Unfortunately for them, there IS a maniac wandering the premises, and, in an amazingly original turn, he is wearing a Santa Claus outfit! After a few of the youths fall victim to The Jolly One, a cop with an amazingly loud sport jacket shows up to investigate. But the killings aren't over yet, kids!
First of all, I immediately thought this had a cool title. But after thinking about it, I changed my mind. Isn't there a more ominous/appropriate section in "Twas the Night Before Christmas" that could be used? Of course, since the idea was being ripped off from Tales From the Crypt's "And All Through the House," they couldn't very well use that title (or could they?). And another thing, why is "Goodnight" just one word here? Bad title or not, it was a thoroughly paint-by-numbers and mediocre slasher film. It was utterly predictable and utterly free of scares. The killer followed Scream's rules by the letter, and you always knew who the next victim was gonna be. It had a lot of characters, including a "creepy" groundskeeper (a neon sign practically absolved him of suspicion). Immediately we were introduced to the virgin character, and later we are introduced to the geek. It wasn't hard to guess who was going to live. The film was so poorly lit, however, that sometimes it was impossible to differentiate between the characters, much less try and I.D. the killer. Around the halfway point, I became convinced I knew who the killer was (simply by choosing the least likely person). I was half right.
The killer not only knew where everyone was hiding, but was in every conceivable place at the same time. Said killer was quite erratic with his weapons; sometimes he'd use a knife, sometimes an axe, once he used a garrote, and most convolutedly, he used a airplane's propellor to chop up not one but TWO of his victims who were standing next to it.
The dialogue was also erratic (you know, in movies like these, dialogue, gore, and nudity usually have to make up for the lack of scares. . . have you ever noticed that?), for example:
GIRL: You're gonna have to catch me first! I'm the fastest girl in school.
GUY: Yeah, I'll bet.
And:
GIRL: Who do you think you are, Sherlock Holmes?
GUY: I wish I was, then I wouldn't be so pre-occupied for my life."
In case you couldn't tell, I was using the first example as Good Dialogue, and the second as Bad.
At first, it was so bad it was funny. Later, though, it was just so bad. So the beginning clearly ripped off Prom Night. I can't say that the whole movie was a Prom Night ripoff, though. It ripped liberally from several horror films of the period. A couple of questions were left unanswered: One girl, making out outdoors, sees the killer IN the house, and immediately she runs to the door, bangs on it, and demands to be let in. Huh? Also, one of the girls is spared by the killer, and spends the rest of the movie dancing around in her nightgown like a ballerina (the killer also leaves her alone now).
Here's a disturbing line from my notes: "I hate to say it, but it's times like this that I actually get tired of the slasher genre." Yes, it's sad, folks, but watching this, I could see why so many people despise this horror film sub-class. And it's strange how a movie like Aliens can near almost three hours long and fly by, yet one of these is 79 minutes long and drags on forever.
The ending was probably the coolest part. It was what most impressed me about Scream when I first saw it. You see, it turned out that there were actually TWO killer Santas actually working together–-a husband and wife team. Well, you know what they say, the family that sleighs together, stays together.
Sorry.

The tyranist's thoughts
First of all, God bless the '80s. A film like this could not have been made to day and really it's a damn shame!
In spite of the holiday themed title and the fact that the killer is dressed like Santa Claus the movie really isn't much of a Christmas movie. Actually, in retrospect, this movie is pretty much just like The Dorm That Dripped Blood. A bunch of kids hanging out over the holiday break. A mysterious killer who may or may not be someone they know. Too bad it didn't also feature that great Daphne Zuniga death scene.
This was pretty forgettable, but it was firmly in the '80s slasher genre and if you dig on that kind of movie than you might get one good viewing out of it. Probably not, but it could happen. I wonder if it would make a difference to have watched it nearer Christmas.