Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)
"Night of the Dark Full Moon" (original title)

A man inherits a mansion, which once was a mental home. He visits the place and begins to investigate some crimes that happened in old times, scaring the people living in the region.

Director:

Theodore Gershuny

Writers:

Theodore Gershuny, Jeffrey Konvitz (screenplay),

Stars:

Patrick O'Neal, James Patterson, Mary Woronov

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick O'Neal	...	John Carter
James Patterson	...	Jeffrey Butler
Mary Woronov	...	Diane Adams
Astrid Heeren	...	Ingrid
John Carradine	...	Charlie Towman
Walter Abel	...	Mayor Adams
Fran Stevens	...	Tess Howard
Walter Klavun	...	Sheriff Bill Mason
Philip Bruns	...	Wilfred Butler (1929) (as Phillip Bruns)
Staats Cotsworth	...	Wilfred Butler (voice)
Ondine	...	Chief Inmate
Tally Brown	...	Inmate
Lewis Love	...	Inmate
Candy Darling	...	Guest
Harvey Cohen	...	Inmate

Storyline

Wilford Butler returns home on Christmas Eve and his house had been turned into a mental institution for the criminally insane. But the day of his return, he is set on fire and dies. The towns people believe his death was an accident, and the institution-house is later closed down. Wilford leaves the house to his grandson Jeffrey. A few years later, Jeffrey finally decides to sell this grandfather's house, but the towns people including the Mayor have mixed feelings on keeping people away from the house, especially when a serial killer escapes from another institution and finds refuge there. The killer makes frightening phone calls and kills anyone coming near the house. But what does the killer have in common with what happened to Wilford Butler years before?

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Plot Keywords:

christmas eve | serial killer | christmas | psychopath | tragic event | 

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Taglines:

The mansion... the madness... the maniac... no escape.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Zora

Filming Locations:

Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Armor Films Inc., Cannon Productions, Jeffrey Konvitz Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 64 min (dvd)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After leaving the drive-in circuit in the early 70's the film fell into public domain. It remained obscure until the mid 80's when it appeared on Elvira's Movie Macabre where it began developing a cult following that grew with its eventual release on home video.

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Quotes

Diane Adams: How old are you?
Jeffrey Butler: You mean how many years have I lived?

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Crazy Credits

The word 'Bloody' in the opening title card is red, where as the text of the rest of the credits are white.

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Connections

Edited into Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)

User Reviews

Nice idea, but kind of a mess.

This movie had to have had a very miniscule budget, because it looks very poor. Everything in this one looks very shoddy, it doesn't help that the company that put this one on dvd looks like they got a copy of this movie on vhs back when tapes first came out and just transferred it to dvd without making any improvements, or cleaning it up. The story could have been interesting, but it really falls apart in the end with a very long flashback scene that is very poorly done. The end also is kind of confusing as I was wondering about this and that. You will know who committed the murders, but you won't know a couple of the other details. On the plus side this one moves very fast and is relatively short. John Carradine is in this one, in a rather small role. For some reason he doesn't talk and only rings a bell or writes on a pad to tell people stuff. This is a waste as Carradine has a very distinguished voice. The Christmas decorations here and there don't look very good either, as they look like they were just draped here and there without much thought as to where they would go. All in all, I won't say stay away from this one, just don't expect too much.