Junkie-6 Review of To All a Goodnight

To All a Goodnight (1980)

A slasher flick directed by everyone's favorite psycho that transcends bad.

[28 October 1998]

David Hess (yep, the same brillo haired psycho you know and love) made his directorial debut with this downright bizarre slasher flick that transcends bad. Ol' Hess must have been blazing on coke and pot when he made this flick, because while it follows the formula of the ol' stalk n' slash (featuring the first Santa Clause killer, too) the college co-eds do and say some seriously surreal stuff: in a scene in which a couple of co-eds are about to get it on, the foreplay includes her dancing around the bed in a leotard with a tray of hors d'oeuvres! The plot is a rather blatant knock off of Friday the 13th with a Sorority house being stalked by a killer who is avenging the death of a loved one, killed years back in an initiation hazing (this scene is particularly amusing as the girls chase after the initiate screaming "sorority!" over and over until she is frightened by a girl wearing a Santa Clause mask and wielding a butcher knife causing her to plunge off a balcony to her death ten feet below). Some good gore FX courtesy of a young Mark Shostrum, but the real attraction is the surreal heights of badness that only a drug-addled first timer could create. Also of note: Hess' mother actually has a small role in the film and in the credits her character is listed as a "Mr. Ronsoni". If you love bad cinema this is a must see, if not, avoid it like the plague.