Silent Night Bloody Night (1974)
Directed by: Theodore Gershuny
Written by: Jeffrey Konvitz, Theodore Gershuny
Starring: James Patterson, John Carradine, Mary Woronov, Patrick O'Neal
After Wilford Butler is killed when returning home to his old mansion, the house is left to his grandson. It turns out that the mansion used to be an insane asylum, but he decides to sell it anyway. There’s a slight problem however. An escaped mental patient has taken up residence there and is stalking the nearby grounds, and killing anyone coming to the mansion. With the locals acting strange upon mention of the house and the escaped mental patient taking a shine to it, is it possible that this all has something to do with Butler’s death?
Unfortunately, Silent Night, Bloody Night is not a very good film. It starts off with a certain old school charm, with it being a very low budget 1970’s movie, and is the type of film you would stumble across on a late night of a weekend on TV. However, not long after the opening titles fade, you realise just how slow and uninvolving this film is. Given it’s low budget and little known cast, the acting is somewhat amateur. Very over-dramatic, and serious, but not very good at all. It’s snail pace makes the film seem a lot longer than its already lean 81 minute running time, with the charisma free characters sucking any enjoyment out of the film, losing the potential ‘so bad it’s good label’. The music, just like the actors, is as subtle as a heard of elephant. It does try to build the tension, but just falls flat. The film is very dark, but in the sense that you don’t see a lot going on unless the scene is well lit, as opposed to an ominous atmosphere. Some external night time scenes are so bad, you can’t actually distinguish the characters on screen. It may seem I have been a little harsh on the film, just focusing on the negatives, but with this film, it’s difficult find any positives. The opening minutes 5-10 are half decent, but from then on in, things just drag. One of the dullest slashers out there. Even though this is set at Christmas, I struggle to recall seeing one bit of tinsel!
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