80's slashers are like Family Dollar cough syrup: they just hit different.
Happy Holidays Neighbor, and welcome back to our drive-in where today my dog Callie and I are watching the overlooked 1980 seasonal slasher "To All a Good Night."
If you've seen any masked killer movie from this decade, you know the formula: a prank backfires and someone either dies or loses their mind as a result, and the people responsible are punished one by one in creatively nasty ways. Well that's the story here, when a finishing school student is chased by her classmates up a flight of stairs, to a balcony, and right out the window. Fast forward a couple years and someone is out to get the remaining students at the finishing school as they party through Christmas break.
What is a finishing school anyway? Do those exist in our world? Our neighborhood certainly doesn't have one. Finishing school kind of sounds like a trope, like how every aloof male character in any movie is an architect. How many architects do you know in real life? Or like the trope that Gonzaga is a school. Do you personally know any Gonzaga alumni?
Anyway, "To All a Good Night" isn't a good film, but it is a great movie, if that makes sense. It's the sort of movie that sets its night scenes in broad daylight and hopes you won't notice. It also features a full suit of armor complete with medieval weaponry just hanging out in the corner of the living room for any ol' serial killer to slip into. And if you're paying any amount of attention, it tips its hand in the first few minutes as to the killer's identity.
But for all the plot holes and technical problems, it's still my favorite kind of movie: one that says "this is the movie we're making, as weird as it is, and we're going to see this thing through no matter what." That attitude carries over to the finished product.
That's why I said 80's slashers, like "To All a Good Night," hit different: they have a weird, unique energy that makes them fun to watch regardless of technical aspects. Neighbor, I would encourage you to remove the expressions "so bad it's good" and "guilty pleasure" from your vocabulary as they apply to movies like this. There's no reason to feel guilty about hopping into an offbeat movie's lane and going on a strange, gross, chaotic ride for 90 minutes.
Callie and I give "To All a Good Night" four stars and put it on our list of favorite Christmas movies. On top of everything else I mentioned, it has a truly bonkers ending that you'll never see coming, one that will briefly have you questioning everything you've watched in the previous 80 minutes as well as your own sanity. It's a lot of fun.
Until next time, Neighbor: see you at the drive-in. And stay away from those off-brand cough syrups.
