Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)

Director:

Theodore Gershuny

Writers:

Theodore Gershuny (writer)
Jeffrey Konvitz (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Christmas Eve | Serial Killer | Sepia | Flashlight

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Death House
Night of the Dark Full Moon (UK)
Zora (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

88 min | USA:81 min | Canada:64 min (dvd version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 | USA:R | Iceland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Armor Films Inc.

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.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

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

My brief review of the film

With a relatively intriguing plot and a set design that is quite good, this starts off as quite satisfying viewing, but as it progresses, the story becomes less original and interesting, and from there, the film starts to turn sour, as all it has to fall back on is quite poor production values. The camera-work is often jerky and clumsy, the post-production sound recording is not very good, and the voice-over used adds little to the tale. It does have some good points though, such as a few well composed shots, and appropriate colour choices for lighting. However, with so-so acting too, and not really a great plot behind it, the negatives of this film unfortunately outweigh the good aspects.