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Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)

Dir: Theodore Gershuny

I'm going to try and make this plot as simple and straightforward as possible!

1950. Wilfred Butler, homeowner of Butler Mansion, is killed in a supposed burn accident (rather well done extended burning man stunt) and the house now passes to his Grandson Jeffery.
But Wilfred's will states that Jeffery must leave the house 'untouched' to remind people of it's 'cruelty'.
Years later though, with Christmas approaching the as yet unseen Jeffery decides to sell it.
A lawyer, John Carter (Patrick O'Neal), in charge of the sale visits the town, with his mistress Ingrid (Astrid Heeren).

While this is going on a patient, calling themselves Marianne Butler (supposed dead Mother of Jeffery!), escapes from a mental hospital.

Meanwhile…The townsfolk it seems hate the house wit a passion and Carter, in a meeting with various local dignitaries (including the Sheriff and the Mayor) says Jeffery will sell it to them for $50,000 cash so they can do with it what they wish.
The lawyer stays at the house and awaits their decision.
But this house has a nasty past.
A past that involves murder and madness… at Christmas time.
And as a man calling himself Jeffery Butler (James Patterson) arrives in town, and introduces himself to the Mayor's Daughter, Diane (Mary Woronov), and the sinister Marianne Butler starts to make threatening phone calls to the same dignitaries….it's a past that is about to rear it's very ugly head…..

Sadly this is a pretty much forgotten little horror film, that has only recently gained attention again due to its rather shoddy DVD releases.
The script, by Director Gershuny, "The Sentinel" scribe Jeffrey Konvitz and Ira Teller, is most certainly flawed and needlessly obscure but also supplies some welcome chills and some very early examples of elements that will become the staple of many Slasher movies to come.
It in fact just pips even the oft acknowledged blueprint "Black Christmas" (whose plot device of a psycho telephoning people up, was seen here first as this was released earlier) in presenting familiar content like the psycho heavy breathing, killer POV shots and short sharp deaths.
But there is also a heavy Giallo influence here with close-ups of the killer's gloved hands and the ever present whispering, gender ambiguous, voice.

Perhaps the strangest part of the film is that most of the conversations are clipped and minimalist, often leaving sentences floating in the air with no conclusion, generating a very weird feeling to the entire proceedings. Whether this is intentional though is open to question.
An early sequence of weirdness is Lawyer Carter meeting the towns' big wigs.
John Carradine is one of them, well into his "I'll appear in anything at all" period, and he's never given a single word to say but instead rings a bell to communicate.
In fact when the Carter is introduced to various town members they all stare blankly at him at first and then speak angrily in abstract sentences.
O'Neal's character basically looks on confused…but I have a feeling it's more O'Neal the actor looking confused for real. Probably wishing he was back in "Columbo".

Acting wise, a young and striking Woronov (Cult movie fan favourite and Andy Warhol 'Factory' superstar) does a perfectly decent job, as does James Patterson as Jeffery.
O'Neal though seems pretty laid back and deeply confused and everyone else ranges from the adequate to the pretty awful (Heeren).

But the strengths of this film lie not in its script or performances but in the events that it presents and how it presents them.
The excellent, though simple, credit sequence kicks in with a little girl singing "Silent Night" before she is replaced by a lilting string version that creates a highly effective sense of uneasiness and even sadness.
It perfectly sets the viewer up for the hauntingly abstract and dark tale to come.

A major highlight is the extremely well crafted, sepia tinted flashback which gives up it's genuinely unnerving, plot twist revealing tale via ancient looking, scratched and jumpy, parchment coloured footage.
It's low budget for sure (very low) but there is most certainly a desire here to make something memorable.
Trash fans will be pleased to spot Woronov's fellow 'Factory' star Candy Darling, the tragic transsexual made famous by Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side", as a dinner guest.

Violence is swift and sometimes bloody. The splatter highlight being a brutal fast edit axe murder.
There is nothing here that pushes limits, but given the age of the film some of the violence is surprisingly frank and all the basic elements of the more brutal Slashers to come is present and correct to varying degrees.

But does it all make much sense at the end? Well…sort of. Partly.
But there are still some rather confusing points left hanging it has to be said.
So it's a film of sadly missed opportunities to tie up the finale in a really satisfying fashion, but the route there is filled with enough well staged scenes and a suitably nightmarish atmosphere that it's a journey well worth taking.

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