Silent Night, Bloody Night
Just how do you know something is original anymore? Take Halloween for example. Made in 1978, it became one of the main causes of the 80’s slasher flick trend, Halloween had the famous point of view camera shots to allow us to live vicariously through the killer, creating a whole slew of imitators. However this revolutionary technique had actually been used, and arguably to greater effect, in the low budget Canadian feature Black Christmas four years earlier. A favourite of many horror connoisseurs, it also utilised another effective scare technique in the form of the creepy phone call to great effect, not to mention it bringing a dark influence into the usually bright and happy time of the year. Well it doesn’t end there, as the previous year, 1973, saw the release of Silent Night, Bloody Night which also features point of view shots to show the viewer the actions of the film’s killer, but also uses creepy phone calls! Mix this in with John Carradine playing a mute newspaper editor who communicates by hitting a bell, and we’ve got a movie!
A small New England town lives in the shadow of a large house that sits upon a hill on its outskirts. On Christmas Eve 1950, the owner Wilfred Butler was found outside the house, horribly burnt to death, ruled by the coroner as accidental. In his will he left the house to his only remaining relative, his grandson Jeffrey, the only condition that the house was to be left untouched, just as he left it. 20 years later, approaching Christmas, we see through the eyes of a man escaping an asylum. Wearing black leather gloves (funny dress code they had in that asylum) he shoves a man out of the way and steals his car, screaming away from the scene. Meanwhile a lawyer and his pretty mistress come to the town, sent by Jeffrey Butler to sell the house as quickly as possible. He meets with some town representatives, the mayor of the town, his receptionist and telephone operator Tess, the sheriff, and the editor of the local newspaper Mr. Towman. The mayor wishes to buy the house for the town to do with as they please, a price of fifty thousand dollars is agreed upon. The people of the town seem awfully suspicious, not wanting the lawyer to stay too long and getting very nervous when he says he’s staying at the Butler house for the night. Not long after, we see the daughter of the mayor (and part time narrator for the movie), Diane Adams, driving down an isolated road, passing a man trying to hitch a ride. She drives on by and the man looks angry, walking back to his broken down vehicle and violently smashes the windscreen with a tire iron in his (black) gloved hands.
That night, the lawyer and his mistress are settling at the house, unaware that our mysterious POV-killer is somewhere lurking in the house. They go upstairs to indulge in some nookie in a bedroom, but are rudely interrupted by the intruder, who brutally slays them with an axe, leaving an open bible next to the bed and a small cross in one of the victim’s blood soaked hands (for absolutely no reason, I should add). The killer then makes a call to the sheriff, telling him to get to the house as something has happened. The killer also talks to Tess, saying its ‘Marianne’ and she’s in her father’s house, the killer knows who Tess is and tells her to tell everybody she’s at the house. Tess calls the sheriff but nobody answers, so she quickly calls in a replacement operator, and hurries away. The hitchhiking man from earlier on appears outside the house and sees the car of the dead lawyer, and as the keys are still in the ignition he hops in and drives off. He meets Diane and identifies himself as Jeffrey Butler himself, wondering what the heck is going on and why he can’t get into his house. Jeffrey goes to find the sheriff’s deputy, at the same time as the sheriff himself sees a light over in the graveyard on his way to the Butler house. Unfortunately for him he’s interrupted the killer digging up Wilfred Butler’s coffin, and is beaten to death with a shovel for his troubles. Could Jeffrey’s appearance have anything to do with the killings? Why are the townsfolk so wary of the Butler house, and how does it connect them to the killer? Whatever reasons there are behind these events, its all tied into the Wilfred Butler’s house, and the terrible secrets it hides within.
The best way to describe this movie is as a curiosity piece. In that way its attractive as its and extremely cheap release on the Diamond Entertainment label so you’re unlikely to feel gypped after only pay the price of a rental or two on it. There are flashes of style, the POV shots of our mysterious gloved killer are quite good, especially our introduction to the psycho when we have a great view of the escape from an asylum after stealing somebody’s car (hey John, did you watch this by any chance?). Also very well handled is the depiction of the history of the house and the terrible secrets that are revealed, they’re told in narrated flashback with a sepia-tinted black and while view of things. The dirty, foggy nature of this footage, which in some cases leaves character’s faces completely black, is surprisingly effective and while the POV shots are interesting, its these later scenes which end up shining the most. Also, John Carradine’s strange and eccentric performance as Towman should keep many entertained, its an extremely odd character. I must also mention the opening credits, which feature a very cool minor key orchestral version of ‘Silent Night’.
However, beyond these positives there is unfortunately little to offer. The acting is by and large pretty poor, barely conveying any emotion whatsoever and showing very little reaction to the grisly and potentially life-changing events that litter the film. The low budget for the feature is very much in evidence too, the town in which it is set seems to have ten inhabitants at the very most. The locations leave something to be desired also, they fail miserably to trick us into thinking that the large Butler House is considerably smaller, in fact they show maybe three rooms and leave the rest for us to imagine ourselves. It also appears to have been filmed on poor film stock, and often without enough light as some scenes are very difficult to make out, and not in a spooky scary way either. Despite the POV shots, the creepy whispered telephone calls, and the nasty murder of the lawyer and his lady friend, the film is almost entirely devoid of any shocking moments, nor does it build any suspense. I’m guessing this is meant to be a ‘whodunit’, as Jeffrey Butler is seen wearing black leather gloves like the killer, as are a couple of the other characters. The problem is there are no clues given in the narrative, there are no attempts to point out that when Jeffrey is away from the other characters somebody is murdered etc., and it wasn’t until my second viewing that I even noticed what seem like grossly under-developed plot points. The lack of good writing and direction and this shoddy attention to detail leaves the film with no sense of mystery or intrigue, very little feeling of danger nor dread, its little more than a soulless trainwreck of a film.
An interesting diversion for those interested in seeing perhaps an early template for a horror classic, but beyond the haunting flashback scenes late in the movie and some odd eccentricities, there’s not much else to see. Still, not bad for the very low price tag.
