Better Late Then Never

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a mystery semi-horror film. Mary Woronov starts off with a narration, although at times Staats Cotsworth narrates for the dead Wilfred Butler. The film opens with a killing ruled as an accidental death. Jeffrey Butler inherit his grandfather's "inhumanity" house and must leave it intact. After 20 years he decides to sell the home at the same time a man escapes from the local asylum. Oh yes, its Christmas, which really doesn't play into the story but allows us to think of a clever title and have the song "Silent Night" murdered also.The house boasts an underused harpsichord and the film an underused John Carradine. The characters are rather boring and the film utilizes a plot twist that has become far too common to mention. I was bored from the start of Woronov's opening monotone all the way through the end credits. There is a good reason why you never heard of it.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity unless you count Patrick O'Neal's man boobs.

I really liked this one because it's a little different than most horror pictures that I've seen,, first off you don't get many horror pictures set during the Yuletide season, in this one a young man inherits his father's old house , which use to be an insane asylum,, and at a local town hall meeting he decides he's gonna sell for 50,000 dirt cheap, but he gives the people notice that they have something like 48 hours to decide.. 20 years earlier his father was set on fire in that house,, and hasn't been seen since.. Word get's around to another insane asylum across town where a crazed lunatic, decides that he is gonna take refuge in the old butler house,, and from here on it becomes clear that the body count will definitely rise,, very decent picture on a low budget.

Extremely campy, low-budget, Christmas cult horror flick from the early 70's? I'll take it. Take it for what it is though, which is a cultastic piece of low-budget goodness. The film moves along slowly for the first half hour or so, but by the middle of the film, things begin to pick up speed. None of our players are very notable, with the exception of the beautiful Mary Woronov, James Patterson, and the wonderful John Carradine, who doesn't utter a single word throughout the entire film.The film is mostly visual, and is pretty scarce on every character's dialogue for most of the film, but the visual telling of the story is nice and atmospheric, and the diminished quality of the 16mm print only adds to the film's nostalgic feel. The ending of the film begins to drag again, but like I said, it is well-photographed and still manages to keep you intrigued enough to finally see the mystery solved. The long flashback sequence near the end is very Warholian, which makes sense when we realize that a lot of these people were involved with Warhol during his Factory days in the 1960's, and the end even manages to look a little 'Night Of The Living Dead' at times. And dare I say that I might possibly be able to pick out some images and some storyline that may have inspired John Carpenter to write 'Halloween' a few years down the road? In all, it is definitely well-written, and worth watching for the holidays, to get your fill of Christmas horror.SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT -----7/10.

If you can ignore the more disjointed elements of "Silent Night, Bloody Night" as its story unfolds, you're in for a real treat. This is a wonderfully creepy movie, one that eschews the tongue-in-cheek approach to horror that so many filmmakers employ--and which I personally feel is almost always a mistake in this genre--in favor of establishing a dour, chilly, unsettling atmosphere. The performances of Mary Woronov and James Patterson are just what the doctor ordered for this film, which examines dark small-town secrets and a 22-year-old unsolved murder. (Patterson, who "Hawaii Five-O" fans will recall from that show's memorable first-season episode 'The Ways of Love', is especially intense.) Patrick O'Neal is good, too, but he's not around for long. John Carradine's performance is...well, a typical John Carradine performance, sadly. Anyone could have played 'Charlie Towman'; it drives me crazy that a director even thought of offering an actor of Carradine's caliber a nonspeaking part, but there's no denying that he accepted a lot of subpar roles over the years. Finally, Woronov's former Factory colleagues Ondine and Candy Darling make brief appearances in a thoroughly nightmarish flashback scene near the end of the film. Theodore Gershuny's "Silent Night, Bloody Night" packs enough punch for any serious fan of psychological horror, and its climax is genuinely shudder-inducing. I wish there were more films like it.