aka Death House

Rated R | Review date: 13-Oct-2009

In spirit of Halloween being around the corner, I plan on releasing nothing but horror reviews for the remainder of October. To start things off, I’ve pulled a cult classic, Silent Night, Bloody Night.

Silent Night, Bloody Night was directed and written by the late Theodore Gershuny, and it was his last feature film (he only directed three in his career). What he left us with was a low-budget horror masterpiece. The movie opens up with a narration by Diane Adams (Mary Woronov; The Devils Rejects), setting the tone for this creepy chiller. The story revolves around the notorious Butler house; a place with a dark and mysterious history that the townspeople would like to see gone for good.

The movie wastes no time, jumping straight to the suspense. It starts things off with a big city lawyer representing the last Butler descendant, who intends to sell the house. John Carter (Patrick O’Neal), the lawyer, intends to stay the night with his female companion in the Butler house. During this opening scene we see brief clips of a dark figure lurking in the shadows of the creepy mansion. This is preceded with scenes showing an escaped patient from a nearby asylum. It becomes apparent what’s about to happen.

Soon enough a new visitor appears in the town, who happens to be Jeffrey Butler (James Patterson; this was also his last film). Jeffrey winds up at the home of Diane, the mayor’s daughter. The two begin to notice all of the strange things occurring, especially those involving Butler’s property. After a bunch of strange phone calls, the pair decide to investigate.

Perhaps the creepiest segment of this picture is the flashback scene where Jeffrey reads the diary of Wilfred Butler, Jeffrey’s grandfather and original owner of the home who’s presumed to be long since dead. The flashback is almost a movie itself, telling the disturbing story behind the house and Jeffrey’s mother. This sequence is topped off with an extremely disturbing scene involving several mental patients. I can’t express enough how well that sequence was executed.

The surprise ending puts all of the pieces together. To me, the ending was satisfying yet still left me thinking of various interpretations of certain events. The film is suspenseful throughout, always keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat. It was full of interesting and strange characters, especially the one of Towman (John Carradine). The editing was perfect, allowing plenty of suspense while showing the right amount of blood. The majority of the film takes place at night, and as with many other old films, the graininess and poor lighting just add to the overall feel.

This is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen. It has everything that makes a horror movie good while not being formulaic. It’s a fairly unique story that’s well acted for the most part. It’s not perfect by any means but I believe it’s imperfections, like a lot of films, just make it all the more special. Maybe it’s because I’m seeing it as an adult who didn’t grow up with these types of films and appreciate them for their nostalgic value, but either way this is a film that definitely deserves to be resurrected.

Rating: 7 out of 7

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