Michael_Elliott Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Low-budget shocker has a man (James Patterson) inheriting his grandfather's house, which at one time was an asylum. Years earlier the grandfather has been burned alive and left in his will that no one sells the place. Well, the grandson decides to sell it and sends his lawyer (Patrick O'Neil) to do so but soon an axe-carrying maniac starts knocking people off.SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT is a somewhat popular title due to its Public Domain status, which means it's been released in countless ways over the past two decades. Most people either really enjoy the film for its story or they're going to be bored by the poor technical aspects. It's really too bad that the screenplay wasn't given some polish because the actual mystery here is so good that you can't help but wonder what someone like Hitchcock could have done with it. Yes, I think there are some very good story ideas running throughout the picture that really could have been exploited by a great director.As it stands, SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT is a slightly entertaining, if highly flawed movie. We'll start with some of the good stuff. The highlight is without question that actual mystery, which is strong enough to carry you throughout the entire running time. If you stop and think about a few things there are certainly some holes to be found but at the same time there's no doubt that you'll be guessing up to the very end. Another good aspect here are the murders, which are pretty bloody in their own way. What's so impressive about them isn't so much the blood but the POV way that they're shot. All of them are shot extremely well when you consider the budget.Which, by the same token, makes you wonder why the rest of the film looks so poor. It certainly doesn't look like a professional film and there's no question that the low-budget does more harm than good. Performances are better than average with both Patterson and O'Neal doing a good job as does Mary Woronov. Horror legend John Carradine has a brief role here and it's always fun seeing him.SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT is far from a classic but it's a charming film in its own right, warts and all.

kai ringler 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.

sol ***SPOILERS*** When the late Wilfred Butler's, Philip Bruns, grandson Jeffery, James Paterson,decided to put the deserted Butler House up for sale thing started popping in the little New England town of New Willard MA. For one thing a deranged lunatic escaped from the local mental institution and made his way straight to the house to murder everyone of prominence in town. It turned out to be NY lawyer John Carter, Patrick O'Neal,and his lover and private secretary Ingrid, Astrid Heere, who were only doing the paperwork for Jeffery in order to put his house up for sale, and not residents of the town, to become his first victims.As we soon find out the Butler House has a long and bloody history behind it. It was there on Christmas Eve 1950 that the man of the house John Butler who was absent or away from it since 1935 paid the house a visit and set himself on fire killing himself! Now with Butler's grandson Jeffery selling the place the ghost of the Butler House's past as well as that of John Butler himself have come to life with what would turn out to be deadly results! We get the story of what happened from Diane Adams, Mary Morovov, who's father played by Walter Able is the Mayor of New Willard. Diane seems to be one of the few people in the movie who survived the escaped lunatic's bloody rampage and live to tell about it. The story about the Butler House and Butler himself is a tale of murder insanity and debauchery that goes back as far as 50 years ago to the late 1920's. And it was Butler who all by him turned the house into his personal insane asylum that lead to the murders,by the inmates, of his 6 year old daughter Maryanne and the carnage that was to accrue in the place some 40 years later. And it was the town council of New Willard who were, together with Butler, to end up paying for it. But it's we the audience watching the film who end up suffering the most in trying to follow what's going on in that the lighting in the movie is so bad that you, like a blind man, have to feel your way around it and try to guess what's happening in the film. Since some of the most important scenes in it, in who gets murdered by the escaped maniac, are filmed in almost total darkness.***SPOILERS*** The big surprise in the film is it's ending that at one point, in a long ten minute flashback scene, is filmed in black & white with a brownish tint to show how the Butler House turned into the horror that it eventually became. That set up the even bigger surprise in the movie that came when it's revealed just what Diane's connection to Jeffery together with her father and the members of the town council connection to Butler had to do with what was going on in the movie, past & present, in the first place. And even more important who exactly the escaped lunatic who was both faceless and nameless all throughout the film really is!P.S James Paterson who played Jeffery Butler unfortunately never lived to see himself in this later to become, it's release was held up for two years, cult horror classic dying at the age of 40 in August 1972 just weeks after the movie was finished filming.

bkoganbing Silent Night Bloody Night has young James Patterson inheriting his grandfather's mansion which at one time due to concern and a kind of strange curiosity he once turned into an insane asylum. Patterson is looking to sell and he sends his attorney Patrick O'Neal out to make the arrangements.Town fathers like Walter Abel and John Carradine are giving O'Neal fisheyed looks and later on O'Neal gets killed in a gruesome manner. Then Patterson shows up and he and Abel's daughter Mary Woronov kind of hit it off.If you care to sit through the film you'll find that some mighty strange things happened at the old mansion back when grandpa owned it. Including one terrible night of violence that involved grandpa and Patterson's mother. In fact it's strange all around.