Released: 14th August
Seen: 11th December
In 1984, Silent Night Deadly Night was released right at the height of the slasher boom of the 80s. It was made pretty much for the same reason a lot of horror films were made then, namely “Oh Halloween was popular, so pick a holiday and stick a killer on that date and we can print money” and sure enough they made a silly little horror film for just under a million dollars and expected it to do good business and that was that. What happened instead was that it became one of the biggest controversies of that era, the poster sparked massive protests, and critics tore the film to shreds for the crime of making Santa Claus a murderer. The film was pulled from cinemas due to those protests and in that moment, the protestors inadvertently gave Silent Night Deadly Night a place in horror infamy, which in turn resulted in the franchise becoming a cult hit. It would end up getting four sequels, one of which gave us the legendary “GARBAGE DAY” clip that was a hot meme for a while, and the film was remade back in 2012 because every slasher film got a remake in that era. Now once more it’s time for them to throw an axe in Santa’s hand and see what he does… and this time, it’s actually pretty good!
Silent Night, Deadly Night uses a fair chunk of what the original had going for it, with the main character of Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell), having some childhood trauma because his parents got murdered in front of him. In this version of the story though, Billy’s mom fights back and kills the guy who killed her, but before he dies he passes on something to Billy… a voice in his head that helps him know who is naughty so that Billy can put an axe in their face. Billy’s been doing this for a decade now, for the 24 days of the Advent calendar, Billy murders someone who is naughty and deserves it. This year, he finds himself in the small town of Hackett and gets a job working in a Christmas store that’s run by kindly Mr Sims (David Lawrence Brown) and his daughter Pam (Ruby Modine), who Billy has an immediate crush on. Slowly, their relationship develops over several days and Billy has to try and work out how to have a normal life, while also occasionally running off to kill a barnyard full of Nazis.
Right off the bat, it’s a big improvement to have this version of Billy Chapman actually know with certainty if someone has been naughty or nice. Sure, it makes this somewhat more supernatural than the original, and for some people, that might be too big a change. I would make the counterargument that it’s a film about a killer fucking Santa and expecting it to remain realistic is insanity. The use of the voice in Billy’s head (done brilliantly by Mark Acheson) helps to give Billy some depth and lets him know with certainty when someone who deserves to die is in his midst, taking the idea that Santa knows if you’ve been good or bad to the literal extreme, which works well in this franchise. It’s also just nice that Billy in this film is actually interesting, anyone who has seen these films would have to admit that Billy was always a Himbo with little personality (All the personality went to his brother Ricky, we all know this) so having a Billy that’s got more going on besides looks and skill with an axe makes for a much more interesting film. Seeing him actually fight with his demons, trying to resist the need to kill and using his actual brain to get through certain situations is just more interesting.
This version of Silent Night Deadly Night also seems to get that these films should be fun and one way to ensure it’s fun is if everyone who dies (ok, NEARLY everyone) is an asshole who kind of deserves it. When this film says that these people are being punished, they make sure it’s for a reason. Wife killers, abusive cops, Nazis, they all get to be treated to a punishment worthy of their crimes and it allows you to really just enjoy the insane carnage without regret. The Nazi slaughter scene is an absolute highlight, combining a great needle drop with just some fun, over-the-top hacking action that culminates in a glorious crescendo of hilarious mayhem. There are so many genuinely great kills in this film, some of which are twists on ones from the original and they all really work well for what’s needed in this kind of film.
In fact, Silent Night Deadly Night really feels like it knows the exact audience that’s waiting for it and is pandering to them at just the right levels. Little nods to the original, an inevitable Garbage Day reference, a few shots lifted from other horror movies of the era and just a whole bunch of gore. If anything, the big problem is that the film isn’t gory enough. This film is being released by the people who brought us Terrifier 3 so a little more splatter would be lovely. There’s just more than a few times when it feels like they’re holding back. Maybe they had to do this because the ratings board has always hated this genre, but there are more than enough times when it feels like the film wants to show more than it does, and you can feel it. It makes some of the potential catharsis of the moments work less effectively. Take the Nazi Massacre, which has a lot of great moments, but there are other times when the framing gives away that the axe is a full inch from the people that’re meant to be impaled. It’s little things like that which can kind of spoil the fun of this specific kind of movie.
For the most part though, Silent Night Deadly Night looks really good. It has that classic Christmas Horror vibe with enough little touches that really make it feel like a fun holiday film for the more fucked up members of your family. It also borrows heavily from the Grindhouse era with fun little weirdly edited in cards telling us who is going to be killed next, it’s a weird mix of visual tones that works more often than not and gives this film its own unique visual palette that keeps it from just being a carbon copy of the original. This film has style, substance and actual ideas it’s playing around with and while some of them might not work as well as they’d like, I’ll take a big swing and a miss over a film that doesn’t even try any day of the week.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a genuinely great entry in this weird little franchise. It takes the original, honours it while changing just enough information to make this film its own thing. With a lot of great kill scenes, some very charming lead performances, snappy dialogue and an ending that implies a potential future for this franchise, this is a great Christmas gift for the horror fans. Something fun and silly to put on that alternative Christmas Movie list.
Movie Meister Reviews 