Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Review by Siko Mike
Holiday horror movies became very popular in the 1980s such as Black Christmas, Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, Mother’s Day, Happy Birthday To Me, April Fool’s Day and New Year’s Evil. There is one in particular holiday horror film that is considered the most controversial horror movie of the 80s era. The film that I’m referring to is Silent Night, Deadly Night.
The film opens with a family on a long road trip. We have Mom, Dad, five year old Billy, and his baby brother Ricky. They are on their way to visit Billy’s grandfather who is in a nursing home on Christmas Eve. Little Billy is excited about Christmas and can’t wait to get home and go to sleep so Santa Claus will come visit. While at the nursing home, Billy is left alone with his grandpa who supposedly hasn’t spoken a word in years while his parents talk to the doctor. As soon as they are gone, grandpa talks to Billy. He tells Billy how Christmas Eve is the scariest night of the year and that Santa Claus punishes kids who have been naughty. Billy becomes terrified of what grandpa just told him. I mean what kinda five year old child wouldn’t be afraid? Anyways that night on the way home, Billy tells his parents that he is scared and doesn’t want Santa to come. His parents don’t listen and see a guy in a Santa outfit whose car has broken down on the side of a wooded back road. They stop to help the man out unaware that he is actually a thief and just left a store hold up where he killed a man. As soon as they stop the van, the guy pulls out a gun. Billy’s dad backs the van up trying to get away so the man shoots Billy’s dad in the head right through the window.
The man pulls Billy’s mom out of the van, strips her top off, rapes her, and then slits her throat with a switchblade. Billy managed to hide behind a bush watching in horror as his mother is brutally raped and murdered by the madman. Three years later, Billy and Ricky have been placed in an orphanage run by Mother Superior and her nuns. Billy, now eight years old, always gets into trouble around Christmastime by drawing brutal pictures of Santa killing people. He has nightmares about that fateful Christmas Eve night. Mother Superior ties him to his bed where he can’t sneak out of bed when he has a bad dream. He is severely abused by Mother Superior as she hits him with a belt and tells him that he is being a very, very naughty boy. The other nun wants to help Billy because she knows that what Mother Superior is doing could disastrously backfire on her and on others.
Again, we cut almost nine years ahead where 18-year-old Billy just got a job at a toy store. Everything is going really well for Billy until the holidays begin. Even the sight of Christmas decorations make Billy’s mind wonder back to that night and back to Mother Superior’s years of abuse on him. The guy who was supposed to play the department store Santa breaks his ankle so Billy ends up having to take on the role reluctantly. That Christmas Eve night, the store closes up for an employee party. Billy hears arguing in the storage room so he goes to see what’s going on. He sees the guy that he works with trying to rape a girl that is also an employee there. Billy’s mind snaps, turning him into a complete psychopath as he goes on a murder spree still dressed in the Santa suit to punish everyone that has been naughty this Christmas.
Let’s start by detailing why this film was so controversial in the first place. To start out, the ad and poster feature Santa Claus coming down the chimney with an axe in his hand. Any young child who sees that will think that Santa is evil. It basically kills their Christmas and instead of being excited and happy, they become terrified and scared. The depiction of Santa as an evil killer is why parents protested against this film. The thing that I don’t get is how come they didn’t protest against all of the other Christmas horror goodies like Christmas Evil, Black Christmas, Don’t Open Till Christmas, etc? I mean Christmas Evil has a cover of Santa holding a bloody knife so how is that so different from this film? This film is not even about Santa Claus, it’s about Billy who has had a pretty fucked up life. The promo should have advertised Billy showing how he got twisted around and what sets him off rather than revealing Santa chasing someone with an axe.
Despite the silly controversy, the story was very interesting and let’s us get to know the characters very well except for Billy’s parents or Ricky. I liked how the acting was believable and makes you kinda feel sorry for Billy. The characters were developed very well and some of them we can identify with. I liked how much more psychological this movie was rather than just some nut going off, stalking, and killing teenagers. Billy is a well developed character/horror villain just like some other familiar boogeymen of the genre that we know and love. I always find it the most interesting to see how someone grew up and all of the horrible things that they went through to make them a cold blooded psychopath. This film is definitely a reality check because there really are thugs that dress up like Santa and kill people. Reality is what can make any horror film completely scary because it gets inside of your mind and you know that it could very well happen. The murders are pretty well-done, especially the topless girl being pushed through the deer head antlers in her den.
I heard sadly that this will also be fuckin’ remade so I just wonder what they are going to do to it and pray that they don’t fuck it up because this movie is perfect the way that it is so it shouldn’t be touched at all! This film has a great story, good acting, great setting, nudity/blood, and puts Billy in the boogeymen family alongside Michael, Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Chucky and so on.
I definitely recommend . You’ve made it through HALLOWEEN, now try and survive CHRISTMAS!!
Popularity: 6% [?]
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