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Silent Night, Deadly Night: a movie about what happens when traumatized children are repeatedly punished by overly harsh nuns with a broken religion. Just kidding, little Billy watches his parents get murdered by a guy in a Santa suit, so he ends up in an orphanage and gets triggered whenever he sees anything Santa related. Then one fateful day his boss asks him to dress up as Santa for the toy store and of course he becomes a cold blooded killer. If you haven’t been naughty, he may hand you a bloody box cutter, but otherwise, you must be punished.
Silent Night, Deadly Night got a lot of press for the controversy back in 1984. A serial killer dressed as Santa Claus was too taboo for America. The television ads were pulled 6 days before release and the film was eventually pulled from the theaters entirely. Nobody wanted their kids scared of Santa and people protested and made a big stink about it. Movie reviewers got in on the action too, including Gene Siskel, who castigated the production crew with a scalding “Shame on you!” on air. Even Leonard Maltin said “What’s next? The Easter Bunny as a child molester?”
The film itself feels amateurish. The acting is clunky and the dialogue is hokey, but the concept is brilliant. The movie took so long to establish the annoying backstory that it might have worked better to see it in flashbacks, so we could get to the frights right away. I especially love the idea that there’s a Santa suited serial killer on the loose and the cops just go shooting willy nilly at anyone dressed as Santa on Christmas. Look out Santas!
Don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. Whew! Someone picked some brutally terrible tunes. I hope that was intentional. I am still trying to process the fact that there are SIX films in this franchise, but I’m guessing when I get done I will merely blurt out “WHAT THE HELL?” in exasperation. Likewise, I am definitely not ready for that ride yet. The ending also felt like the screenwriter tripped and fell down some stairs as he was about to finish. Anyways, great idea, not so great execution. Some of the film was legit and for that I’ll give it 5 nuns whipping up some punishment out of 10.
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