Jackson Booth-Millard
I usually watch the obvious festive films every year, and occasionally I try to find the ones I have missed out on, especially the alternative ones, this was far from any of the usual cuddly and feel-good Christmas movies I have seen. Basically on Christmas Eve 1971, five-year-old Billy (Jonathon Best) and his family visit catatonic Grandpa (Will Hare) at the nursing home where he stays. Billy is left alone with the grandfather for a few minutes, suddenly he awakens and tells Billy he should be afraid of Santa Claus, saying he only gives presents to good children, but punishes those who have been naughty. A criminal dressed in a Santa outfit (Charles Dierkop) has just robbed a liquor store and killed the store clerk, while driving home, Billy's family see him seemingly having car trouble. As Billy's parents, mother Ellie (Tara Buckman) and father Jim (Geoff Hansen), pull over to help, the criminal shoots the father in the head, then pulls out the mother, attempts to rape her, and slits her throat with a switchblade, Billy runs away, leaving his baby brother Ricky (Melissa Best) in the car. Three years in 1974, eight-year-old Billy (Danny Wagner) and four-year-old Ricky (Max Broadhead) are celebrating Christmas in an orphanage, run by strict disciplinarian Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin ), who persistently strikes children who misbehave, she considers punishment for their wicked actions a good thing. Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick ), the only one who sympathises with the children, tries to help Billy interact with the other children, but he is constantly scrutinised and punished by Mother Superior. Billy does a drawing of Santa and a reindeer being slaughtered, he is beaten, then on Christmas morning, a man invited to the orphanage dressed as Santa Claus gets attacked by Billy, who is still haunted by the deaths of his parents, he is dragged away by Mother Superior. Ten years later, in spring 1984, eighteen-year-old Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) has left the orphanage for a normal life, he finds a job working at the local toy store with the help of Sister Margaret. Billy develops a crush on co-worker Pamela (Toni Nero), he has sexual thoughts of her, but he continues to suffer morbid visions of his parent's murder. On Christmas Eve, the employee who usually dresses up as Santa Claus has been injured the night before, so the boss Mr. Sims (Britt Leach) makes Billy take his place. The store closes, and staff attend the Christmas party, Billy (still dressed in the Santa Claus suit) tries to enjoy himself, he the memory of the death of his parents continue to haunt him and make him feel depressed. At one point, he sees co-worker Andy (Randy Stumpf) making out with Pamela, then he sees him trying to rape her in the back room, this psychologically triggers his insanity; he hangs Andy with a set of Christmas lights, and stabs Pamela with a utility knife, uttering darkly that punishment is good. A highly intoxicated Mr. Sims hears noises and goes to investigate, he is shocked to find the corpses, Billy murders him with a hammer before he can leave. Billy then turns the store lights off, his manager Mrs. Randall (Nancy Borgenicht) goes to see what is going on, she screams seeing Mr. Sims dead, Billy cuts the phone line before she can call the police, after a chase around the store, Billy kills Mrs. Randall, shooting her with a bow and arrow. As Sister Margaret discovers the carnage and returns to the orphanage to call for help, Billy breaks into a nearby house, he finds a young couple named Denise (Linnea Quigley)
and Tommy (Leo Geter) having sex; Billy impales Denise on the antlers of a deer on the wall, and throws tommy through the window, he is impaled by broken glass. This wakes up the little girl named Cindy (Amy Styvesant), either a younger sibling or daughter of the couple, Billy confronts her and asks if she has been naughty or nice; she says nice and Billy gives her a utility knife as a present. When he leaves the house, Billy witnesses bullies picking on two teenage boys sledding, they steal their toboggans, he decapitates one of the bullies with an axe, the other screams in horror seeing his headless body. The next morning, the orphanage has been secured by Officer Barnes (Max Robinson) and Captain Richards (H.E.D. Redford), aided by Sister Margaret, who knows Billy has been committing the murders. Deaf pastor Father O'Brien, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, is mistakenly shot by Barnes approaching the orphanage, then when distracted Barnes is axed by Billy. Due to his Santa outfit, Billy gains access to the orphanage, he confronts Mother Superior who is in a wheelchair, she taunts Billy due to her disbelief in Santa Claus, he prepares to kill her with his axe. Richards appears and shoots Billy in the back, to the disapproval of Sister Margaret, dying Billy lays and utters to the children "You're safe now, Santa Claus is gone.", then succumbs to his wounds, the children gather around him, including Billy's fourteen-year-old brother Ricky (Alex Burton), he stares coldly at Mother Superior and utters "naughty". Also starring Eric Hart as Mr. Levitt (Storekeeper) and A. Madeline Smith as Sister Ellen. This movie caused a lot of controversy at the time of its release, with American parents protesting about the effect that portraying Father Christmas as a mad murderer would have on children, other than that it is a routine slasher style scary movie. It's a simple story of a troubled boy who had a horrible childhood trauma at Christmas, then goes mental and ends up on going on a killing spree as a demented Santa to punish "naughty" people, the deaths are certainly gory, so you get what you expect, it's cheesy and a bit laughable, but at the same time it's kind of a fun, and it spawned a franchise, a reasonable seasonal horror. Okay!
Nick Duguay
Cheesy as hell and hilarious, just like I like them. I will say that one issue with this film was the choice to make us empathize with the killer, which gave me the sense that this wasn't exactly a true slasher film. Christmas themed slashers are sort of an anomaly and i've really tried to stay away from them, so other than Black Christmas (an absolute staple of course), this was the first one I'd really watched; which is probably for the best because, other than Christmas Evil, this is the one that set the stage for all of the ones that came after, and so doubtless probably one of the best. I have heard that Christmas Evil is a bit better, so i'm looking forward to viewing that one, but Silent Night, Deadly Night is still quite enjoyable as long as you know what you're in for- nothing but cheesy eighties sleaze.
melvelvit-1
A kid who sees his parents get butchered by a maniac in a Santa suit grows up to be a killer Claus himself in another '80s gorefest with a sense of humor and Linnea Quigley.After HALLOWEEN, Friday THE 13th, MOTHER'S DAY, and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, it was only a matter of time til Christmas rolled around and when it finally did in November 1984, the film even out-grossed A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which opened the same week. I actually remember the tidal wave of backlash which soon followed, making SNDN one of the more controversial films of the decade, along with William Friedkin's CRUISING. Outraged by TV & print ads showing Santa with a bloody ax, "the PTA fought to have this film removed from theaters" and "large crowds (mostly angry families) formed at theaters and malls around the nation to protest the film". Siskel & Ebert read off the filmmakers' names on their TV show, saying "shame, shame" and the film was soon withdrawn from theaters for awhile. (The free-wheeling '70s were a lot more chill - when I saw BLACK Christmas at the drive-in back in December 1974, there wasn't an uproar in the press or anywhere else.)SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT was eventually re-released with cuts and without the offensive ads that scared so many kids and the DVD I have is "the most complete version" spliced together from two different film elements -one crisp and the other dark- so it was interesting to see just what had been cut (mostly lingering or explicit shots of the more gory murders). No better or worse than most '80s slasher films, the low budget didn't hamper the decent kills and Linnea Quigley as a randy babysitter helped make this something of a cult film over the years.
Thomas Luckens
This is one of the most heart warming Christmas movies ever. A Santa Claus that goes around and shoots stupid people just makes me believe that there is a god. God would allow this to happen, right? Right. So anyway, this movie is great if you like death. I know I like to see little kids' parents murdered on Christmas. Those little noise makers don't deserve a mom or dad anyway. In fact, they shouldn't even get Christmas. They deserve a hard slap on the face or an axe to the face. My two favorite parts are when Santa kills a dumb store cashier. I loved watching this guy die, knowing he wouldn't be able to have Christmas again. Eh, his family won't miss him. Maybe his wife will go insane and kill their children. I hope that's what happened. And then he kills a boy's parents. He tried to rape the mother, which would have been hilarious. He then slaps her and slits her throat. Way to go, mom. What else are you going to ruin for your poor son? And the dad is just plain stupid. I was glad to see him go. And for some reason, he didn't kill the noisy baby. Jesus that baby is noisy. I wish he would have just ended it's life right there in the car. The rest of the movie is okay. Plenty of abuse and death to make you lose your faith in God. Here's to spending Christmas with the devil. It's nice to know the ones who were killed are burning away in eternal flames. I hate those people. They deserved to die. To wrap this review up, the movie will definitely make you believe in Santa again. Happy holidays and go kill some horrible parents. It's what "God" wants you to do, apparently.
