Synopsis
Traumatized by his parents’ Christmas Eve rape and murder, little Billy Chapman is brutalized by sadistic orphanage nuns. When a grown-up Billy is forced to dress as jolly St. Nick, he goes on a yuletide rampage to punish the naughty. Santa Claus is coming to town…and this time he’s got an axe! Robert Brian Wilson and Linnea Quigley star in this jaw-dropping horror hit that a nation of angry mothers still can’t stop!
All of the horror clichés which made Scream so effective can be found engross in Silent Night, Deadly Night: seasonal setting, gratuitous nudity, wooden acting, poor writing, inarticulate dialogue, a psychopath killing promiscuous teenagers engaging in premarital sex, and lots of blood. This isn’t to say that such clichés are to be avoided at all costs–it would be difficult to navigate around all of them and still make an interesting horror flick that isn’t stifled–but to incorporate such ideas in a rote, uncreative manner has lead me to cite this movie as the epitome of bad early 1980’s slasher horror which, as a consequence, prompted a large portion of the negative criticism penned to modern horror.
I will admit that the premise had the potential to be a great social satire. A young boy, Billy Chapman (Danny Wagner), witnesses his parents (Tara Buckman and Geoff Hansen) murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus. As a consequence, he develops a psychosis of monumental Pavlovian proportions ten years later. However, the artistry ends here because the background merely serves as a foundation to have a number of murders thematically wrapped around an ax-wielding 18 year-old (Robert Brian Wilson) for the remainder of the film. I would say that the movie challenges its audience in that screenwriter Michael Hickey doesn’t kill off one of the most annoying characters in horror history, Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin), who oversees the orphanage where Billy is raised. However, considering the entirety of the script did little else in this regard, I merely chalk this idiosyncrasy up as an audience disappointment (perhaps her character plays a roll in the sequels at some point, but I don’t intend to find out any time soon).
In the tradition of rabid conservatism, parents’ groups picketed the release of the film due to its depiction of Santa Claus. Obviously, this did no justice to the horror genre, not that the premise wasn’t valid, but it got a lot more people interested and watching this “naughty” film then the movie would have garnered on its own.
-Egregious Gurnow
DVD Details
- The Silent Night, Deadly Night DVD features the following bonus materials:
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio Interview with Director Charles E. Sellier Jr.
- Poster and Still Gallery
- Santa’s Stocking of Outrage
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
