Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Charles E. Sellier Jr.

Writers:

Paul Caimi (story)
Michael Hickey (writer)

Release Date:

9 November 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

You've made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas

Plot:

After his parents are murdered, a young tormented teenager goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa, due to his stay at an orphanage where he was abused by the Mother Superior.

Plot Keywords:

Orphanage | Killing | Sex | Mother | Young Boy

Cast

Lilyan Chauvin	...	Mother Superior
Gilmer McCormick	...	Sister Margaret
Toni Nero	...	Pamela
Robert Brian Wilson	...	Billy Chapman (age 18)
Britt Leach	...	Ira Sims
Nancy Borgenicht	...	Mrs. Randall
H.E.D. Redford	...	Captain Richards
Danny Wagner	...	Billy Chapman (age 8)
Linnea Quigley	...	Denise
Leo Geter	...	Tommy
Randy Stumpf	...	Andy
Will Hare	...	Grandpa Chapman
Tara Buckman	...	Ellie Chapman
Geoff Hansen	...	Jim Chapman (as Jeff Hansen)
Charles Dierkop	...	Killer Santa

Also Known As:

Slayride (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min | USA:85 min (uncut version) | Belgium:96 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1989) | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | New Zealand:R18 | Finland:K-18 (2007) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Italy:T (DVD rating) | Italy:VM18 (video rating, cut) | Australia:R | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Heber City, Utah, USA

Company:

TriStar Pictures

Trivia:

This film was planned to be a limited release but open wider by Christmas, but the protest canned the idea, and was pulled after two weeks of release.

Quotes:

Officer Miller: Can you believe this? It's Christmas Eve and we got orders to bring in Santa Claus.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Merry Christmas Baby

Merry Kill-Mass

In the height of the Reign of the Slasher film, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" (like the far superior "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" series) mixes horror with a theme, this time, Christmas. Taking place of three periods in time, the film follows Billy Chapman and the horrific events that he witnessed on Christmas as a child - the murder of his parents by a man dressed up as Santa Claus.

Naturally, this disturbed young Billy who (along with his younger brother Ricky) was placed in an orphanage, run by the cold Mother Superior, where each Christmas he gets understandably upset. When Billy reaches 18, he gets a job working in a store, but at Christmas time Billy starts to get a little ax-happy, killing anyone who he sees doing anything naughty - usually involving sex, for years or child hood trauma had disturbed him so much, Billy was told people who do naughty things get punished, so now he was the punisher.

Production values aren't that bad, but the acting is rather mediocre. Lilyan Chauvin is quite good as the wicked Mother Superior, but hottie Robert Brian Wilson, as Billy gives the standout performance. The music is utterly awful, not just because there are Chrismas Carrols littered all throughout the film, but the score is annoying, and the one proper song shoved in is just as bad. Being the 1980's and during the Reign of the Slasher, naturally there is plenty of sex and bare breasts.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a fairly good film that could have been explored a little further, it just didn't seem to hit the mark in terms of addressing the story on more than a couple of levels. There were some decent and interesting death scenes though. It's certainly not the worst slasher film around, and is followed by one rather dull sequel and three semi-unrelated sequels which have yet to be released on DVD.