Monday, September 22, 2008

Silent Night, Deadly Night Review

Silent Night Deadly Night Poster

One of my favorite films ever is this piece of garbage Horror movie from the 80’s. Silent Night Deadly Night is a straight up slasher movie featuring a killer Santa Claus, and offers some spills, thrills, nudity, and gore, a perfect blend for horror fans.

Growing up in the era of mom & pop rental stores, this movie caught my eye with the awesome movie poster. The box was also oversized, and I immediately thought it was porno, and that made it more enticing. The movie starts off slow, a family visiting their loved one at a nursing home. The grandparent has stopped speaking for years and the family just stands there, eventually they leave Billy alone with the old man, and he wakes up to tell him a dark secret: Santa Claus doesn’t bring presents to naughty kids, he punishes them! Scaring the living crap out of the kid, only to have his parents come back to a docile old man.

On the way home from their visit little Billy and his family encounter Santa Claus stranded on the road. They stop to see what’s the matter and instantly, chaos ensues. St. Nick kills Billy’s dad straightaway, then attempts to rape his mother, and eventually slashes her throat, meanwhile Billy watches from across the road, scared and most likely wetting himself.

The movie then gets a little slow, as we see Billy grow up in a Catholic Orphanage, and when Santa Claus visits, he sock’s him out right! This scene is awesome, the little kid socks Santa Claus!

Right when you are ready to give up on the movie, Billy, all grown up and working at a toy store starts a killing spree after he sees a coworker harassing a woman in the back room of the toy store, and it never ends! He uses a bow and arrow, an axe and a knife to kill people left and right.

Here is a trailer for the movie Silent Night Deadly Night:


Silent Night Deadly Night has been called one of the most controversial films of the 1980’s because of the fact that Santa Claus is the killer. In fact, the film was so bad that it was banned from Movie Theaters and although there were other films that were similar in plot, this one got the blunt force of disdain. Critics panned this film and said it was a shame that anyone would make such a movie. The movie was eventually forgotten and lived a lonely life on the movie rental shelves, until the Horror pick up of the late 80’s where the film really started to gain cult status.

The movie is straightforward, and the DVD holds true to my memories as a child. It is not overtly scary as it is gorey. There are decapitations, and even a scene where a lady gets pushed through some Antlers on the wall of a house! The villain kills teens, and adults that he deems naught, but there is a soft spot in this film when he gives a little girl a gift. He points his anger towards Mother Superior at his old orphanage and we really see the thriller unfold. However, the film has a great final act where we see it all unfold in front of the children of the orphanage, and when the smoke clears, we have ourselves the perfect setting for a sequel!

This movie came out on dvd and the transfer is awesome. The film has been given a great cosmetic lift, however there are portions of the film that the producers didn’t really edit out so that you can see the original and the newer update at the same time. I kid you not when I say the old vhs transfer sucks in comparison, and you’ll notice on this dvd that they switch between the two a few times, and this could be a drawback if you’re new to the franchise. The dvd version also comes with part two of this series, and well, it’s basically a rehashing of the first film frame by frame and then a killing spree. A hilarious killing spree at that; Silent Night Deadly Night is what I think about when considering Christmas related horror films, and most people haven’t event seen this cult classic. Sure it’s not on par with a lot of the other films in the genre, but it does enough of a job to warrant a once or twice over. I love this one, and I’m sure that horror fans will enjoy it too. Silent Night Deadly Night is available on dvd and I highly recommend checking it out, as it is a classic cult slasher film from the 80’s.

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