Silent Night, Deadly Night: Uncut Version

• Directed by Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
• November 9, 1984

A young man after witnessing his parents’ murder on Christmas Eve by a man dressed as Santa Claus becomes a spree killer one Christmas after a breakdown.

The themed slasher movie hit its heyday during the 80s. Every holiday from Valentine’s Day to April Fools to Halloween had its own killer so naturally we got the very controversial Silent Night, Deadly Night about a killer Santa Claus though it was preceded by at least Christmas Evil. The film is best remembered more for its controversy than for anything within the film other than the theme used by the killer.

It’s cheese and silliness and just about everything over-the-top. The acting is atrocious and the script forces events to give a solid explanation for why young Billy Chapman (Robert Brian Wilson) grows up into a spree killer with a distinct Christmas theme. That’s probably Silent Night, Deadly Night’s first mistake. Though the explanation gives you a reason it also serves to humanize the killer a bit which is completely unnecessary. A killer going homicidal just because is much more frightening than a killer with a reason.

It has some inexplicable moments such as when Billy’s parents leave young Billy (Jonathan Best) alone with his catatonic grandpa (Will Hare). Who does that?! At five it would be creepy to be left alone in an empty room but with a catatonic old fogey? Who would even do that?

One thing I am sure of is that this is some of the heaviest product placement I have seen in any film in my lifetime. Our themed killer works in a toy store before exacting bloody mayhem. You can see in the background tons of the hot toys of the mid-80s. Even the Return of the Jedi Jabba the Hutt is sitting is clearly seen sitting on a shelf. That was an awesome toy for any Star Wars fan. No AT-AT but I digress…

Billy’s killing spree begins when he sees his work crush getting raped by his boss. When she calls him crazy and starts hitting him for killing her attacker he kills her as well. From there it’s relative mayhem while engaging in the era’s cliché of the youth getting killed during sex. There are copious amounts of topless women for even an 80s slasher! But gore? Not much though there are splatters and flowing blood.

These days you may be unsure why people were bothered by this. It was the mid 80s and a very different time. This was a themed killer step too far. A homicidal Santa? No way! But as a film I think it should’ve been ignored. It would’ve died a very quick death and become an extreme Cult Classic known to only a few. 

The locals are all in a tizzy after the killings start looking for the right Santa Claus. One innocent individual dressed as Santa gets killed by a panicked cop. Only in an 80s movie could you have that panicked cop stay on the case in some fashion with everybody shrugging their shoulders, in a “Poop happens” fashion.

It certainly has the potential to be something intriguing. There is the kernel of a good movie here for what it is. It focuses on fitting in as many boobs as possible. Santa deciding to kill his Catholic orphanage tormentor Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin) at the end feels like they ran out of people to kill and needed to wrap the story up rather than the focus of the film’s story. It was no climax to anything he was doing.

Mother Superior was mean but never became a villain. The kindly Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick) was kind but never stepped up to adopt a Dr. Loomis level of understanding Billy even though she tried to fill that role. The police chief or detective (I’m not sure what his part in the whole thing is) Capt. Richards (H.E.D. Redford) just shows up. I watched the uncut version and there is no footage that explains how he got tied in with things. He just is a part of the investigation and shows up fully into the hunt. The wannabe Dr. Loomis nun is just at the police station and never decides to actually do anything.  

Billy happens to stumble across people doing something bad on the regular. Apparently jerkiness and outright evil occur very much in the open and so commonly in this area that our Santa Claus has no trouble finding somebody to slaughter as he zigzags towards the orphanage. I am left feeling the world might be a better place if Santa was allowed to roam free.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is something you watch for historical purposes. Not particularly good or particularly bad or a particularly great example of its genre or sub-genre. I can’t recommend it nor can I dissuade you from watching it. But if you do watch don’t go expecting much.