Film review: ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Do we really need remakes of b-grade 80s slasher films? Halloween had enough cultural cache and Gen X nostalgia value to justify the reboot but ultra-violent Santa Claus movie Silent Night Deadly Night from 1984 did not have ‘essential remake’ written all over it. The new version, a goofy slasher comedy is, however, a little more watchable and a little less trashy than we might have expected.
Rohan Campbell, who looks like a young Tom Berenger, plays Billy Chapman a drifter who, as an eight-year-old, was left traumatised after witnessing his parents murder by a man dressed as Santa. The events have set him on a lifelong path of serial killing in which he dispatches people with an axe while also dressed as jolly Saint Nick. The killings occur at the behest of a voice in his head he calls Charlie. When Billy meets the feisty Pam (Ruby Modine, daughter of Mathew Modine) in the small town of Hack, however, it seems he’s found someone with whom he can start a new and non-murderous life. The sinister forces in and around him, though, aren’t going to let that happen in a hurry.
While this film proudly trumpets the fact that it comes from the producers of Terrifier 2 and 3, it isn’t solely focused on grossing out the audience to the point of vomiting. The film takes some time establishing Billy’s character and explaining his murderous ways. He’s in fact depicted as more moral avenger than sadistic maniac. Campbell manages to imbue Billly with a touch of empathy while not completely destroying his psycho killer cred.
Those hungry for gore, fear not, your weird blood lust will be satiated as the film contains a reasonably consistent parade of gruesome deaths. Some of these are visceral and shocking but a few fall flat such as a very poorly staged mass slaughter at a neo nazi Christmas party where jerky camera work obscures the action and where everyone is dressed as Santa Claus so the killings are completely depersonalised.
At various points the film offers something vaguely resembling plot twists but it doesn’t do anything particularly inventive with the horror/ slasher form. Still, with a little more substance to the characters and more atmospheric direction (from Mike P Nelson) than we normally find in this sort of movie, the remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night shouldn’t be written off as simple-minded gore.
Nick’s rating: ***
Genre: Horror/ comedy.
Classification: MA15+.
Director(s): Mike P Nelson.
Release date: 27th Dec 2025.
Running time: 96 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.