Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) Review

"Santa Claus will punish you!"

-Billy Chapman

Billy Chapman (Robert Brian Wilson) has had a rough life; his parents were murdered by a man dressed as Santa Clause when he was very young and he has grown up in an orphanage, where he was abused mentally and physically by Mother Superior (Lilyan Chaunvin).  Now an adult, Billy is forced to dress as Santa Claus while at work and eventually snaps.  He embarks on a killing spree across town trying to get rid of anyone who is naughty.  

What Works:

Silent Night, Deadly Night does a great job of setting up our killer.  The entire first half of the movie shows us the path that lead Billy to snap.  They take their time and develop Billy as a character, which I really appreciated.  By the time Billy starts his rampage, it makes total sense.  The deaths of his parents is a very traumatic scene and the abuse he suffers at the orphanage scars him.  Billy is a well written character and his development makes the film interesting.

This is a slasher movie and we can't have a slasher film without some decent kills and, boy, does this film deliver.  There are some great gory kills, especially in the uncut version.  The gore is excellent and the deaths are memorable, especially one involving a sled.  It's a lot of fun to watch Billy in action.

This movie also has a very dark sense of humor.  Some of the dialogue is rather morbid, but I love that kind of stuff.  Best of all is a case of mistaken identity where a police officer shoots someone dressed as Santa Claus.  Not only is in the wrong guy, but it's a deaf priest.  It may be a bit mean-spirited, but I laughed a lot.  Don't know what that says about me...

What Sucks:

There are a couple of boring parts.  Some of the scenes at the toy store could have been trimmed down, especially the Christmas party.  Also, the death of Officer Barnes (Max Robinson) is dragged out and not worth the wait.  I hate when characters in slasher movies wander around a location looking for the killer, but nothing happens and they drag it out to boost the tension.  Nothing makes me lose interest in a movie faster.  Fortunately, it only happens once in this movie, but it's still annoying.

Finally, there isn't a really a character we can root for in this film.  Billy is well established and a sympathetic character and we can root for him from the start all the way up to his second kill.  The first guy he killed was trying to rape a girl.  But after that, he starts to murder innocent people and we can't really root for him anymore, even if he is fun to watch.  The closest thing we have to a hero is Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick), who gets nothing to do.  It's hard to care about who lives and dies if the supporting characters aren't well developed.

Verdict:

Silent Night, Deadly Night is one of my favorite slasher movies and is an absolute blast to watch.  Billy is a really well developed killer, the kills are great, and I love the dark sense of humor.  There a couple of boring scenes and we don't really get any characters to root for, but it's a fun movie and I highly recommend it if you are a slasher fan.  This one has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good