Charles E. Sellier's Silent Night, Deadly Night is the story of a young boy who watches his parents get murdered by a criminal in a Santa Claus costume. This obviously causes severe trauma and the grows up equating being naughty with a vengeful Santa. Years later the boy grows up to be a strapping teenager who gets a job at the local toy store. Everything seems to be going just fine till the store's Santa calls out sick and the boss asks their newest employee to step into the red suit. Then all hell breaks loose and the naughty must be punished!
I must have been a young teen when I first rented this cult classic. Paired with the Santa story at the end of the original Tales from the Crypt movie from 1970, there was quite a reputation for these killer Santa flicks. Fangoria loved the Silent Night series (there are a handful of squeals) and the gory moments they highlighted made me fall in love with them too. I also have a soft spot in in my heart for the original film because it was one of the first laserdiscs I owned. To be honest though, I only know part one and two, so I can't speak for the second half of the series or the recent remake.
The pacing, acting, costuming and kills all feel like rejected scenes from the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises. This film is so 80s that the toy store sequences feature Smurf Shrinky Dinks, the Krull boardgame and the Return of the Jedi Jabba's Palace playset (a personal favorite from childhood). The only thing that makes it even more 80s is that one of the naughty, fornicating teens is a young Linea Quigley.
Watching the original film now, I can honestly say that I can't think of any other films the use so many flashbacks. There are event moments that feature flashbacks in the flashbacks. We constantly relive the original murder scene from the beginning of the movie.It's like they weren't sure we could follow the main character's correlation between naughty behavior leading to death by Santa. It's the premise of the freaking movie! It's safe to assume we figured it out in the first 15 minutes.
Regardless of some of the klunkiness of the plot and the "premarital sex leads to violent death" trope, this film still holds up pretty well. It is a great example of the slasher genre and has had a major influence on the world of horror. There were many imitators, but this film stands out as the first of its kind. It may be a little sleazy and a little schlocky, but its still a good little movie.
As a nice added feature on this "Christmas Survival Double Feature" edition was the look at how controversy added to the legacy of the movie. In a collection of text re-prints from articles and reviews of the film, we get to see how adults from all over the country freaked out from the posters and ads. The clever filmmakers started to turn the tables and use the negative comments to fuel the fire for their revised ad campaign. "The film they didn't want you to see!" and "They tried to ban it!" just made the posters all the more alluring. The real moral to the story of Silent Night, Deadly Night is that there is no such things as bad press!
So snuggle up by the fire and break out the eggnog and holiday cooking while you enjoy this holiday video nasty. I recommend this film to all fans of slashers, grindhouse films and sleazy video rentals of the 80s. Oh and Merry Christmas!
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