Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) by Tim B — 17 Oct 2011

Funny how much Santa was portrayed as an evil being long before this movie came out. I'm not sure what it was about this one that made the parents with sticks up their arses go nuts and picket the hell out of it.

How about going home and looking after your kids rather than complaining what they may have spotted on the TV while you were out and probably fooling around on your spouse? Well it worked, the movie was pulled out of most theatres and slapped together on video where slowly but surely, it gained a cult status.

All sourness aside, I think Silent Night Deadly Night is one of the better slashers to come out over time. First off, Xmas annoys the hell out of me. Too much build-up, stress and crazy people. This movie took everything about the holiday you could possibly think of and took a big ol' poop on it.

I haven't had that much amusement around an Xmas flick in a while. THANK YOU! I'm also surprised how original the formula of the story was, given this was a holiday-themed slasher. Instead of following a bunch of horny teens around a la Friday the 13th, it focused more on the background of the killer himself.

It was interesting to see for a change. The first 10 minutes of this actually creeped me out (ol' grandpa is messed!). After giving a satisfying background tale (well, in my books anyway) we jump to the now adult Billy and into slashy slash times.

And this one didn't hold back in that department, either. Impalements, slit throats, bullet wounds and more. The movie actually managed to disturb me here once or twice (some rape involved and maybe my mood that day?) as a horror flick should have.

Can't shun it for doing its job. Charles E. Sellier Jr. pulled some very unique shots here. I'm also surprised to say that this one was pretty artsy fartsy given the material with slow motion, white flashes etc.

His use of irony was also present (killing to Xmas songs, a horrid view of all things Xmas). Well done! Robert Brian Wilson is no De Niro but his contrasting looks and performances fit the role so well.

He was all the more frightening once it came time for him to slice and dice. Lilyan Chauvin was extremely convincing as Mother Superior and was the second most disturbing element in the flick. She's very convincing.

Gilmer McCormick does a good job with the role. Genre favorite Linnea Quigley shows up, shows off her body again and gets killed in a disturbing manner. God, I love her. On the rotten end of the carrot, McCormick's role with her cop sidekick were pretty useless to the movie as a whole.

I could've went without them discussing Billy's condition and why he's killing. I already saw all of this at the beginning of the movie! Furthermore, some of the stalk sequences were a tad too overlong given that I knew they were gonna die soon anyway.

Get to the point! I can understand they were trying to get a fear out, but I personally was on the killer's side for this one, so it didn't really work. Speaking of which, it's a damn shame they didn't focus more on Billy's character prior to his killing spree because up until then, I was attached to the guy and wanted to know more about him psychologically and on a visual level, not discussions of other characters.

That said, I can't deny that the dumb slasher lover in me was disappointed either. So it's not like Seven, big deal. This was still a fun ride for me and sided with me in my thoughts toward the holidays.

I can accept that! Silent Night Deadly Night was a different kind of slasher that succeeded in getting its point and its carnage across big time. Take it or leave it at that.