Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) by Jason D — 17 Jan 2010

This film was a little before its time. Violent, ugly, and pretty brutal, which only led down a path of unfortunate luck, including people with too much time on their hands complaining about it, a long lingering shelf life where it collected dust, and a bevy of unnecessary (but deliciously corny) sequels that went far, far away from the original story.

Silent Night, Deadly Night concerns the young, impressionable Billy who loses it during the Christmas holidays (thanks to an encounter with his demented grandfather and seeing a murderer dressed in full Santa garb rape his mom and kill his parents) and starts killing people left and right.

The film includes lots of violence, blood, and murder including the infamous scene involving almighty Linnea Quigley walking around topless and opening the front door (while being nonchalant about being topless in the process) and getting killed via impalement through stuffed deer head! For its time, this film sparked an insane amount of controversy with its loads of taboo entertainment and fun around the Christmas holidays.

Thankfully, a lot of that violence and sleaze still holds up pretty well today, though the film does have its definite 80's cheese to it. PUNISH!