Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) by William B — 06 May 2008

Probably the most famous of the slasher Santa movies, but it's not quite as grimy and creepy as, say, CHRISTMAS EVIL. Still, this one is quite funny (probably intentionally so). By the time this film was made, certain tropes of the slasher movie were already firmly established-- this movie just takes things much farther. Any time a naked breast appears, you know violence is about to happen. The words "naughty" and "punish" are so overused during the killer's childhood, you just KNOW they're going to come up later, during his killing spree.

One interesting thing about this movie is that it kind of predicts (and maybe influences) Rob Zombie's take on HALLOWEEN, in the sense that very little time is spent on establishing who the victims are; instead, our focus is always on the killer. He's a victim, so he has our sympathies, but he also dresses up like Santa and butchers people with an axe, which will-- at the very least-- get one disinvited to dinner parties.