Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) by Derrick C — 15 Jul 2007

Well, it's Monday the 16th. You know what that means....Friday was the 13th and Bad horror was had by all.

We started out the evening with a slasher double feature, [b]Silent Night, Deadly Night - Parts 1 and 2[/b]. The first movie is really kind of entertaining. A young boy sees his parents murdered by a man in a Santa Claus outfit. So he's naturally scared of Santa. Then he and his brother are sent to an orphanage run by an evil nun who teaches him that punishment is necessary. Flash forward to him at 18 working in a toy store. When Santa calls in on Christmas Eve, his boss forces him to wear the costume and fill Santa's shoes. So he snaps, says "Naughty" alot and goes on a killing spree. There are also lots of gratuitous breast shots.

The second film is pretty worthless. The first 45 minutes are flashbacks to the first film told by the younger brother of the kid in the first movie. It seems that this guy also has problems with people being "Naughty." So he too snaps and goes on a rampage, seeking out the evil Mother Superior that his brother never managed to kill. Totally lame. Terribly acted. Not really worth watching at all.

During the first five minutes of [b]The Other[/b], it was apparent that the little kids in short shorts playing twin brothers were better actors than all of the adults in Silent Night, Deadly Night combined. The Other is set in the 30s and follows twins, one of whom seems a bit evil. It's creepy and has a good ending, but much of the middle was slow moving. Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame) stars as the boys mother.

[b]The Gravedancers[/b] is one of those Afterdark Horrorfest movies. After a funeral, three friends go the grave site to celebrate their friend's life. They see a strange card on the tombstone, read the enclosed poem and proceed to follow its instructions, which involve dancing on the graves. Of course, this is a bad idea and ghosties follow them home. The hauntings are very well done, very creepy. Even the characters enlisting the help of some paranormal investigators goes smoothly. But the big showdown at the end is just ludicrous. Way too over the top. Ridiculous and just plain laughable. I'm still giving it the 7 because I was totally with it until the last 20 minutes or so.