SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)
Directed by: Charles E. Sellier Jr
Starring: Lilyan Chauvin, Robert Brian Wilson, Toni Nero, Britt Leach
Little Billy witnesses his parents getting killed by Santa after being warned by his senile grandpa that Santa punishes those who are naughty. Now Billy is 18 and out of the orphanage, and he has just become Santa himself.
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is a well crafted “seasonal” slasher film, one of many which feature around the Christmas period (most notably, Black Christmas). However, not many set out to make the viewer empathise with the killer!
There is a lot to unpack in the film’s first half. Little Billy is excited about Santa visiting, until his Granpa tells him that Santa not only brings toys to those children who’ve been good, but will severely punish those who have been naughty! As if the world at large wanted to drive the point home, Billy’s parents are murdered in a carjacking by a psychopath wearing a Santa costume.
Unfortunately for Billy, who witnesses the whole thing (which includes his mother being raped and God knows what happened to his baby brother, never to be heard of or seen again!), the trauma of that night is never addressed or treated. Instead, he ends up in an orphanage run by a very strict Mother Superior (Chauvin), who insists that Billy should just repress the memories and get on with his life - and is willing to beat and punish him to aid the process.
We then jump forward to Billy aged 18, and with the help of sympathetic sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick), gets a job at the local toy store, Ira’s Toys. The store is run by Mr Sims, whose daughter Pam also works at the store. Everything is fine until the Christmas season arrives. Up until that point, Billy had ingratiated himself well with the other staff, in particular Pam. However, understandably the holiday season is not Billy’s favourite and he becomes jittery.
Two inciting events happen which result in a psychotic break within Billy. First, he is asked to stand in as the store’s Santa. Putting on the santa outfit fills Billy with trepidation but he proves to be good at handling the kids (by basically threatening them). The, as the staff wind down after hours, Billy witnessed Pam being assaulted by Tommy, the warehouse supervisor. This proves to be the opening of Pandora’s Box and there’s no turning back.
The film packs a lot into Billy’s killing spree. He sees sexual activity as being “Naughty” and worthy of death. In fact just about everyone he encounters is deemed “naughty” in his mind, which makes an encounter with a little girl (whose babysitter he’d just murdered) all the more tense.
The narrative segues away from Billy to reintroduce Sister |Margaret, who calls the store to check up on Billy, and on hearing that he’s taken on the role of store Santa, has a hunch things are going to go south. She is able to alert the police but their half-hearted attitude to the situation put two innocent people in jeopardy. The cops provide the streak of dark humour that helps to offset the mayhem.
The blood and guts fx are well done, and although not convincing, there is plenty of blood to cover things. The impaling onto antlers is probably the highlight, although a decapitation out in the woods is also pretty good.
THE VERDICT
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT spends so much time on the traumatic events which molded Billy into a psychotic killer, it is not difficult to recognise the failings which created him. Robert Brian Wilson makes the teenage Billy likeable and sympathetic, even then on his murder spree. A definite classic.
8 out of 10
MIKEOUTWEST