Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Director: Charles E. Sellier Jr

Starring: Lilyan Chauvin, Robert Brian Wilson

Run Time: 79 mins

Certificate: 18

 

Plot Outline: A young boy witnesses the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of a thief dressed up as Santa. After being homed inside a Catholic orphanage, he is gradually taught that being naughty deserves punishment, Now a young man, he still hasn't forgotten and when he is forced to dress up as Santa to work in a shop, he snaps and sets about punishing all of the 'naughty' people who don't deserve Christmas presents. "You've made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas."

The Review: That's a pretty good tag line by the way and you can see where this film got it's inspiration from. This got banned on its original release and despite it not being that gory, I can see why. It probably has something to do with the fact that trailers of Santa carrying a bloodied axe were shown during children's morning television! It probably has something to do with seeing a naked woman being impaled into a stuffed reindeer head. Or seeing Santa rip open a women's shirt and start to rape her? Or even seeing Santa giving a little girl a penknife for Christmas? These are just some of the unintentionally hilarious scenes in this film. But it's nothing to laugh at really. The film is played pretty seriously and it's actually quite a decent slasher, driven more by characters than actual gore. You can sympathise with the character of Billy, especially when he saw his parents killed. Robert Wilson is good in his role as the psychotic teenager. You do root for him at times but for all of the right reasons - not just because he's chopping people up. And chop people he does! Billy goes ape with Christmas lights, axes, bow-and-arrows to name a few things. There is some gore including an infamous beheading scene on a sledge. There isn't much tension before the death scenes though and this is one of the film's weaknesses because we know what's lurking around the corner. It's all a little too predictable by this point (it is 4 years after Friday the 13th for goodness sake!) and nothing we ain't seen before - except Santa with a bloodied axe!

Final Verdict: This is one the best Halloween/Friday the 13th inspired slasher films. It may look a little amateurish but it's got some decent characters, novel death scenes, gore, T&A and the other slasher essentials in abundance. Besides, where else can you see Santa turn psycho?