Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Silent Night, Deadly Night

1984 Directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr.

After his parents are murdered, a young tormented teenager goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa, due to his stay at an orphanage where he was abused by the Mother Superior.

Cast
Genres

Lilyan Chauvin Gilmer McCormick Toni Nero Robert Brian Wilson Britt Leach Linnea Quigley Will Hare Leo Geter Tara Buckman Geoff Hansen Charles Dierkop

horror holiday

85 mins More details at IMDb / TMDb

Popular reviews

Review by Robin Solsjö Höglund ★★★

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"Christmas Eve is the scariest damn night of the year. If you see Santa Claus tonight, you better run boy! You better run for your life!"

Haha, surely no Christmas is complete without Silent Night, Deadly Night, a movie so awesome it scared hundreds of kids sleepless with its television promotions, causing their parents and the PTA to picket the movie in an outrage. That led to major censorship, which brings me to my point in this review.

The DVD I just watched tonight has been reconstructed from a good regular source combined with censored footage. The censored footage is not only in deplorable shape (it looks like those parts of the movie were soaked in urine and buried in…

4 likes
Review by Jamie Reiter ★★★★

Film #66 Of The December Project.

They don't make slashers like they used to. It's an all too serious affair now, with the Friday The 13th remakes and endless Wrong Turn sequels, they are lifeless, bland experience. But back in the 80's, when the sub genre was in full swing, they really were a shitload of bloody fun, and Silent Night, Deadly Night is a perfect example of that.

From Grandpa's ridiculous, hilarious opening speech to when Billy first dons the Santa suit, it is funny yet tells it's story well. Then, it goes full slasher, with boobs and blood and it's a great time. There are some great kills in there too, my favorite being the bobsled one.

A…

3 likes
Review by Lee Howard ★★★ 3

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is one of those 80s slasher films you think you’ve already seen largely due to the furore which ensued due to its portrayal of Santa as an axe-wielding maniac. However, to my delight I actually realised I’d never got to this one back in the day and what with it being Chrimbo, I thought what the hell.

Thankfully, the seasonal setting and warped novelty of seeing Santa as the killer elevates SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT above the forgettable glut of mediocre slashers. Pacing issues and awful instrumental score aside, the film is actually quite fun: managing to be both cheesy and rather nasty simultaneously. Plenty of boobage and blood on display with a heart-warming cameo from…

2 likes
Review by fizzybenilyn ★★★ 3

What do you get if you cross Michael Myers and Judge Dread?
Billy: the catatonic santa

Fun, kitschy and features one of the best montage scenes ever put on screen

2 likes
Review by Mumbles ★★★★

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

What happens when your parents aren't Thomas and Martha Wayne. Billy Chapman is Batman on a low budget.

This film does everything the right side of bad for me. Such a great blend of horror and comedy (intentional and unintentional), the sequence of events that lead to Billy Chapman becoming an unhinged rampaging Santa made me grin all the way. Dodgy on the nose acting, someone left alone with a bag of coke and a synthesizer, and some awesome deaths all make for a top-notch slasher.

Interestingly Silent Night, Deadly Night was released (in the United States) the same day as A Nightmare on Elm Street and out-grossed it in the opening weekend.

2 likes
Review by MetalBlade ★★★½ 1

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

It's Christmas Eve, and Little Billy witnesses his parents brutally slain by Santa Claus after his Grandad told him Santa punishes people who have been naughty.

Three years later Billy is now eight, and lives in a strict orphanage run by a particularly Hitlery Mother Superior. Every Christmas Eve he relives the nightmare and suffers immense psychological scarring - clearly with good reason.

Fast forward ten years and Billy is now Big Strapping Billy, and after donning a Santa suit one Christmas Eve, he decides to find out who's been naughty, and no further explanations are necessary.

This is formulaic stuff but done in a camp and lighthearted way, so it's better than it should be.
Despite this, there's some…

1 like

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Review by clauditorium ★★½

Several disturbing events (chief among them seeing his parents murdered by a man in a Santa Claus costume) cause a young boy to grow up with some twisted ideas about Christmas.

Slasher pic puts together its psychopath piece by traumatic piece. The gradual build-up is actually more captivating than the violent release that follows. The climax doesn’t quite deliver the goods, and the movie as a whole needed to go just a bit further over the top. Still, well-made for its genre. Amusing use of off-brand holiday songs, probably because the film’s budget didn’t allow for the more popular ones.
Review by VisitorQ ★★★½

"Seven o'clock... it's over! Time to get shit-faced!"
Review by Slaughter Film ★★½

Cory and Forest partake in a very holiday oriented podcast as they review the very, imaginative, Christmas Evil and the slasher film that was despised by parents and critics alike, Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Listen as the guys exchange some Christmas gifts, discus the Blu-Ray release of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Dance Moms, and also manage to offend deaf people in the process.

Listen to, and download the podcast at Slaughter Film

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Review by MetalBlade ★★★½ 1

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

It's Christmas Eve, and Little Billy witnesses his parents brutally slain by Santa Claus after his Grandad told him Santa punishes people who have been naughty.

Three years later Billy is now eight, and lives in a strict orphanage run by a particularly Hitlery Mother Superior. Every Christmas Eve he relives the nightmare and suffers immense psychological scarring - clearly with good reason.

Fast forward ten years and Billy is now Big Strapping Billy, and after donning a Santa suit one Christmas Eve, he decides to find out who's been naughty, and no further explanations are necessary.

This is formulaic stuff but done in a camp and lighthearted way, so it's better than it should be.
Despite this, there's some…

1 like
Review by JoshuaKaitlyn ★★★½

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

In an effort to cash in on the low budget slasher genre, Tri-Star decided to green-light 'Slayride'. With a budget of $750,000 and the producer of 'The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams' as director, the film was released theatrically in the US in November 1984 as 'Silent Night, Deadly Night'.
Telling the story of a young boy named Billy, who witnesses the brutal murder of his parents by a killer dressed as Santa one Christmas. Billy is left so traumatised that at Christmas each year he has to fight the memories of what happened that night, and being brought up in a catholic orphanage run by a strict Mother Superior whose idea of helping Billy is to force him…
Review by Mumbles ★★★★

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

What happens when your parents aren't Thomas and Martha Wayne. Billy Chapman is Batman on a low budget.

This film does everything the right side of bad for me. Such a great blend of horror and comedy (intentional and unintentional), the sequence of events that lead to Billy Chapman becoming an unhinged rampaging Santa made me grin all the way. Dodgy on the nose acting, someone left alone with a bag of coke and a synthesizer, and some awesome deaths all make for a top-notch slasher.

Interestingly Silent Night, Deadly Night was released (in the United States) the same day as A Nightmare on Elm Street and out-grossed it in the opening weekend.

2 likes
Review by Mike Demski ★★★

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

What a strange movie. The filmmakers go out of their way to set up the premise of a guy dressed up as Santa, killing people for being naughty. There's a good 40 minutes of setup, showing how this kid gets traumatized and abused to the Nth degree. Then he ices all of his co-workers. At this point, he's killed all of the characters we know (except for the nuns, who come back in he third act). So what's the point? Who are these new people that Billy is killing? Rather than having him just run around killing people at random, I'd rather see some context. Pretty funny to see a deaf priest dressed up as Santa get shot in front of a bunch of kids. Curious to watch part two now, considering its reputation.
Review by Andrew Neill ★★★

Cheesy slasher based around the Christmas period, the real difference I found with this was we focus on the killer not the victims. This is interesting from this point of view, also there are some good kills and some good scaring of the kids with the jokes around Father Christmas and his axe.

This is more in the realm of the comedy and very black at that point and it has some good laughs. I do think that you really have to be into the genre to appreciate what it is all about and how it is funny. Overall worthwhile if you are into the Slasher or horror genre, apart from that it is not great.
Review by Brian Salisbury ★★½

Love this twisted b-movie gem. Got to see it on the big screen thanks to my friend Eric Vespe and his newly acquired 35mm print.

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Silent Night, Deadly Night

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