Punishment is Good: Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Rating: ****
Starring: Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick and Toni Nero

Funny thing this movie got its notorious cult status being a "Santa Slasher" when we have Christmas Evil (1980) out there with Saint Nick stabbing people in the eye with toy soldiers a couple of years earlier. Then again, I wouldn't blame the angry moms as Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) is pretty darn mean-spirited compared to Evil, ditching all sense of warmth and tenderness of the Winter holiday for sleazy exploitations, nightmarish trauma and, of course, some bloody good slayings.

In 1971, Young Billy Chapman was visiting ole' grampa one Christmas Eve with his mum, dad and baby brother Ricky when, much to his tiny terror, grampa turns out to be a scrooge of an old coot and scares the shit out of little Billy, saying Santa severely punishes bad kids. The moment the family decided to go home, luck ran out on them as they come across a homicidal Santa, who successfully shot Billy's dad on the head while driving away from the Sick Nick and murder-rapes Ma right in front of Billy, who scampers away to hide.

Fast forward three years later, Billy and Ricky are moved to an orphanage headed by one Mother Superior, whose idea of punishment involves belting anyone regardless of age and gender, hoping the physical assault with scare them straight. Hence, traumatizing Billy even further and teaching me never to trust a nun aged 40 and above.

So, fast forward again ten years later, Billy grew up to be a nice and sturdy lad, who actually isn't too bad looking and very helpful. His one vital flaw? He's still afraid of Santa. With Christmas being around the corner once more and the toy store he's working have him standing in as an in-store Holly Jolly Fat Man in the last minute, Billy finally snaps. Cue unraveled psychosis and a murder spree.

Made notorious with its heartless depiction of Saint Nick with an axe, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) still has a good run as an effectively simple run-in-the-mill slasher movie who does away the holidays with its own set of black-hearted charms. Billy's decades of childhood traumas are an interesting watch just for its sheer nightmarish ridiculousness, kept with a good pace and some shocking moments. The fact that the film opted to spend a a good chunk of the time exploring our slasher's state of mind gives it with a bit more weight for a bodycounter flick, a slight far cry from the usual mute stalkers and vengeful revenants. Though by the time Billy matured enough to stand 6 feet tall and bulk some meat, it got a little sleazy and a little cheesy, with the fella uttering out his coda being Santa and punishing anyone he catches doing something "Naughty". (Like two lovers in a tryst and a local bully) It's shlocky, yes, but it's the entertaining kind of shlock.

Still, it isn't without its nitpicks and shortcomings; after a grandeur Christmas Eve night of hacking people left and right, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) loses a bit of steam as it crawls towards its climax. There's an attempts to build further suspense with the cops crawling all over town, hunting down Billy and figuring out where he could be heading to, but the resulting last act is rather underwhelming, amounting to just our Santa slayer looming his way into the very orphanage he grew up in, while Mother Superior hams up more self-righteous spew. It all concludes way too easy and abruptly, though it earns a wee point for making the killer sympathetic in the very last minute.

In a standard B-movie slasher kind of way, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) is a good run around familiar horror genre tropes, bringing us a taste of the dark side of the holidays all the while. It's sick and twisted. Fascinating and frightening, Holly jolly and gory! All you could ask for from a cult favorite!

Bodycount:
1 male shot to death
1 male shot on the head
1 female had her throat cut with a switchblade
1 male had his side slashed with a knife (dream)
1 male strangled with Christmas lights
1 female gutted with a box cutter 

1 male gets a hammer claw to the head
1 female shot through the chest with an arrow
1 female impaled through mounted deer antlers
1 male thrown off a window, falls to his death
1 male decapitated with an axe
1 male accidentally shot dead with a rifle
1 male axed on the chest
1 male gunned down

Total: 14

Looks like someone had a "SLAYride"
... (gets bricked*)