Silent Night, Deadly Night

Dir: Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

1984

****

I would argue that the original Silent Night, Deadly Night is a great Christmas horror but as far as Evil Santas go it is probably one of the weaker. This is because our killer Santa isn't really Santa, many of them aren't, but often knowing who they are takes away a certain amount of the magic. Silent Night, Deadly Night is however, a great 80's Slasher. Little Billy is understandably disturbed by witnessing the brutal rape and murder of his mother and father as a child, even more so it seems due to the fact the killer was dressed as Santa and the incident took place on Christmas eve. Hollywood psychology stipulates that incidents like this always lead to unavoidable and inevitable copycat scenarios and so adult Billy was always going to turn into a crazed Santa killer when put in stressful situations or when he sees the colour red. None of this is convincing but it really doesn't matter. It's all about the inventive ways Billy can slay his victims while dressed as jolly St. Nick. Hanging by Christmas lights, impaling by antler, axe attack on wheel-chaired Nun....Silent Night, Deadly Night really does have everything the horror fan could wish for, except maybe a decent ending for our anti-hero. Still, it's lots of fun and one of the season's finest.