Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Robert Brian Wilson should have been a big 80's star, with a face like this.

Let's try that again.

A face like this.

One of my Christmas staples. I watch it every Dec. 23. It’s so unashamedly trashy that it’s the perfect anecdote for a month of holiday mawkishness. It’s one of the few times that morals protestors was actually kind of right about the movie. The sequel is also terrific in the sense of being one of the funniest bad movies of all time with a Nomi Malone-esque male lead. It also comprises at least 50% of the footage from the first movie almost making the original irrelevant if it weren’t from the shot of the male lead’s nice hairy ass in the original that makes it essential.

I haven’t seen the additional three sequels but Dead Meat on YouTube did a few interesting recaps on them.

R3 I thought it would be a halfway decent horror movie, since it was on TCM.

But I wouldn't even give it a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The only thing good about the movie was the handsome lead.

Wow, you're right about the sequel R3.

It looks even worse than the original!

[quote]It wasn't even scary!

The only thing I found truly scary is the scene where Billy's parents are killed by the carjacker at the start of the film.

The scene felt like something that could really happen in real life. Gave me nightmares as a kid.

Dumb, bored hausfraus thought the advertisements at the time were going to make their children scared of Santa Claus, and decided to protest it. That was the impetus for TriStar to pull it from theaters, though I don't know if that held up. It is kind of weird that TriStar released this in the first place given that they were a name studio, but I suppose this was a fairly early release for them.

While it is a cheapie horror flick, it's memorable and a hell of a lot of fun. It is one of the best Christmas-themed horror movies out there aside from "Black Christmas". There is a standout shot in the beginning when child Billy and his family come around the bend late at night in their car, and approach the Santa Claus/criminal on the run waving them down from his car—it's a very creepy scene. Truly nightmarish.

If you think this film is bad, I implore you to watch Part 2, which is made up of at least 50% flashback footage from Part 1. It is extraordinarily awful, but has some iconic one-liners. The three following sequels are each insane in their own right. I especially like Part 4, which has nothing to do with the prior films, instead focusing on a Lilith witch cult and featuring grotesque creature/bug special effects. It stars Maud Adams and Clint Howard. Part 3 is still connected to the previous storyline, and is also very weird but entertaining, and has Bill Moseley playing Billy's brother Ricky (from Part 2), donning a translucent skull cap that protects his exposed brain(!) Part 5 is also utterly batshit, focusing on an elderly toymaker—played by Mickey Rooney of all people—who makes robot toys that are designed to kill children.

[quote] Dumb, bored hausfraus thought the advertisements at the time were going to make their children scared of Santa Claus, and decided to protest it. That was the impetus for TriStar to pull it from theaters, though I don't know if that held up.

It held up.

But according to the movie's Wiki page, the film recouped the entire cost of production.

The cost to make the movie was $750,000 and it was only out in theaters for one week, before it got pulled.

The good news for the people who made the movie was that it managed to bring in $2,500,000 in just that one week.

I just put this on tonight while wrapping Christmas presents (I watch this one every year, along with the 1974 and 2006 versions of "Black Christmas"). I have the Blu-ray that was released a few years ago, and re-watched the making-of documentary on it after the movie was over. Robert Brian Wilson really seems like a good guy, and is still quite handsome for an older man. I am glad this film captured his youthful physique, hairy ass and all.

Also, I recommend the Linnea Quigley interview on the Blu-ray, which is quite fun. She is a kooky, interesting lady.

I love Black Christmas because, well, it's a good film. But this film is just awful. It's amateurish, not scary, and unpleasant. Black Christmas has atmosphere, good camera work, likable characters and it manages to be both creepy and festive simultaneously.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is just trash.