Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

After visiting his grandfather in a mental institution, the five year-old Billy Chapman is told by him that Santa punish bad kids. On their way home they stop the car for a man dressed up in a Santa costume, but the guy shoots his father and rapes and kills his mother, while Billy watches. Years later he lives in a Catholic orphanage and still this horrific incident haunts him, but the firm mother superior wants him to overcome it with harsh results. Now Billy is an older teen working at a toy store, but when the original Santa Claus comes down ill. Billy replaces him and slowly he cracks with him wandering around the town on Christmas Eve punishing those who have been bad.

Deck the halls with bloody slaughtering, Fa la la la la, la la la la. Tis the season to be horrified, Fa la la la la, la la la la. Now this slasher knows how to spread the Christmas joy! "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is more renown for the controversy ("The movie that went to far!…") it really stirred up and if it wasn't for that aspect. Probably wouldn't have made too much of a dent in the rehashed holiday cycle featured in many slashers at the time. "Black Christmas" still remains the best of the festive season features. What kinda makes this rough item above ordinary is that it's a perverse little shocker that's grimy and mean-spirited. Obviously the makers have something against the sentiment of Christmas and the sneeringly dark humour can get wickedly uneasy. The lumbering opening half of the film really does try to development the character's fatigue state of mind, just before he goes psychotically insane. Sure, that established staple is nothing new, especially in slashers. But these moments weren't bad and are terribly exploited, but while the old practical material is given a revamp of the wonderfully jolly and family-friendly Saint Nick turning into a relentlessly whack-out killer would be every parent's nightmare. When the traumatised Santa hit's the streets for some punishing is when it falls into the conventional methods (despite it using Christmas symbols to murder his victims) and predictable hysteria. The deadpan shocks and suspense is telegraphed without much trouble and it can get laughably tacky in its senseless mayhem with a vapidly rushed conclusion. The shattering death scenes are very callous and there's an extremely seedy touch lining it. The music score is a wayward, racket of cues that only add even more to the unsettling nature. Performances range from very static (Robert Brian Wilson as the old Billy turned Santa killer), dominating (the Mother Superior played by Lilyan Chauvan) and to livingly short (the gratuitously topless Linnea Quigley chips in as a bubbly victim and a memorable Will Hare as the very scornfully nutty grandfather).

A drab, lowbrow holiday feature that's has Santa Claus coming to town in nothing more than your amusing cut and dried horror slasher with a somewhat baffling reputation.