It’s Christmas! Want more Killer Santas than SantaCon? Maybe a witch cult with giant bugs? Maybe even Evil Toy Makers? Only one franchise can give you such a present! Unwrap the naughty Silent Night, Deadly Night series before the new entry!
It’s Christmas time! When we gather around with our family and friends and celebrate a great year of doing our best to be good folks, good friends, and good family.
Or have you been NAUGHTY!?!?! If so, watch out for Billy, Ricky, and a few other death dealers across the notorious Silent Night, Deadly Night series. They’re ready to PUNISH you!
Or you can punish yourself by running through the six previous entries before the new remake is released to theatres this December. I’m being cruel. I enjoy these flicks, mostly. No, none are -good- per se, but an entertaining bunch nonetheless. Too busy shopping for the best box set for your favorite movie lover, and don’t have nine hours? Read on instead and pretend!
Silent Night Deadly Night (1984) written by Paul Caimi & Michael Hickey; directed by Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
The original, cruel classic of Christmas slasher carnage. Billy and little brother Ricky’s lives are messed up when, after a scary ass warning about the evil of Santa from their scary ass grandfather (Mr. Peabody from Back to the Future!), they watch an escaped criminal dressed as Santa Claus kill their parents. Happy Holidays! Well, they are sent to an orphanage filled with a bunch of mean nuns, further abusing them, and one nice one. There’s a decent amount of character development to create a real story of tragedy before the slashing starts. I appreciate that. We feel for Billy before he’s forced to don a Santa suit (who would do that? Yet, yet another cruel bit of movie that people delight in being mean), and his brain breaks. Now set to “Scream Naughty and Axe people,” the film shifts to a stalk and slash as the cops try to bring in Billy. Too bad it’s Christmas, and there are a ton of Santas out there.
Silent Night, Deadly Night features several great kill sequences (Linnea Quigley’s iconic antler death!) and a decent amount of tension and skill. It finds this weird level between over-the-top camp and legit trauma. It was maligned and boycotted at release by angry parents, probably causing a Streisand Effect of keeping it in culture, creating a public mythos around it. Otherwise, it’s a fine Christmas horror, lesser than the non-slasher also-Christmas horror of Gremlins that was released in… June… WTF (on the same day as Ghostbusters, what a great weekend), but far better than the skeevy and trashy (but interesting in its own way) Don’t Open to Christmas, also from 1984.
More: Felix’s review of the Shout Factory Physical Media
Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) Written by Lee Harry & Joseph H. Earle Directed By Lee Harry
GARBAGE DAY! BAM!
Yeah! The meme!
Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 is a favorite trashterpiece. Looking to watch these before the new one, and can’t find the first? NO WORRIES (it’s on Shudder BTW, all the films are streaming). About half of this sequel is the now adult Billy telling a psychologist (and the audience) his older brother’s Yuletide slashings. The back half is a campy delight as the overacting of Eric Freeman yells at everything he sees, including the Garbage Day! Infamy, and PUNISH. It’s utterly ridiculous.
Where the last film tried to be a real movie, plot, and characters, and all that, Part II leaves that to the flashbacks. The new parts are such a shift in quality and focus, it’s a whiplash. But Silent Night Deadly Night II is by far the most enjoyable in the series, merely due to Ricky’s rampage. Is it logical in the least? No. Is it made competently? Also no. Is it so over the top that it’s a highlight? Hell yes. Great kills, a very memorable (not good, but memorable) performance, and a totally wild ride of a bad flick. A good choice for having a Christmas Bad Movie Night with your cousins this season.
More: Felix’s review of Shout Factory’s physical media. Jeremy’s Bad Movie Monday write-up.
Silent Night Deadly Night Part III: Better Watch Out (1989) written by Rex Weiner, directed by Monte Hellman.
In the years since being shot at the end of Part II (six for them, 2 for us), Ricky lies asleep in a hospital ward. Somehow, he makes a connection to a blind, psychic young woman. The usually entertaining and screen commanding Bill Moseley is startlingly dour as Ricky; weird, he’s playing it less interesting than the pretty much non-actor of the second. I want to blame director Helleman. You cast Mosely and put a SEE THROUGH BRAIN JAR on his head and… make him boring?
Akin to sexing teens in Jason X bringing back that frozen killer, the comatose Ricky returns when a Santa gets too close. Santa senses tingling! Despite Moseley and the weird costume choice( which never includes a Santa costume, oddly enough), it’s pretty standard slasher. A pretty dull one at that, even with yet another strange wrinkle in the psychic connection of Ricky and the young woman (did someone see Friday the 13th VII from the previous year or Halloween 5 from… two months before, so I guess not).
Not much to Watch Out for, heh.
Completely skippable, your brain, whether in a see-through appliance or regular skull, will delete it after watching anyway.
Richard Beymer and Eric De Ray from Twin Peaks are also around, the same year that show came out. Good to immediately have a better title on the resume.
More: Jeremy’s Bad Movie Monday write-up
Silent Night Deadly Night 4: The Initiation (1990) Written by Zeph E. Daniel; directed by Brian Yuzna.
After three films of Santa and Santa-agencent slashings, the series shifts to a messily constructed Witch’s Coven flick. It’s a Brian Yunza film, but a far cry from Return of the Living Dead III, Re-Animator (he produced the first, directed the others), or the goopy Society. This is applicable in both the quality of the overall film and Yuzna’s typical graphic and goofy excess. The effects by Screaming Mad George are mostly based on giant cockroaches and a tad of body horror. But don’t expect the levels of a shunting or flying entrails.
Anyway, the plot of this follows a reporter played by Neith Hunter, continuing the trend of meh leads in these flicks, looking into a falling suicide with a dash of spontaneous human combustion (for a moment I thought the dead woman was going to be a robot based on how one thing was handled. I was wrong). This leads to a witchy women’s success group, led by Octopussy’s Maud Adams. Perhaps with nefarious reasons. It mostly plods along with too many dead ends and repetitive scenes. Even at 87 minutes, it’s a stretch.
Note, I haven’t mentioned Christmas, the linking element to the series. It’s there with a few scenes based around the holiday, but it’s just a set dressing to make it fit. And a moment with Part III plays on a TV, not unlike Halloween III’s no-longer-a-slasher-series featuring Halloween 1.
For this entry’s Recognizable Horror Actor for Those Pursuing the Horror Section, we have Clint freakin’ Howard! He plays a character named Ricky. I don’t think he’s supposed to be the same Ricky. But we get a bonus: Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister as a newspaper editor! Whoo! Double dose of creepy bald guys!
Ultimately, The Initiation feels like an okay episode of a horror anthology TV show. There’s maybe an idea here, but it is still trite and overlong.
More: Jeremy’s Bad Movie Mondays write-up
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991) Written by Brian Yuzna & Martin Kitrosser. Directed by Martin Kitrosser.
The Toy Maker returns to solidly Christmas leanings with the twisting of a different holiday character: a toymaker. One named Joe Petto. Say it out loud. Yeah, his son’s name is Pino. Toy Maker is a campy delight. At least it is when it’s using outrageous “scare” sequences. And specifically whenever Mickey Rooney is around. The legendary actor and curmudgeon (well known for being a huge ass) is such a delightfully strange performance. Usually, when actors don’t care to be around the film they’re in, they phone it in with a low-energy performance. Rooney goes in angry. He’s mad he’s in a shitty 4th sequel to a franchise he complained about 7 years previously. And he will let everyone know. It’s wonderful in the awfulness.
Weirdly, both Neith Hunter and Clint Howard from part IV return, as different characters.
It has an utterly insane finale to boot. Micky Rooney and the climax make it all worth it.
(No further reading links for this one)
Silent Night (2012) Written by Jayson Rothwell; directed by Steven C. Miller
Silent Night (no Deadly Night this time in title, but absolutely in action; unrelated to various other films with the same title) is a loose remake, in idea and feeling over point by point. There are references in kills and lines (garbage day! A sequence with a deranged grandfather), so it does exist in the same sphere, if in a different manner.
You know what, this was pretty decent. Really. While mostly an excuse for widespread and wanton holiday violence, with so many really well done and nasty kill sequences, there’s enough of the plot in the cops trying to figure out what’s going on to keep it running. I do like that concept, shifting from the killer to cops. Our Santa slayer is not Ricky or Billy, but a different background and reasons. Jaime King is a good lead as the belabored deputy dealing with all sorts of crap in the small town targeted for punishment. Malcolm McDowell will really take any job that pays him, but he lends credence and respectability as the sheriff.
Miller gives the film a good look at times, putting far more effort than the other back-end sequels of the franchise. The characters have enough to go on, even if the “reason” is dumb as hell. I appreciate it shifting the formula, even if using the original as a base. It has an interesting cruelty; no problem killing children.
The killer doesn’t talk. He only says “not nice” once, but remains silent otherwise. Don’t worry, I filled in all the NAUGHTYs and PUNISHes for him.
More: Felix’s interview with Steven C. Miller
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) Written and directed by Michael P. Nelson
Head down the chimney to its dedicated review!
Final Notes
That’s it. Six films across 18 years, with vastly differing levels of quality, care, and kills. A new remake is about to be released. One that looks like a fun blast, taking the original and leaning into a cheesy over-the-top of Part II. Running with the concept in a tongue-in-cheek way. Let’s see!
PUNISH!