When it comes to horror, the Horror Nerd is a slasher aficionado first, and all other things are secondary.As such, "Silent Night Deadly Night," for yours truly, is THE Christmas horror movie. Unlike the previous week's inductee "Black Christmas," it was released in 1984 right in the middle of the great slasher film boom, and didn't have to worry about any pesky things like paving the way, plot, story, or character development. Don't get me wrong - there are some of those things in this movie, but they're hardly there to be showcased. "Silent Night Deadly Night" was meant as THE Christmas slasher cash machine in the vein that "Halloween" was for...um, Halloween, and "New Year's Evil" was for January 1st. As that, it's dynamite - hey, I say that every holiday needs a great slasher film to serve as its accompaniment, and this is a movie that gets automatic airplay in my VCR in the week leading up to December 25th.
This movie is pure cheese. It's unapologetic about this goal, aiming only to entertain and to keep you from falling asleep. As such, this film has also attained cult classic status over the years, both for the raw entertainment value of this film and the internet meme that arose from the "rampage" scene in its sequel. You know the "Garbage day!" video that one of your annoying co-workers likely sent you at some point on Youtube? Yup - we have the "Silent Night Deadly Night" series to thank for that.
But that film's focus was on Ricky Chapman. In the original film, our central character is Billy (seriously, what is it with the writers of Christmas-themed horror films and antagonists named Billy?) Chapman, played by Robert Brian Wilson, average ordinary worker at Ira's toy store. His past, however, is anything but ordinary - in the movie's opening chapters, we see a curious episode involving his catatonic grandfather telling him that Santa Claus punishes wrongdoers, followed by a horrific incident involving a man dressed in a Santa suit involved in a robbery gone wrong. In a bizarre twist, the robber winds up murdering Billy's parents, leaving him and his younger brother wards of the state at a Catholic orphanage.
I'm sure that I've used this phrase before, but I don't care - it fits. This being a slasher film, I think you know where the film goes from here - Billy feels his homicidal urges, and hatred for all the nasty, mean, and fornicating teenagers surrounding his life, rising up within him. This, of course, leads to typical 1980s slasher movie kill-crazy rampage past the halfway point of the flick's brisk 85 minute running time.
In that rampage, there are some excellent kill scenes. If Joe Bob Briggs were writing this review, it would go something like "Christmas light fu, box cutter fu, hammer fu, Rambo-style bow and arrow fu, taxidermied-deer-antler fu, a seven on the vomit meter - so Joe Bob says check this one out!
Yes, "Silent Night Deadly Night" is visceral, awesome fun on pretty much every level. As expected, the acting - with the exception of the vivacious and talented Linnea Quigley as the requisite "teen making love" character in the film - is pretty much atrocious across the board. If you're like me, however, this isn't a bad point when it comes to slasher films at all. According to the Horror Nerd and other hopeless losers, the whole act of viewing a slasher film is an experience - and if you take away the bad acting, one of the best parts of the experience is gone. It's what gives these films - which so many of us grow up on - their innate charm, which this film has in spades. It's easy to see why this film has gone on to be a cult classic, as we're hit with a bevy of unintentionally hilarious moments.
And while he's not a very good actor by any means, Wilson accomplishes the impossible by making Billy a fairly deep - and even fairly relatable - lead villain. Not that I - or any of you - have ever wished of being a killer dressed in a Santa suit, but the movie does delve deep into Billy's psyche early in the movie, and Wilson is able to convey this depth to the audience when the movie hits its rampage-filled second and third acts.
Of course, I wouldn't be able to review this film without mentioning the long series of sequels that have been churned out over the years. Of these, the most notorious is "Silent Night Deadly Night 2," from which the aforementioned Youtube "Garbage day!" scene is taken from. The third film is pure hilarity and epic in its badness, featuring the killer Ricky Chapman (yes, Billy's younger brother would be featured as the villain in the second and third films in the series) showing telepathic powers. Yes, really. The fourth is the "Halloween III" of the series, having nothing to do with the previous films, and concerns a vicious man-hating cult of killer vixens, while the fifth is an interesting and intermittently creepy Christmas toy-themed horror film.
So just read the above paragraph again - how can you go wrong with this series?
"Silent Night Deadly Night" is a movie that you will either love or hate. There is no middle ground. I, for one, love the hell out of it, as it is one of the many movies that I saw for the first time on TNT MonsterVision during the heyday of Joe Bob's run on cable television, and appreciate the genuine love for movie-making that emanates from its every scene. It's not even a GOOD movie if you're looking at it from the angle of a snooty film professor - but you don't need those negatrons. You have me, and the Horror Nerd says this is essential watching.
And immediately afterward, track down the sequel and laugh yourself into hysterics. PUNISH!
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