Silent Night, Deadly Night/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silentdeadlytop.png

Silent Night Deadly Night is definitely not a Christmas movie for kids, that is unless you want them to be scared of Christmas forever. The movie starts with this beautiful Christmas melody being sung by a child and then it makes a dirty turn into Horror when the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" logo pops up letting you know early on that this is not going be your usual happy Christmas movie.

Silentnite1.jpg Silentnite2.jpg

Billy and his parents visit his grandafather who is in a mental hospital. While talking to his grandfather (who pretends to be an vegetable to everyone except for Billy) Billy learns that Christmas is the scariest damn day of the year and that Santa brings toys to those who are good, but for those who are naughty, he punishes them. Billy's grandfather stares at Billy and asks him slowly "You been good all year?". After Billy and his parents leave the mental home, Billy tells his parents everything his Grandfather said and Billy repeatedly tells his parents that he doesn't want to meet Santa but they reassure him that his Grandfather is a "crazy old fool".

While Billy's parents are saying good things about Santa Claus and listening to some nice Xmas tunes on the radio, a criminal in a Santa suit robs and guns down a store clerk for 21 dollars. Billy's parents pull over after seeing Santa's car stopped and offer to give him a ride but Santa pulls out a little gift from his pocket. The couple quickly drive backwards and thats when Santa shoots two bullets into their windshield and kills Billy's father. Not even looking at what has happened, Billy goes and hides in the woods while his mother gets dragged out of the smashed car. You think Santa is going to rape the mother, but when she slaps him he kills her instead, then begins to look for Billy who he calls: "the little bastard!".

Silentnite3.jpg Silentnite4.jpg

With his parents murdered, Billy is sent to an orphanage from hell run by nuns. The nuns think that Billy still remembers that fatal night when his parents were killed and might have some violence in him. So they beat him (yeah that might help him recover) hoping it will help. After doing some really extreme punishment to Billy, Mother Superior says he will not give them anymore trouble. Obviously she was wrong because later Billy punches Santa Claus after being forced to sit on his lap.

Fast forward ten years, Billy is now a muscular eighteen year-old looking for a job and with help from a nun he gets one. Billy seems perfectly normal now, for example instead of accepting alcohol from the guy he works with, he drinks his healthy milk!. Billy sees a banner with Santa and his smile fades away fast. It's bad enough that Billy's parents got killed on Christmas but when the store manager makes him dress up as a store Santa, thats going too far. Billy's fellow store workers are getting drunk and singing (badly, mind you) Christmas songs. A guy named Andy takes Pamela into the back room for a "special Xmas gift" and Billy is eyeballing them all the way. When Andy rips Pamela's shirt, Billy has a flashback to when his mother was murdered. When Pamela is getting raped, Billy comes to the rescue and hangs Andy with some Christmas lights that were hanging around. With Andy dead he then sticks a knife into Pamela and pretty much carves her like a Thanksgiving turkey. Meanwhile, Mr. Sims the manager hears something going on in the back so goes to check it out but he soon finds out that the noise was Billy. You see his blood getting splattered on some boxes and you see the woman worker totally wasted out of her mind telling Mr.Sims to "come out here to see how beautiful it is". The drunk woman goes to see what Mr.Sims is up to and thats when she sees Mr. Sims with a silver colored weapon stuck in the side of his head which sends her screaming for her life. Billy then grabs an axe from the wall while the woman tries to escape, but what do you know? Mr. Sims locked all the doors!! She runs towards the phone and then quickly dials for help, but Billy (with his axe in hand) stops her from dialing anything. After she runs away screaming, Billy starts looking for her. He thinks he spots her by some toys, but he's wrong. The woman hits Billy from behind and runs away with his axe. Instead of bashing Billy with the axe, she tries to escape, but Billy tells her "No!". When she is getting ready to break the glass on the door (she actually stops!), Billy treats her to an arrow in the stomach.

Silentnite5.jpg Silentnite9.jpg

The nun comes in to check on Billy after finding out that the store is making him dress up as Santa, but by that time Billy is long gone. The nun finds all the damage Billy has done and lets out a loud scream. Next we see some carolers (whats up with that one on the right?) and a couple having some fun on a pool table. The woman hears an jingle outside thinking it is the cat, so she puts on her little daisy duke shorts on, but for some reason she doesn't put on a top or even a bra (not that its a bad thing). After she is dressed she goes upstairs and lets the cat in. When the cat is in, Billy jumps from the shadows yelling "Punish!". The girl closes the door fast, but Billy breaks it down quickly with the help of his axe. He then runs in for the girl and throws his axe which misses the girl just by a hair. Billy picks up the teen and mounts her on some deer antlers that are hanging on the wall (the scene was obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The boyfriend gets tired of waiting and is playing pool he then goes upstairs to see what Denise is doing. He finds her hanging off of Rudolph's antlers and is greeted by Billy. He then throws him across the room by the fireplace. The boyfriend picks up a weapon and slams it into Billy knocking him into a chair which knocks him to the floor. He then pounds the weapon into Billy's head leaving him knocked out, but for only about a second. The teen goes to the phone to dial the police, but at that moment Billy pushes him out of the way and rips the phone line out of the wall. Billy starts choking the guy then ends up throwing him out the window. Billy grabs his trusty axe from the wall and gets moving. On the way, a little girl says something to him and Billy asks the little girl if she has been "good or naughty". He then gives her an blood stained boxcutter and kicks down the rest of the door and leaves. Billy sees a trail of cop cars so he quickly finds a hiding spot.

Later, two punks steal a sled and decide to go sledding down an long hill, but what they dont know is that Billy is lurking. While one boy is sliding down the hill, Billy comes in with his axe and takes off his head. When the guy's friend comes down the hill missing his head he starts getting scared.

Silentnite7.jpg Silentnite00.jpg

The cops and the head nun think that Billy might go back to the orphanage for some sweet revenge, but the phone is busy when they try to call to warn them (thanks to a little girl and her doll). After waitng, one of the cops decides to ride over to the orphanage to see if anything is a matter and just like he expected, Billy's there in his santa suit. The cop shoots what he thinks is a psycho dressed up as Santa, but is shocked to find out that they killed the wrong Santa!! The cop goes outside to check if he can see Billy. He finds him soon enough and is greeted with an axe to the stomach. With his axe dripping blood, Billy walks into the orphange and you really think he's gonna off Mother Superior, but sadly she lives and Billy's little brother Ricky watches Billy laying there dying. The movie ends with him saying "Naughty!" to Mother Superior.

Silent Night Deadly Night is one hell of a Christmas horror movie. It would still be great without the music but that definitely brings alot to the table. I think what makes it so scary is that you could see something like this actually happening to a child during Christmas time. It's really amazing that they could turn something like Christmas which is an happy cheerful holiday into something so revolting!

Reviewed by Me

Newsletter
  • Grindhouse Database Newsletter
  • Exploitation books
  • Kung fu movies
  • Giallo BluRay