Haunted by his parents’ murder by a killer in a Santa costume, and scarred by the abuse he endured at the hands of the Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin) who ran the orphanage he grew up in, Billy Chapman (Robert Brian Wilson) is in a fragile state.
However, life is looking up - he has been hired for his first job (working at a toy store), and there is a young woman who shows interest in him.
But Christmas is coming, and Billy’s boss is looking for someone to dress up as Santa for the kids…
This movie is such an odd beast.
On the face of it, Silent Night, Deadly Night looks like a rebranding of the traditional slasher format.
Instead, the film is structured as a tragedy, as the film spends almost half its run time showing the ways young Billy has been traumatised and tortured into a fragile state where it takes one small catalyst to turn him into a mass murderer.
All the familiar elements are there, but they are the payoff to a long setup establishing the character.
What makes it stand out even more is how functional the filmmaking is.
There are a few interesting touches, but overall Charles Sellier shoots the film like an industrial film from the seventies - lots of mid-shots, lots of shot-reverse shots and high-key lighting style that is reminiscent of a commercial or a public safety announcement.
While this should work against the film, this utilitarian approach makes the film all the more disquieting, giving the film a chilly, detached perspective to the central character’s descent into homicidal rage.
The unknown cast are solid, but I have to give credit to the three actors who play Billy - Jonathan Best (Five-Year-Old Billy), Danny Wagner (Eight-Year-Old Billy) and Robert Brian Wilson (adult Billy).
They may not look similar, but they carry their individual chunks of the film, with Wilson giving Billy a social awkwardness and stilted demeanour that feels like the perfect endpoint for the torment his younger selves had to endure.
As the original "Killer Santa" who sets young Billy up for a life of therapy, Charles Dierkop is a smirking, dead-eyed goon.
While they are all good, the standout of the cast is Lilyan Chauvin as the cold, callus Mother Superior.
Simmering with resentment and obsessed with punishing Billy until he is cured of his trauma, she is a terrifyingly righteous figure who remains intimidating even though she never raises her voice.
Chauvin does not try to soften her character, giving her a smug zeal that cements her as the real villain of the piece.
Frankly, she is far scarier than Billy. And he kills people.
Reading the plot summary, Silent Night, Deadly Night reads as silly. And the focus on showing Billy’s trauma robs the film of the easy thrills of most slashers. This is more of a heavy-handed drama sweating over how to make a killer Santa credible.
Billy only goes on his rampage in the third act, and while it is familiar stuff - Billy stabbing/impaling/cutting up various people he deems ‘naughty’ - there are some moments where it feels like the movie is acknowledging its inherent ridiculousness:
Eight-year-old Billy knocking a Santa performer out with one punch
The ironic cutaways to the frozen cheer of the various toys as Billy kills off his work colleagues
Billy screaming ‘Naughty’ as he decapitates a bully racing down a hill on a kid’s stolen sled
The reaction shots of the orphanage kids as the police riddle the wrong Santa with lead
There is a dark vein of humour which is inconsistently spritzed throughout the film, which provides some brief moments of relief from the grim tone.
The film deserves some credit for sticking with its theme of trauma building and being passed on - the film ends with Billy’s brother Ricky (Alex Burton) and the orphans staring in shock at Billy’s corpse, before RIcky looks up and repeats Billy’s catchphrase: “Naughty…”
Oddly compelling, Silent Night, Deadly Night is better than its reputation would suggest, and despite lip service to the slasher format, is too singular and caustic to be mistaken for escapist fun.
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