051: SoraRabbit Does a Christmas Special - Slasher Edition

Ah, it’s that time of year again. The time of year when the weather gets colder, stores start to fill up with rabid consumers, and SoraRabbit has to think of holiday-themed posts for his readers to enjoy. I admit, I was a little at a loss as to what to talk about this year and was suffering from a bit of a lull in my motivation. (That’s getting better now, thankfully.) But when I thought deeply about what I would like to talk about this year, one festive holiday movie came to mind… the 1984 horror classic Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Since I was a kid— long before I should have been watching them— I’ve had a deep love for horror movies. One particular category of horror movie has always been my favorite, and that is slasher movies. I talked a bit about my history with the horror genre in two of my previous posts— my look at three of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and more recently with my exploration of EC comics. I spent much of my teenage years watching as many horror films as I could get my hands on. Slasher movies are great fun and typically involve some homicidal maniac killing a series of people in creative ways. Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Chucky, the Leprechaun… these are the icons we think of when we think of the slasher genre. But there are many, many more that deserve attention. One of these is a troubled young man named William Chapman… but who I prefer to think of as Santa Billy.

Yeah, I’m totally doing this. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Silent Night, Deadly Night is an American slasher film distributed in 1984 by Tri-Star Pictures. It was released to great controversy and was ultimately banned from theaters. It opened the same day as the original Nightmare on Elm Street and made more money than Freddy’s first adventure on its opening weekend, believe it or not. We’ll never know how much money it would have made, however. Due to the ad campaigns they ran, and the fears of parents that the producers were attempting to twist and defile the image of Santa Claus in the eyes of children, SNDN got a lot of negative attention. The National Parent and Teacher Association demanded it be removed from theaters and staged protests. Siskel and Ebert panned the film, with Siskel reading off the names of the crew and saying “Shame on you.” He also claimed any money they made off the movie was “blood money”. Because of all this, the movie was pulled from theaters shortly into its run.

Thankfully, Silent Night, Deadly Night didn’t fall into obscurity. Due to the controversy, it became a cult classic. The movie went on to spawn four sequels (two which continued the story that was started with this movie and two that had nothing to do with anything. Think Halloween III.) There was also a remake in 2012 which I haven’t seen, and supposedly a reboot planned for next year.

I remember first coming across this movie during one of my countless video store jaunts as a teenager. I gravitated towards the movies with eye-catching covers and multiple sequels. (If I recall, the cover of this tape was Santa’s arm sticking out of a chimney holding a bloody axe.) I watched it and loved it instantly, going back for the next two movies as soon as I could. This one was the best in the series, and always stuck in my head. And now I get to share it with you all!

Before we get started, I feel I must warn you that this post contains some graphic content. There are descriptions of blood, violence, and assault. It’s all toned down in the usual SoraRabbit fashion, but it’s there. You know your own comfort levels better than anyone, so use discretion before proceeding.

I can only hope I’m even half as terrifying as Grampa Chapman when I’m old. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Still with me? Fantastic! The movie opens with something I don’t miss in modern movies… a slow credits sequence with music playing and nothing else happening. Then we get to a scene of Christmas Eve, 1971. The Chapman family are in the car listening to Christmas tunes on their way to visit Grampa. The family consists of mom Ellie, dad Jim, six year old Billy, and baby Ricky. Billy wants to know when Santa will come and if he can stay up to see him. No, mom says. It’s naughty to stay up past your bed time and Santa doesn’t bring presents to naughty children.

We soon learn that Grampa is in a mental institution in a catatonic state, not acknowledging his visiting family. The parents leave the room to talk to the doctor, leaving Billy unsupervised with the old man. Grampa slowly comes out of his catatonic state with a mischievous smile and grabs Billy’s arm painfully. He explains that he should be scared because Christmas Eve is the scariest night of the year. Santa only brings presents to those who’ve been good all year. The rest he punishes. He warns Billy that if he sees Santa tonight, he’d better run. When Billy’s parents return, the old man returns to his seemingly catatonic state. Before they leave, Billy promises his grampa that he’ll be good from now on. It’s a genuinely creepy and tense scene. It gets worse though.

But before we move on, let’s pause here and talk about Grampa Chapman. It’s clear he’s in this movie to provide some more creepiness and to lay the groundwork for Billy’s messed up beliefs… but what was his true motivation? Was he fucking with Billy? Or was he genuinely crazy? He had tears in his eyes as he talked about how scary Santa is and sounded very insistent when he explained that Billy would be punished. There’s no reason to believe it was all in Billy’s head, either. I think Grampa is faking his catatonia and is truly disturbed and was genuinely trying to warn his grandson. Maybe he had a premonition, or his own traumatic experience. It would be an interesting thing for the movie to have explored, but the fact that we just got this one brief, unexplained scene with the unhinged old coot was fantastic. Like something out of a David Lynch movie, we are left to interpret this event for ourselves.

Mom is being naughty. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

After nightfall, as they continue to drive home, Billy asks his mom if she’s ever been naughty. “Once or twice,” she says wistfully. (I think the actress was going for sleepy, but she delivered the line as though she were remembering some very specific instances of being naughty.) He asks if Santa ever punished her, which concerns her. What gave him that idea, mom demands. He explains that Grampa told him Santa punishes the naughty. The parents are doubtful about this, but can’t think of a reason Billy would lie. Mom calls Grampa an old fool, to which Billy gasps. It’s naughty to say bad things about old people! Santa will punish her.

Ohh, this couldn’t possibly be bad. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Meanwhile, Santa robs a gas station, shooting the cashier three times and making off with $31 from the register. Merry Christmas! No, of course it’s not the real Santa. It’s just some criminal who doesn’t even get a name. He’s credited as “Killer Santa”. He drives off but soon his car breaks down. The Chapman family comes across him on some back road. An original song called Santa’s Watching plays on the radio. (Christmas songs are inherently creepy, and this movie uses them effectively.) Billy screams and tells his dad to keep driving. Of course, dad doesn’t listen until Killer Santa pulls a gun. He doesn’t get far before Killer Santa shoots him dead. (I’m really not sure how the car gets into park as he’s dying of a gunshot wound, but whatever. Christmas magic, I guess.)

Billy leaps from the car and hides in the ditch, where he can see everything. The baby cries pitifully and more Christmas music plays as Killer Santa begins to assault Billy’s mom. She slaps him and he slits her throat. He then searches for Billy and the scene fades out.

Apparently he must have given up searching for the kid or another car came along to interrupt him because we are transported to two years later in 1974 at St. Mary’s Home For Orphaned Children. A nun is horrified by Billy’s gruesome holiday drawing and orders him to show it to Mother Superior, who’s like, the Boss Nun. She of course disapproves of Billy’s blossoming talent.

I think he shows great promise, actually. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Mother Superior sends Billy to his room and the more kindly Sister Martha is concerned. She’s been trying to convince Boss Nun that the trauma is still inside Billy and it’s coming out more and more as time passes. M.S. will hear none of this. No, Billy must not be indulged, he must be trained to behave.

Sister Martha convinces Billy to come outside and build a snowman, but on the way he witnesses two of the older orphans (I assume they’re orphans? It’s not explained but why else would they be there?) having sex. He has a flashback to Killer Santa ripping his mom’s shirt open and then slitting her throat, showing that sex is linked with violence in his mind. Mother Superior flings him from the door and throws it open, confronting the two naked orphans. She beats them with a belt, bellowing about them taking their punishment. Billy listens to this for a bit, flinching, before running outside. His little brother Ricky is there, defending Billy when another kid calls him a nutcase. Mother Superior explains to Billy that what he saw the teens doing was something very, very naughty, and they thought they could do it without getting caught. But the naughty are always caught and punished. And punishment is absolute. Punishment is necessary. Punishment is good. Also, Billy leaving his room was naughty, so…

Um… Christmas? (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

We cut to Mother Superior giving Billy the belt. And that kid is very convincing. Yikes.

That night Billy has a nightmare, reliving that traumatic Christmas Eve when his family was torn asunder. He runs out of his room and is promptly caught by Mother Superior, who ties him to his bed in front of everyone.

Not so jolly now, are ya, big guy? (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Then, on Christmas Day, Billy is allowed to join the others. Boss Nun’s plan is to force Billy to sit on Santa’s lap. (Immersion therapy, I suppose.) Sister Martha is concerned, but says nothing, which are her two main character traits. (I’m sure there’s something in the bible about not sassing the Boss Nun.) M.S. insists Billy sit on Santa’s lap and Billy struggles, finally hitting him. He just fucking clocks Santa, laying this full-grown man out and possibly breaking his nose. It’s impressive.

Billy runs and hides in the corner begging not to be punished as Mother Superior looms in on him threateningly. Freeze frame and we jump to ten years later.

Every movie should have these sorts of captions. At least they’re smaller than the ones in Captain America: Civil War. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Sister Martha is begging Mr. Sims to give Billy a job in his toy store. Everyone else has turned them down. Mr. Sims does too, since it’s hard work and he doesn’t think a kid could do it, but then he sees Billy. Our Billy is now 18 and totally ripped. Mr. Sims looks at him in a creepy way and gives him the job. We get a cheery montage of Billy working the months away in Ira’s Toys and he seems to be thriving. He’s responsible, helpful, cheerful, doesn’t like obscenities, and drinks milk instead of alcohol. He also develops a crush on his coworker Pamela. But his cheerfulness fades as Christmas looms near.

I’m sure this traumatized young man will do fine with Christmas in retail. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

The toy store has their own Santa, and when Billy sees him, he has a flashback and nearly faints, knocking shit over. That night he has a sexy dream about Pamela, but Santa arrives and stabs him. He wakes up pleading for Santa to not punish him. He wants to be good.

But then the toy store’s Santa breaks his ankle so they need a replacement and I’m sure you can see where this is going.

And so Billy goes on to be the best toy store Santa of all time and wins awards and stuff and no one dies. The end.

Haha right.

Wait, Santa’s NOT supposed to threaten the kids? (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Billy immediately terrifies a little girl by saying that she’s being naughty and he doesn’t bring toys to naughty children. He punishes them. Severely.

When Sister Martha calls over to check on Billy, the jerky stock room supervisor Andy tells her he’s Santa now, which for some reason worries the nun.

Oh, right. Probably because of the horrific childhood trauma that has remained untreated for his entire life.

Anyway, it’s now closing time on Christmas Eve and the toy store’s Christmas party starts. It’s a real rager, including alcohol, music, and no third thing. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there are only five employees: Mr. Sims, Billy, Andy, Pamela, and some lady that seems to be the manager. She’s credited as Mrs. Helen Randall but I’m pretty sure she’s never called by name in the movie.

Billy is still in his Santa suit. Mr. Sims convinces Billy to drink alcohol, saying “By the time this party’s over, you’ll think you’re Santa Claus.” (This movie is roughly 75% foreshadowing.) Billy sees Andy and Pamela go off to the stock room together. Mr. Sims, drunk as hell, tells Billy he’d “better get started” and “go get ‘em”, playing on the whole Santa angle.

This is a good time to mention that most releases of this film have extended scenes. These are rough cuts of scenes that were not in the original screening that have been edited back into the movie. These scenes have grainy picture quality and seem a bit out of place. I mention this because most of the conversation here between Billy and Sims appeared to have been cut originally and are restored here.

Back to the stock room. Andy has told Pamela that he has a present for her that he doesn’t want anyone else to see. Billy wanders back to the stock room and catches Andy mauling Pamela. She’s protesting but all Billy sees is two people being naughty. He has more flashbacks and finally suffers the mental break that’s been hinted at for half the movie. The movie flashes between Killer Santa in the past and Santa Billy in the present, indicating that he’s identifying with the monster of his past. Billy focuses in on Killer Santa’s knife. A grim look comes over his face with the ghost of a smile. He bellows “Naughty!” and strangles Andy with Christmas lights.

What a festive murder! (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Pamela says he’s crazy, calling him a bastard and slapping him. Since this is all naughty behavior, Santa Billy has to punish her. He grabs a nearby knife and slices up, gutting her. She falls, dead.

Mr. Simms goes to see what the noise is all about and Santa Billy kills him with a hammer. (I’m assuming this is because drinking alcohol is naughty.)

Aww, he’s happy! (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Helen, also drunk, discovers Sims with the hammer imbedded in his skull. She tries to escape but Billy nearly chops her with an axe. He misses and she grabs the axe, nearly escaping by breaking the window, but he shoots her with a bow and arrow. There’s a lot of dangerous weapons in this toy store!

Santa Billy leaves, just missing Sister Martha, who ends up discovering the bodies of his coworkers.

“Where are the milk and cookies?” (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

At a random house near some jolly carolers, a nearly naked couple (Denise and Tommy) are making out on a pool table, listening to Rock ‘n Roll music, both of which are quite naughty. To make things even more naughty, Denise is supposed to be babysitting a girl named Cindy. She tells Cindy to go back to bed or Santa won’t come. Denise and Tommy get back to it and there’s actually quite a lot of nudity in this movie. (This is the fifth nude scene.) Denise hears jingling and thinks the cat wants to come inside. She abandons her sex scene to peek outside topless. (I think it’s hilarious that she pulls on shorts but not a shirt before sticking her head outside where the carolers were earlier. It’s like the director was trying to meet some boobie quota.)

Billy shouts “Punish!” and hacks his way through the door. A frightened Denise stands and watches him do this before deciding it would be a good idea to run away. He lifts her easily over his head and impales her on a mounted deer’s head. He then goes after Denise’s boyfriend. Tommy was happily playing pool, so I guess he wasn’t too concerned to hear the door being hacked to pieces upstairs or his girlfriend screaming. (I think they want us to believe that the music is too loud, but Denise was able to hear the cat’s collar.) He decides to go look for his girlfriend. (And he does, by the way, put a shirt on before going to look for her. The 80s. Sigh.) He tries to fight Santa Billy with a fire poker before getting strangled by a phone cord and thrown through a window.

Santa Billy gives a present. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

As Santa Billy walks off with his trusty axe, little Cindy wakes up. (I figure they named her after Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch.) She asks if he brought her a present and there’s a very tense scene where Santa Billy asks if she’s been good and not done anything naughty as he slowly pulls a boxcutter out of his pocket. They really linger on this scene and Billy is at his most threatening and sinister here. Cindy insists she’s been good so he gives her the boxcutter and leaves her looking puzzled. (I guess he forgot his mom telling him that it was naughty to stay up past your bedtime.) As he leaves, we see Tommy lying in the snow with broken glass in his face, proving he’s dead. We also hear Cindy calling for Denise. (Yay, another traumatized kid. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.)

What follows is what I can best describe as “padding”. Some cops are out searching for the murderous Santa and see a Santa climbing in a window. They break into the house unannounced (not even bothering to shout “probable cause!”) and hold their guns on the Santa, who turns out to just be a father surprising his sleeping daughter. (It’s played for comedy, but it’s very fucked up and we nearly had another traumatized little girl. I’m kind of surprised they pulled back here, considering what happens later with the other cop.)

Then two boys are sledding at night and get roughed up and sled-jacked by two grown-up bullies. (Ooo, naughty.) The first bully sleds down the hill fine. The second one is decapitated by Billy’s axe on the way down. His head rolls down after and the other bully screams as the scene fades out, leaving his fate uncertain.

At the police station, Sister Martha is awakened by Captain Richards who tells her the body count is rising. Three more murders, which tells us that the first bully was spared for some reason. Sister Martha says that there is a kind of sick logic to his actions when you understand his trauma. The Captain says that they should be able to predict his next move. Gasp, says Sister Martha.

Santa is shot three times in front of orphans. Christmas! (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Back at the orphanage, the kids are preparing for Santa’s annual visit. One of the kids is tying up the phone line playing with her dolly so the Captain can’t warn them. He calls for backup to the orphanage, ordering his officers to shoot to kill. This immediately goes wrong. The kids go out to play as Santa walks up. A cop drives up just in time to shoot Santa three times in the back, traumatizing a whole new generation of children, including Billy’s little brother Ricky. He didn’t stop when the cop ordered him to stop, so of course he opened fire in front of children. They soon learn that he killed the wrong Santa. No, this was poor deaf Father O’Brian, who plays the role of Santa to the orphans. (Which also explains why he didn’t stop when told to.) Oops. As Captain Richards and Sister Martha speed to the orphanage, Mother Superior (now in a wheelchair) berates the cop for shooting a deaf priest. (He says he’s sorry, though.) Boss Nun leads the traumatized orphans in a rousing chorus of Deck the Halls. (Because that will help them forget they just saw Santa Claus shot dead.)

The cop goes patrolling and goes down into the cellar, where he wastes a few minutes to further pad out the runtime. Then as he’s leaving the cellar, he’s chopped in the stomach by Santa Billy, finally getting what he deserves for poor Father O’Brian. The kids are still singing and Billy beheads the snowman, which seems a little unnecessary. I’m pretty sure the snowman was not doing anything naughty, but I could be mistaken. Billy’s working under his own rules of morality now.

One of the kids spies another approaching Santa and opens the door, letting Santa Billy inside. M.S. warns them all to stay away and Ricky seems to recognize his brother. He watches as Santa Billy raises his axe to kill Mother Superior. She keeps insisting that there is no Santa Claus and Billy’s only response to this assertion is “Naughty!”

Then he’s shot in the back by Captain Richards. He bleeds out in front of the kids as Sister Martha comforts him. His last words are to the orphans. “You’re safe now. Santa Claus is gone.“

The camera pans up to the bloody axe lying at Ricky’s feet. Ricky looks angrily at Mother Superior and says “Naughty.” And… scene. A rousing rendition of the movie’s theme song Santa’s Watching plays over the end credits.

Alas poor Santa. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

And that’s Silent Night, Deadly Night! This was maybe my fourth and fifth time seeing it, and every time I’m impressed by how much care went into the production. I shared it with Cocoashade a couple of Christmases ago and she enjoyed it too.

Silent Night Deadly Night was a fun, well-done slasher movie. Rather than just revel in gore and violence, it takes a more psychological slant, anchoring the killings in Billy’s deeply-rooted psychological trauma. The movie does well building the tension. I joked before about the foreshadowing in this movie, because on subsequent viewings some of the dialog feels clumsy and too obvious. (Sims telling Billy he’ll think he’s Santa Claus is a prime example of this.) It telegraphs exactly where it’s going, but that doesn’t make it any less effective when the inevitable bloodshed happens. The quiet moments in the movie are filled with foreboding, the trauma buried in Billy almost palpable, just below the surface, showing through in his unsettled looks.

The movie drags a bit towards the end, seeming to lose focus as we watch police negligence and Billy heading for his endgame at the orphanage. Since he didn’t visit any other houses aside from little Cindy’s house, it makes that home invasion feel a bit random.

The movie uses the familiar iconography of Christmas to great effect, especially the traditional red and white suit of Santa Claus. As mentioned before, the Christmas songs are used to heighten the suspense and come across as creepy. There is an underlying sinister quality to Christmas songs that comes out here. They even have their own song made especially for this movie and it was designed to be extra creepy. (“Santa’s watching, Santa’s creeping…”) The incidental music during the murders is jangling and discordant, showing Billy’s fragmented mental state.

There is a minor undercurrent of greed, lack of gratitude, and the false sentiments of Christmas, but this is all relayed in off-hand remarks, not beaten over the viewer’s heads. The movie is mainly about Billy’s struggles with mental illness and how those in his life have failed him. Before he was stopped, Billy killed eight people and traumatized dozens of orphans, a bully, and a little girl. (Oh, and defaced a snowman.) All of this could have been avoided if Sister Martha had been able to speak against Mother Superior and he had gotten the help he needed rather than forced repression and physical punishment.

Who could have predicted Ricky would also be traumatized? (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

As you may have guessed, Part 2 picks up with Ricky, now grown up and an insane murderer like his brother. That movie was basically a clip show… it has about 40 minutes of footage from the first movie with extra scenes to expand Ricky’s role in Billy’s life. And the acting was… interesting. It was silly and tedious, especially when compared with the first film. The third movie continues Ricky’s story but throws in a crazy psychiatrist, a blind psychic, and Ricky’s brain is in a see-through glass dome on his head. It’s supremely weird. The fourth and fifth movies deviate into an anthology format following a coven of witches and a crazy toymaker respectively. From what I read, the 2012 remake is based on a real life event where a man in a Santa costume killed nine people at a Christmas party. It does not appear that he was inspired by this film.

The second and third movies in the series come across as cheap and lazy cash grabs, coming nowhere near the feel and spirit of the original. They play more heavily into the camp of the concept, complicating everything with more ridiculous murders and plot points. The anthology installments have their own charm and creativity, but are ultimately forgettable.

An iconic image: Santa Claus and his trusty hammer. (Credit: Tri-Star Pictures)

Slasher movies are fun. Some are good, some bad. This is one of the good ones. The psychological slant to it, the brutality and bloodshed mixed among the cheerful commercialism and sentiments of Christmas, the quiet tension and over the top murders… it all works to create something that was very entertaining and memorable. It was something that the many sequels were unable to recapture. If this sort of movie appeals to you, I highly suggest you give Silent Night, Deadly Night a try. Especially if you watch it around Christmastime. After all, what’s more Christmas than punishing others for your childhood traumas?

I hope you enjoyed my recap and review of Silent Night, Deadly Night. If you’d like for me to talk more about the other movies in the series, let me know. (I wouldn’t mind at least doing part 2 and 3 as a double feature post. They’re bad, but worth revisiting.) I appreciate your reading and hope that you are all having a nice holiday season. I will be back soon with another unexpected Christmas surprise!