REVIEW: ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Lacks a Mean Christmas Spirit

‘Tis the season for joy, warmth, and, in the case of Mike P. Nelson’s Silent Night, Deadly Night, missed opportunities. This supernatural-tinged, Dexter-Esque reimagining of the 1984 cult slasher of the same name feels primed to be a jolly, gory, and surprisingly character-driven time, but bungles the very mean Christmas spirit that would have made it classic holiday counterprogramming. Armed with an achingly dull serial killer protagonist at its center, Silent Night, Deadly Night brims with grating musical stings, miraculously feeble kills, and a flat, milquetoast visual touch that keeps it a few degrees away from a low-rung Hallmark movie.

For a film attempting to remind us of the hidden gloom and disturbing nostalgia bubbling beneath the “most wonderful time of the year,” it feels shockingly half-hearted at each turn—pulling punches when it should be burning the Christmas tree down.

Rohan Campbell stars as Billy Chapman, who, after a disturbing visit to his grandfather’s nursing home, witnesses his parents being murdered by a Santa-suit-clad killer who also meets his end. Now, as a young man, he copes with that traumatic experience by continuing that tradition of Christmas Killing. In the five days leading up to December 25th, he heads to a new town where a gravelly voice in his head helps him dispatch deserving, evil victims.

Juggling a new crush and a thirst for Xmas blood, Silent Night, Deadly Night sees Billy try to complete his quest.

To lay low and scope out victims, Billy finds a job stocking shelves at a local antique store, where his immediate connection with fellow shop clerk, Pam (Ruby Modine), complicates his plans. Juggling a new crush and a thirst for Xmas blood, Silent Night, Deadly Night sees Billy encounter kidnappers, Nazis, and unassuming murderers to complete his quest.

Over its flailing 97-minute runtime, the film repeatedly cuts back to that bloody, fateful childhood night, slowly unfolding supernatural revelations detailing how Billy was driven to his quest. Yet with so much focus on characterization and exposition that brings the pace to a dragging halt, it’s surprising that our protagonist concludes the movie as dull and as one-note as he began it.

While Campbell does inject his own inflections and foibles into our blood-lusting hero, he’s never given the space to breathe and come into his own, manifesting as little more than an introverted retread of iconic killers like Dexter or Norman Bateman. It’s also an unfortunate quality that hampers Modine’s empathetic turn as a loveable but rage-prone woman reeling from an abusive relationship.

Despite being flush with Christmas nostalgia, Nelson’s film labors to cathartically twist or contort it.

Despite being flush with Christmas iconography and nostalgia, Nelson’s film labours to cathartically twist or contort it. From basking in grindhouse titles that boldly spell out Billy’s next target, and long-winded Nazi bloodbaths, Silent Night, Deadly Night postures as a defiant and boorish subversion of Christmas cinema, but in execution, repeatedly restrains itself from truly ruffling feathers. In fact, it leans on tired Horror cliches and motifs that render it just as rote and harmless as the holiday movies it’s mocking.

Tired, tension-robbing musical stings give way to repetitive axe-kills that devolve into the same few impotent axe-swings that continually rob audiences of their visceral, detailed impact. Often shrouding slasher sequences in impenetrable darkness, Nelson and Company neglect the essence of what would have made their genre riff special.

When Silent Night, Deadly Night shifts its focus to its rushed romance, it quickly becomes a bog of conflicting styles and aesthetics. Unsure if it wants to spoof direct-to-video holiday movies or embrace a fiery, exploitation grindhouse feel. The Result is a visual approach that evokes the worst of both subgenres.

As it tepidly concludes, Silent Night, Deadly Night flickers on the screen as an experience that shares more with cash-grab holiday flicks than anything visceral or subversive. The holidays can be sickly sweet, and Nelson’s film isn’t bitter or acerbic enough to make its slasher cocktail appetizing.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is in theatres on December 12th.