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Directed by Mike P. Nelson
If you’re out of sorts this holiday season and looking for this year’s Star of Bethlehem, then let Silent Night Deadly Night be your divine guidance.
A film that roils in equal parts gore, humor, and the paranormal, Silent Night Deadly Night is a true Yuletide crowd pleaser. By playfully pulling apart the most sacrosanct holiday figure of all time — Ol’ St. Nick — this film manages to have something for the entire family to enjoy on Xmas morning.
For the uninitiated, the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise is now 41 years old and showing no signs of slowing down. Now with seven films under its belt, the franchise is looking as spry as it was in the neon-soaked 1980s. While the rehashed cut/paste nature of Silent Night Deadly Night II might having fans screaming “…there’s really only six films in the franchises!?!?!” We’re here to tell you that part II counts and its near brilliant catch-phrase “IT’S GARBAGE DAY!” even makes a coy little appearance in 2025’s retelling of naughty Santa’s evil ways.
How does this franchise keep its youthful appearance after all these years?
Simple! They brought in a director who has a loving reverence for the original material and who also knows how to give a worn out franchise an affectionate, but much needed, kick in the pants. Enter, Mike P. Nelson.
While Nelson has produced a number of horror shorts throughout the years — including the No Wake/Ambrosia segment for VHS 1985 — his real success story came in the form of the Wrong Turn reboot in 2021. Wrong Turn was exceptional. The locations, the acting, the soundtrack, the writing, and, most importantly, the re-imagining all hit the bullseye.
Fast forward to 2025 and Nelson has done it again with an insanely clever cut at one of the weirdest franchises ever. Of the six precursors, there are two sort-of direct sequels, one sort-of remake of the original, one that follows the Christmas theme, and one that has nothing to do with Christmas and instead opts for a Lovecraftian story about a Satanic lesbian fertility cult.
Now added to this mix of holiday horrors is paranormal body swapping.
The latest installment hacks at the first 20 minutes of the 1984 original and collapses it into a nice, neat, and simple five minute package. While I was a little underwhelmed by the recreation of the now famous scene between Billy and Grandpa, the film gets right the point where young Billy is forced to watch the death of his parents at the hands of Santa.
Instead of a drawn out story line with the nuns and Billy’s slow descent into madness, the film picks up with Billy (Rohan Campbell) as a kind, but fully possessed serial killer. Turns out the custodian (Mark Acheson) at Billy’s grandfather’s nursing home was himself a serial killer (Charlie) and he was the one that killed Billy’s parents. More importantly, before Charlie’s death he manages to psychically co-inhabit Billy’s body.
Sounds wildly far fetched, but it isn’t. Nelson is able to make perfect sense out of this strange seasonal happening and he’s also able to create a smart narrative device where the “ghost” of Charlie is continually giving Billy life advice and directing him on his next kill.
As Charlie wanders from town to town, each December he’s compelled to dress as Santa and kill 24 people leading up to Christmas. The bloodiest advent calendar you ever did see. This year, however, Billy finds love with a young woman, Pam (Ruby Modine) who is potentially as disturbed as he is.
Again, while Billy’s code for killing in the 1984 original largely involved staying away from slaying young children, the 2025 remake has a more nuanced code for Billy where he’s able to draw on Charlie’s psychic abilities to root out and exclusively kill truly evil people.
Nelson repackages all the kills from 1984 in fun, inventive, and truly titillating ways. There’s still the bow and arrow, death by antler, and an outdoor beheading, but Billy’s killing ways are thoughtful and strangely enough, considerate.
Along the way, Nelson manages to mix in a great sub-plot about a killer that’s abducting young children in the area. In other films of this ilk, this sub-plot would be a cloying and clumsy affair, but in Silent Night Deadly Night the details are released slowly and purposely.
Should You Watch Silent Night Deadly Night?
If your desire is to be puritanically distressed like the religious nuts that protested the original film in 1984, then this film will certainly get under your skin. On the other hand, if your goal is hoot, holler, and revel in the holiday insanity, then grab some eggnog and get ready for a prolonged howl.
After seeing 2012’s reboot with Jaime King (Black Summer) and the equally great Malcolm McDowell, I was a little skeptical about the need for yet another stab at the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise. Couple that with Rohan Campell’s somewhat quizzical role in 2022’s Halloween Ends, you could say I was near perturbed at the thought of someone further dirtying the near perfect reputation of the original.
Nelson, as writer and director, has pulled off another incredible feat. Breathing life into a beloved franchise that should have been left on the side of a blood soaked road. By fully understanding how to balance reverence and originality, Nelson is able to unpack a series of frightful scenes and ensure that there’s no lump of coal in his stocking.
Bonus? If you love seeing Nazis killed — and frankly who doesn’t — Silent Night Deadly Night packs in a Nazi killing scene that rivals anything in Inglorious Bastards.