My Thoughts on Silent Night, Deadly Night
This new version of Silent Night, Deadly Night, is more than a simple remake of the original, where the premise has shifted slightly, where Billy Chapman, the central figure, doesn’t just get traumatized by the murder of his parents anymore, now he can actually sense evil in people, and Charlie - the man responsible for killing his parents - is a voice in his head guiding him to punish wrongdoers.
This change kind of adds a bit of a moral compass to it all, where Billy has principles, and I never imagined I would say that about an 80s horror icon.
The movie spends time showing Billy’s journey through the town of Hackett, where he’s navigating a community with its own darkness and bad people, a town that is also riddled with secrets with a strange energy to it, daring Billy to test his new moral code.
The dynamic between Billy and Charlie is almost treated like a buddy dynamic, where Charlie isn’t just a villainous echo, he’s a collaborator in a twisted way, giving guidance while keeping Billy on edge, and I found myself laughing more than once at the absurdity of it, but it was also oddly satisfying to watch their strange cooperation.
Then we have Pam, and while I don’t usually connect with romances in slasher films, but you do find yourself invested in how these two damaged people try to find something resembling normal life amid everything else going on, trying to carve a moment of human connection in a life that’s anything but normal.
Silent Night, Deadly Night also strikes a balance between brutality and entertainment, and yet, between the blood and chaos, there are moments of cleverness - the small in-jokes like “death-by-antler” or the throwback nods to earlier entries in the franchise - they never feel like fan service for the sake of it, they actually land naturally and add to the tone of it all.
Rohan Campbell’s (The Monkey) portrayal of Billy also brings a sort of fun energy to the character, as we watch him navigate the moral gray areas and juggling his impulses with a budding relationship, but the film doesn’t shy away from showing just how deadly he can be.
Billy still swings an axe with precision, and the kills are satisfying, and the filmmakers trusted the audience enough to accept a character who can be both likable and horrifying at the same time, and there’s something fascinating about seeing a character traditionally defined by pure destruction now forced to consider morality and consequence.
You really don't expect a Christmas horror slasher to make you think about justice, personal connection, and choice, but it does, and there's an intelligence to the way the story is structured.
All in all, this new Silent Night, Deadly Night is loud, bloody, and occasionally absurd, but in a way that works - a reimagining that keeps what makes the franchise ridiculous and fun while adding a layer of character complexity on top of it all.