‘PUNISH!’
Horror and Christmas make for uneasy bedfellows. However, On a scale of Jack Frost to Black Christmas, the former being the lowest and the latter being the highest, Silent Night, Deadly Night sits somewhere in the middle whispering ‘punnnnish’ to itself and rocking back and forth…
Billy Chapman is scarred for life when he witnesses the double murder of his parents by a guy dressed as Santa. Instead of becoming Batman, he dons the red suit himself and goes on a murderous rampage that veers between punishing those that do wrong and savagely slaughtering innocent people. It’s a whole lot of ridiculous fun times with the occasional unnecessary rape scene thrown in for good measure. Merry Christmas!
As horror films go, Silent Night, Deadly Night is actually pretty inventive as we are treated to a full origin story of Billy Chapman in which he is portrayed by no less than three different actors, each one more incompetent than the last. There seems to be some kind of moral message floating around in the midst of the carnage but I just couldn’t grasp it, perhaps because I was eating Christmas gingerbread men the whole time and that seemed more important. A decision that I totally stand by for the record.
If you are truly sick to the back teeth of sugary sweet Christmas films with all their goddamn Christmas cheer and happy endings and all that other business then you should watch Bad Santa. If, however, you feel all of that and you fancy a bit of murder thrown in, then you should watch Black Christmas. But if, and this is a big if, if you want to see loads of naked ladies with all of the above then you sir, you are the ideal audience for Silent Night, Deadly Night. Come on in! Please wash your hands on the way out and don’t touch my Christmas tree…