Silent Night, Deadly Night

Silent Night, Deadly Night was released 1984, became a cult film (hit?), had several sequels, and was actually rebooted in 2012. It’s status with horror fans, writers and directors meant that it achieved a certain standing so it was only a matter of time before there was another remake. This has fallen to writer/director Mike P Nelson who had a go at Wrong Turn in 2021, with interesting results.

Here Billy (Rohan Campbell) is an adult traumatised by childhood incidents and an encounter that obliges him to seek out bad people at Christmas and kill them. This has been going on for several years and he’s got away with it.
This time its different and the authorities are closing in. So he decides to spend time in a small town. He’s hired by a local store owner and manages to strike up a friendship with his daughter Pam (Ruby Modine).

But there is still an insistent voice in his head (Mark Acheson) that guides and compels Billy to kill. And in the town there are enough ‘naughty’ people to keep him going to the end of the Christmas period. Which leads to the expected murder and mayhem and one quite spectacular sequence of carnage.

This version doesn’t have the grime and cheap exploitative vibe of the original. It's still pretty raw at times just that Nelson has refined Billy into a character that the viewer could just about have some sympathy with as the causes for his actions become clearer as the film goes on.

It’s a dodgy line that has been successfully mined by Dexter in recent years. But as with that character Nelson just about gets away with it. There's little doubt that the victims are 'nasty' pieces of work, and the cruelty of their murders are somewhat tempered by Billy being quite a nice person, if a bit awkward.

The acting is solid with Campbell and Modine having more complex characters and situations to play than would usually be expected for what is essentially a slick exploitation film.

Silent Night, Deadly Night will be in UK cinemas from 12 December 2025.