{"id":69959,"date":"2022-12-07T13:14:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T19:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=69959"},"modified":"2022-12-14T15:51:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T21:51:13","slug":"have-you-seen-silent-night-deadly-night-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=69959","title":{"rendered":"Have you seen… Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY JOHN BILLINGER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s December. The waste of calendar space holiday that is Thanksgiving is out of the way, and we can look forward to the time of the year the whole semester is leading up to. Two weeks of finals followed by Christmas a week later. It\u2019s great. I love this time of year (when I\u2019m not working on finals, that is). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love everything about Christmas: the music (Yes, I love Christmas music, so what?), the snow (when I\u2019m inside), and of course, I love Christmas movies. And there\u2019s a lot of Christmas movies to choose from. There are traditional favorites like It\u2019s A Wonderful Life<\/em>, cult favorite Christmas movies that play on TV so often you get sick of them like A Christmas Story<\/em>, to the stop-motion Rankin-Bass specials like Rudolph <\/em>(which apparently is technically loosely in the public domain as the studio accidentally copyrighted it as being made in \u201c1164\u201d instead of 1964). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, every year, I try to check out strange Christmas movies. The ones you don\u2019t hear about too often. I try to watch different ones every year. such as the film you\u2019re going to be reading about today, 1984\u2019s cult film Silent Night, Deadly Night.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silent Night, Deadly Night<\/em> is about a guy named Billy, who, as a kid during the Christmas season, witnesses his parents get killed by a criminal dressed as Santa Claus. He and his baby brother are taken in by a Catholic orphanage where they\u2019re raised by a really brutal nun. Billy grows up, gets a job at a toy store, and a series of unfortunate events leads him to don a Santa Claus outfit and go on a killing spree. Hijinks ensue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, sounds like a real holiday classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film was coming on the heels of the 1980s slasher genre, and it\u2019s pretty obvious that it\u2019s basically trying to capitalize on Halloween<\/em> by setting a slasher during a holiday. Except during the Halloween season, you would normally expect to see scary stuff around. This film is trying to be ironic because no-one expects to see scary stuff around Christmas (unless you\u2019re Tim Burton, of course). This really isn\u2019t even the first Christmas slasher film, for example, 1974 Black Christmas<\/em>. It\u2019s not even the first serial killer Santa film that\u2019s been made; that honor goes to 1980\u2019s Christmas Evil<\/em>. But this film was considered controversial back in the day. <\/p>\n\n\n

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I bet the kid in this photo is thinking, \u201cCan we please go home so I can watch<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The film\u2019s trailer and commercials emphasize the fact this film was about a killer Santa, and for some reason, the advertisers decided it would be a good idea to have some of these commercials play between episodes of shows like Little House on the Prairie.<\/em> Bad move on their part, as it led to housewives, church groups, the National Parent Teacher Association, and a group called \u201cCitizens Against Movie Madness\u201d protesting against the release of this film, basically all saying, \u201cThink of the children.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, some groups gathered around theaters singing Christmas carols in protest. When the film was finally released on November 9th, 1984, it stayed in theaters for one week, and then was pulled due to the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Among the celebrities who derided the film was classic Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney, who said the filmmakers should be \u201crun out of town.\u201d Years later, he presumably reversed his stance when he appeared in one of the sequels, probably because he had a look at his bank account.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

These are the things people used to complain about before video games and the internet. To clarify, I\u2019m not saying that playing previews for this movie in the commercial breaks for family-friendly shows was a good idea. I don\u2019t know what they were thinking, but there certainly could have been a better way to advertise the film. If Christmas Evil<\/em> was able to avoid controversy, then potentially, this film could\u2019ve done so as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, if these obsessive parents with too much free time on their hands didn\u2019t want their kids to see a movie about a killer Santa, then here\u2019s an idea, don\u2019t take your kids to see the film. I don\u2019t understand why these people who don\u2019t want people to see something make a big deal about something to try to prevent people from seeing that thing. It just makes more people curious in the long run. Which it ultimately did. Today, the film has a cult following and spawned several squeals and a 2012 remake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish I could say that the film itself was worth all the aggravation it received from the protestors, but no, I would say it wasn\u2019t worth it. Once you get past the whole killer Santa schtick, it\u2019s just another 80s slasher film. There\u2019s not really a whole lot to take note of here. It\u2019s just the story of this kid growing up to be a serial killer. It\u2019s not really particularly good, nor is it really particularly bad. It\u2019s just average, and kind of forgettable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure there\u2019s the whole psychological torment that the main character goes through, but I feel like other movies from the same era, like Taxi Driver,<\/em> do a better job with that sort of arc. Also, Taxi Driver<\/em> is a much better-acted movie than this. And better written. And better directed. I wished I had more to say about this film, but my thoughts are just short on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like the concept of a killer Santa has been kind of wasted in this film. I guess when I think of a killer Santa, I think of the basic concept of the new film Violent Night <\/em>starring David Harbour. That one\u2019s actually a dark comedy with Santa killing burglars. Perhaps that\u2019s really the problem with this film, is that it\u2019s a horror film that really isn\u2019t scary. Maybe it was somewhat scary back when most popular fictional characters were more innocent, but in today\u2019s world where we\u2019re getting a Winnie the Pooh horror film, the idea of a killer Santa is just kind of tame in comparison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1984 Killer Sants vs. 2022 Killer Santa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, back then, slasher films were very common, and this can hardly be considered a good example of the genre. Now, I haven\u2019t seen the new Violent Night<\/em> film yet, but considering that that Violent Night<\/em> currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 71%, and Silent Night, Deadly Night<\/em> has a rating of 44%, I\u2019d say that this concept is better suited for a dark comedy rather than a horror film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can say that while I don\u2019t really like this film, I can see why this film gained a cult following with several sequels and a remake and I\u2019m willing to bet the makers of Violent<\/em> Night<\/em> were inspired by this film. It\u2019s certainly not your Dad\u2019s Jimmy Stewart or stop-motion Christmas film. It does its own thing while being set in the holiday season, and it\u2019s a slasher horror film, and those have their appeal. So, I get why it\u2019s a cult film; it\u2019s just not my cup of tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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