Silent Night, Deadly Night
Tags: cruelty, murder, cult, violence, insanity, revenge, sadist

Plot synopsis:
It's Christmas Eve 1971, and the Chapman family - father, mother, and two sons, Billy, age 5, and infant Ricky - are traveling in their station wagon along desolate Utah roads, with the radio for company. They arrive at their destination, a state mental hospital, where they visit Grandpa. Grandpa is severely mentally ill, and while not dangerous, he can't take care of himself. He doesn't seem to even realize he has visitors. The father and mother, with little Ricky, go off to discuss things with the doctors, leaving Billy momentarily alone with Grandpa. As soon as they are alone, Grandpa turns his head and smiles, and starts talking to Billy. He tells him "the truth" about Santa Claus: that Santa will only leave presents for boys and girls who have been good all year; those who haven't, Santa punishes instead. Billy is terrified, because he hasn't been good all year and he knows it. Grandpa returns to his trance before the rest of the family returns to collect Billy for the return trip home. It's after dark by the time they get started.On the way home, Billy, having taken Grandpa's words to heart, asks his mother if Santa Claus ever punished her when she was little. The mother is visibly upset by this question, and taken aback when Billy tells her that Grandpa told him the story. She pronounces Grandpa a silly old fool, which disturbs Billy even more. He had been taught it was naughty to say bad things about old people, and Santa Claus might punish his mother for it.Meanwhile, not too far away, a man in a Santa Claus suit robs a gas station at gunpoint, and kills the clerk when he tries to fight back. He leaves with only $31, swearing as he gets into his getaway car, which we see later broke down. The Chapman family has the misfortune to meet him when they drive up to him on the highway, thinking he is on his way to a party when he had car trouble. Billy is terrified, thinking Santa has come to punish him, and his worst fears are borne out when the man pulls his pistol, intending to steal the station wagon. The father slams the car into reverse trying to escape, but the man shoots him dead, and the car crashes into the ditch. Billy runs out of the car to hide in the bushes while the Santa drags his mother out of the car and rips her clothes off, intending to rape her. The mother fights back, and the Santa, further enraged, changes his mind and kills her with a switchblade instead. Then, with Ricky crying in the background, the Santa stands by the side of the road, looking for Billy, saying "Where are you, you little bastard?"Now it is near Christmas in 1974. We see that the boys both survived, but we aren't told if the killer was ever caught. Billy, now 8, and Ricky, now 3 or maybe 4, live at a Catholic orphanage. Billy's gruesome Christmas drawing gets him into trouble, and he is sent to his room by the Mother Superior while the other children play outside. She discusses the case with the younger nun, Sister Margaret, who was teaching the class. Margaret realizes that Billy remembers what he saw, is mentally unstable and gets worse every Christmas, but the tyrannical Mother Superior believes that Billy was too young to remember and she can beat the thoughts out of him. Margaret goes to release Billy from his room, believing that getting outside will do him good, and knowing that Billy will improve after Christmas. Billy walks down the hallway, but is distracted when he hears noises coming from a closed room. Peeping through the keyhole, he sees two of the orphanage's older residents, in their teens, naked and having sex. He has a flashback to the murders, remembering his mother being forcibly stripped by the Santa Claus. Mother Superior catches him there and throws him aside before entering the room to punish the teenagers with her belt.Billy goes outside to play, but the Mother Superior soon comes back for him to punish him, brushing aside Margaret's protests that she gave him permission to go outside. The Mother Superior explains to Billy that the teenagers he saw were being naughty, and they were punished, and that he would now be punished himself for leaving his room. Mother Superior whips him with the belt and sends him to bed. Later, Billy has a nightmare about the murders and runs into the hallway screaming, and Mother Superior catches him and punishes him again by tying him to the bed.On Christmas morning, the orphanage has a man in a Santa Claus suit come by, and of course Billy is terrified of him. Mother Superior drags him kicking and screaming to Santa, and he punches Santa in the face and runs back to his room. Soon Mother Superior comes to administer even more punishment...Now it is spring 1984. We see Sister Margaret, ten years older but looking much the same, talking to the manager of a toy store, Mr. Sims. Sims is reluctant to hire Billy, who just turned 18 and is ready to leave the orphanage and enter the real world, but changes his mind when he meets Billy, who has grown tall and strong, just what Sims needs for the warehouse. Billy starts the new job and for the first few months, it works out well for him. Besides him and Sims, there is Mrs. Randall, the assistant manager, Andy, the warehouse clerk, and Pamela, a girl who helps in the store. But Christmas comes eventually, and few places are more into it than toy stores. Billy is upset, especially by the Santa Claus imagery, and it affects his work. Andy, who shamelessly sucks up to Sims but is verbally abusive to his co-workers when Sims is not around, yells at Billy about it.Shortly before Christmas, Sims has a problem. The guy whose job was to play Santa Claus in the store hurt himself, and the only replacement available was Billy. So they dress Billy up as Santa Claus and the next day, the parents shopping at the store remark of how good he is with the children - in fact, he frightened them into silence with his warnings of punishment, believing that's what Santa Claus does. On Christmas Eve, just before closing time, Sister Margaret calls the store to see how Billy is getting along, it being his worst time of year and all. When Andy tells her that he is dressed as Santa Claus, she realizes that this was a very bad idea, and she sets out to go there. It will be awhile before she arrives.At closing time, Sims locks the store and starts the Christmas party by getting out the booze. Everyone seems to be having a good time, except Billy, still in the Santa Claus suit, who is still moody, thinking about his parents' murders. Sims, becoming more and more drunk, tries to cheer Billy up while Andy takes Pamela into the back. Billy, becoming somewhat drunk himself, believes Sims's joke that he will soon think he is Santa Claus. He walks to the back, and sees Andy becoming more aggressive with Pamela, he has ripped her shirt open. Seeing this give him another flashback to the old days, and this pushes him over the edge at last. Believing that he really is Santa Claus and has the power to punish the naughty, he steps forward and kills Andy by hanging him from a string of Christmas lights. Pamela freaks out, and Billy, believing her to be naughty as well, cuts her stomach with a utility knife. Sims, thinking he heard noises in the back, goes to investigate, and Billy kills him with a claw hammer. Mrs. Randall, realizing she is alone, goes to look for Sims, and finds him dead. She runs for the door, but it is locked. Then she goes for the phone, but Billy chases her with a double-bit axe. She hides from him, then pushes him down and takes his axe, intending to break the doors and escape. Billy picks up a bow and and shoots her with an arrow from across the room. Then he unlocks the door and leaves, axe in hand, a few minutes before Sister Margaret finally arrives to see what Billy has done.Next, we see two policemen, incredulous that they have orders to pick up Santa Claus. They see a man in a Santa suit climbing in the second-floor window of a nearby home, and go to get him, but it turns out to be a false alarm: it was the man who lived there, intending to surprise his young daughter.Next, we see a teenage girl named Denise, making out with her boyfriend Tommy on top of a pool table. The girl's younger sister Cindy starts walking down the stairs, anxious for Christmas to arrive and hoping to see Santa Claus. Not wanting to be seen half-naked, she tells Cindy to go back to bed lest Santa pass the house by. She does so, unhappily. Then Denise hears jingling outside, and tells her boy-friend to wait for a moment, so she can let the cat in. Denise pulls on some very short shorts, and wearing nothing else, goes to let the cat in. The cat runs inside, but then Billy shows up, dressed in the Santa suit and carrying his double-bit axe. Denise screams and slams the door shut, but Billy breaks the door down. After a brief struggle, Billy picks up Denise and impales her on the antlers of a trophy deer that was hung over the fireplace. Tommy couldn't hear the ruckus over the radio, and has been killing time playing pool. Eventually he goes up to check on Denise, finds the door broken and then finds Denise hanging on the antlers. Then he meets Billy. He puts up a better fight, but eventually Billy gets hold him and throws him from the window, where he lands on the hard ground outside, breaking his neck.Just as Billy gets ready to leave, Cindy comes out of her room again, and she is overjoyed that she did get to meet Santa Claus. Billy asks Cindy if she's been good all year, and she insists that she has. Billy puts a "present" into the little girl's hands, the utility knife, and then he leaves. We can hear Cindy's voice, puzzled but excited, calling for her sister to tell her what she saw.Meanwhile, two boys in the early teens are out for a late-night sled down a snowy hill. Before they start, they are set upon by two older boys who steal the sleds for themselves. The first one sleds down the hill; the second is attacked by the axe-wielding Billy halfway down. He falls sideways off the sled at the bottom of the hill, his head rolling down behind him. The other boy screams.By morning, Billy has still not been caught. Sister Margaret, who had fallen asleep at the police station, wakes up and one of the policemen tells her the bad news, three more killings overnight. They believe that Billy will likely return to the orphanage and radio the police there to keep a lookout for a man in a Santa Claus suit. Sister Margaret tries to call the orphanage to warn them, but one of the little girls there has been playing with the phone and left it off the hook, so she only gets a busy signal. After several failed tries, she and one of the policemen set out to drive there.One of the policemen on patrol near the orphanage does see a Santa Claus walking toward the orphanage, and gets out of the car and yells for him to stop. When the man doesn't respond, the policeman shoots him. He falls forward, dead. But we soon learn that this was a case of mistaken identity when the dead man turns out to be middle-aged. Sister Margaret instantly recognizes the description as that of Father O'Brien, who had been their Santa Claus for several years, and who could not hear the policeman because he was deaf.The policeman apologizes to the Mother Superior, and tells her that the killer may still be coming and that he will keep watch. Over the last ten years, Mother Superior's health has declined, she is now in a wheelchair and no longer able to physically punish the children, but she is every bit as bitter and hateful. She tries to comfort the children, who have just seen Santa Claus shot dead, by leading them in singing Christmas carols, while the policeman circles the building. The children include Billy's younger brother Ricky, who was a baby at the time of the killings but is now in his early teens. The policeman makes his rounds but he is ambushed by Billy, who has finally arrived at the orphanage. Billy kills him by slamming the axe into his chest.Billy then goes to the front door, and one of the children, overjoyed at seeing Santa apparently alive and well, lets him in. He walks toward the Mother Superior, helpless in her wheelchair, and raises the axe. Just then, the other policeman who was driving with Sister Margaret arrives and shoots Billy twice in the back. He falls forward, dying. His last words, to the children, are, "You're safe now. Santa Claus is gone." Billy's axe falls at Ricky's feet, and he appears ready to pick up where his older brother left off someday, as he looks at Mother Superior and says, "Naughty!"

Review: Silent Night, Deadly Night tells the story of a boy whose parents were killed in front of him as a child, and it was by a man dressed as Santa Claus.
A classic to many fans of horror and independent cinema, Silent Night Deadly Night definitely wins the award for having the most gorgeous, super nice, hunk of a killer ever on screen!I mean, if this guy came at me with an axe, I wouldn't be running...Robert Brian Wilson, who went on to star in many US soaps, just has you hooked as the beautiful, gentle killer with his W shaped smile that has such good reason to be the way he is, you can't help feel sorry for him.Adding to the tragedy of what he witnessed as a young boy when a guy dressed as Santa killed his parents, comes an evil nun bitch who just makes his life worse, and to be honest, would do the same to anyone!With great 80's flair and drama, the final cherry on top is when the store he works at has him dress as Santa for the Xmas period.
There's a reason that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" air on TV every year to solid ratings: in today's dour times, where even our popular movies have deviated from escapism and taken on a depressing quality, it is refreshing to see a film that can make us feel good about ourselves and life in general.This is also why Christmas-themed horror movies are often more disturbing than their regular themed counterparts.
The two children are brought to an orphanage, where head-nun Mother Superior consistently punishes young Billy for the rest of his childhood, especially around Christmas time, which is usually when Billy begins acting out with memories of his parents murder still fresh in his head.
However, when he is required to don a Santa's suit for Christmas Eve and the co-workers begin referring to him as Santa, Billy goes over the edge, setting out to punish those who have been naughty...with the help of an axe.Silent Night Deadly Night is another entry in the long list of eighties slashers, and while some may see it as nothing more than Friday the 13th featuring Santa Claus instead of Jason, it differentiates from other slashers in several ways.
There is more depth to Billy than Jason or Freddy, and that is part of the reason the film is more disturbing than most other slashers.The final aspect of Silent Night Deadly Night that really propels it above most other slashers is not a variation from other slasher genres (like the previous things I have mentioned), but an improvement on most others.
The story is good, it sounds cheesy with santa being a killer, but the back story is very well done, the character development is great, the music works, and it has one of the coolest death scenes in a movie ever....(antlers)  Sure, here and there it can be cheesy-PUNISH!- but it still is very watchable and I recommend it to any horror fan around the holidays..
In the height of the Reign of the Slasher film, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" (like the far superior "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" series) mixes horror with a theme, this time, Christmas.
Taking place of three periods in time, the film follows Billy Chapman and the horrific events that he witnessed on Christmas as a child - the murder of his parents by a man dressed up as Santa Claus.Naturally, this disturbed young Billy who (along with his younger brother Ricky) was placed in an orphanage, run by the cold Mother Superior, where each Christmas he gets understandably upset.
When Billy reaches 18, he gets a job working in a store, but at Christmas time Billy starts to get a little ax-happy, killing anyone who he sees doing anything naughty - usually involving sex, for years or child hood trauma had disturbed him so much, Billy was told people who do naughty things get punished, so now he was the punisher.Production values aren't that bad, but the acting is rather mediocre.
Being the 1980's and during the Reign of the Slasher, naturally there is plenty of sex and bare breasts."Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a fairly good film that could have been explored a little further, it just didn't seem to hit the mark in terms of addressing the story on more than a couple of levels.
Performances range from very static (Robert Brian Wilson as the old Billy turned Santa killer), dominating (the Mother Superior played by Lilyan Chauvan) and to livingly short (the gratuitously topless Linnea Quigley chips in as a bubbly victim and a memorable Will Hare as the very scornfully nutty grandfather).A drab, lowbrow holiday feature that's has Santa Claus coming to town in nothing more than your amusing cut and dried horror slasher with a somewhat baffling reputation..
He suffers abuse there at the hands of Mother Superior, gets a job at a toy store as a young man, then he goes on a demented killing spree as Santa.The DVD opens with the statement that this is "the most complete and unrated version," which is why there are scenes of varying quality.
He's on his way to visit the Mother Superior and settle an old score...When this came out in 1984 many people (parents in particular) were outraged that a movie featuring a killer Santa was being shown.
The only good thing is that Robert Brian Wilson gives an OK performance as the killer Santa.But, all in all, this is a cruel, vicious, badly made slasher film that doesn't deserve all the attention it gets.
If you like horror at its most terrifying, Santa at his most traumatizing, and scenes of kindly old priests getting killed, then you're in luck, because this movie has two out of three.
And that is the scene where little Billy Chapman (Danny Wagner), our future Killer Santa, visits his disturbed, psychopathic grandfather (Will Hare) at Xmas time and cops an earful about being "good" for Santa and, when he sheepishly admits that he hasn't been good all year, Grandpa assures him that Santa will be coming for him and that the boy "...better run, better run for your life!!!".The scene is hilarious and disturbing for its incredible mean-spiritedness and is this film's only virtue.
The original classic that started it all (it all being the pentology of films it would go on to inspire over the next two decades), is about as close to perfection as one can expect a slasher film to achieve.It is constructed in four sections, with the first half covering the psychological development of our antagonist, Billy, and the latter half documenting his fall, as well as the slashy aftermath that would ensue in it's wake.Everything begins with an ominous warning from his creepy old Grandpa: Beware Santa, for he punishes those who are naughty.Coincidentally, shortly after this, a murderous criminal in a Santa Claus outfit intercepts their vehicle...murdering his mother and father...right before his eyes.Fast forward to the local orphanage three years later.
He starts to think he IS Santa...and he knows what Santa does to the naughty on Christmas Eve...punish them...The rest of the film is essentially made up of boobs, psychological breakdowns, strangulations, impalements, axe killings, and mistaken identity murder.
A kid who sees his parents get butchered by a maniac in a Santa suit grows up to be a killer Claus himself in another '80s gorefest with a sense of humor and Linnea Quigley.After HALLOWEEN, Friday THE 13th, MOTHER'S DAY, and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, it was only a matter of time til Christmas rolled around and when it finally did in November 1984, the film even out-grossed A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which opened the same week.
(The free-wheeling '70s were a lot more chill - when I saw BLACK Christmas at the drive-in back in December 1974, there wasn't an uproar in the press or anywhere else.)SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT was eventually re-released with cuts and without the offensive ads that scared so many kids and the DVD I have is "the most complete version" spliced together from two different film elements -one crisp and the other dark- so it was interesting to see just what had been cut (mostly lingering or explicit shots of the more gory murders).
I think they gave up and turned the movie off, just as they did with Madonna's "Blonde Ambition" show on HBO (I'll never get over that!) I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I ever saw breasts in any context, and seeing them in the context of sexualized violence probably messed with my head, just like it did little Billy's.
it started the controversy and was banned in many places.there were inferior ripoffs of this like don't open till Christmas and Christmas evil.i wont give away the plot but there's people getting hacked to death by the killer,one person is impaled on reindeer's antlers.and much more gruesome slayings.maybe the killer has seen Friday the 13th a few times.there's a very good cast,Lillian chauvin,Toni Nero,Britt leach, will hare,Tara buckman,and a young Linnea quigley.if you like slasher splatter holiday movies put this on your list and check it twice,to miss this will be naughty.part 2 is not as good.part 3 is the best one.
First,the good,the killer,he is unique and very interesting when it comes to his personality.The kills,they are creative and have great effects.The setting and the beginning are very creepy.The score and cinematography are good.There is a great scene where the killer talks to a little girl.I like how the movie shows that nobody is completely nice.The best part is the first 30 minutes,similar to the Halloween remake,they both delve into the killer's mind and how he is affected by the world around him.Now,the bad,the characters,they are all unlikable and you don't care about any of them.Another flaw is that there is too much nudity,it makes you feel awkward while watching it.There is no suspense and the killer gets worse once he starts killing everyone in sight for no reason and only saying the word "punish".Silent Night,Deadly Night is very overrated(horror fans love it),although it has good kills,setting,and concept,it also is too in your face,with no characters to care about..
This is what happens to 5-year-old William, who, on Christmas Eve,  sees his mother raped and both parents murdered by a street thug dressed as Santa Claus -- right after his semi-senile grandfather tells him that Santa Clause punishes those who are naughty.
4 years later they are at a orphanage run by nuns especially the mean spirited Mother Superior who punishes poor traumatized Billy who is now afraid of Santa Claus no thanks to that night as it still haunts his mind, 10 years later he has became 18 and gets a nifty job at a toy store.
He's been a great worker for the past few months until Christmas time which is his most loathed holiday, he's assigned to be the store's Santa but during Christmas eve he snaps and goes on a murder spree killing those who have been naughty or nice.A shocking, violent, disturbing and sleazy low budget horror flick that was one of the most controversial movies of it's time mainly because in November of the year 1984 when this movie came out in theaters there were angry parents who picketed this movie because they didn't like the idea of Santa Claus as a murderer then the studio Tri-Star Pictures pulled it out in three weeks but was released on video in the full Uncut version with some gore trimmed out to avoid an "X" rating and became a cult flick.Also recommended: "Halloween Series", " Nightmare on Elm Street", " Friday The 13th series", "Freddy Vs. Jason", "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", " Maniac ( 1980)", " I Spit on Your Grave", " Mother's Day", " Christmas Evil", " Tales from The Crypt" ( 1972 movie), " The Prowler", " Scream 1 & 2", " A Clockwork Orange", " Driller Killer", " High Tension", " Gremlins", " Urban Legend", "The Hills Have Eyes ( 1977 and 2006)", " House of 1000 Corpses", " The Devil's Rejects", "Santa's Slay", " Terror Train", " Hostel", "Wolf Creek", " Cry Wolf", " My Bloody Valentine", " Bloody Birthday", " "Sleepaway Camp", "Ichi The Killer", "Silence of the Lambs", "Se7en", " The New York Ripper", " The Toolbox Murders ( 1978 and 2004)", "Cape Fear", "Bad Santa", and " Psycho ( 1960)"..
But as Christmas approaches and Billy is forced to wear a Santa suit for the job, flashbacks of his terrible encounter years ago return, and in a bout of psychosis, he goes on a rampage, slaughtering everyone who's been "naughty" this year.I enjoyed this movie quite a bit actually, mostly because of the decent story and the unique and interesting ideas that are put into it.
It was ultimately banned two weeks after it's theatrical run in November 1984, and was shelved for two years and then re-released on an "uncut" VHS videotape.To sum things up, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a bizarre, interesting, and somewhat unique horror movie.
While it isn't nearly as great as Bob Clark's 1974 film "Black Christmas", "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a worthy effort in the genre, good fun holiday horror.
The plot is about a little boy (Billy) who sees his parents brutally murdered by a man in a Santa custume on the way home from a road trip on Christmas eve.
I know that this film took a lot of criticism and still does---yes, the murders and almost too violent (deer antlers!!), but overall it is a decent, well acted flick that seems to really want us to care about Billy and his past, making everything that happens much more difficult to watch.
Sorry, but he felt too hokey to be taken seriously.Needless to say though, while I don't consider Silent Night, Deadly Night good by any means, I do respect it for taking a different approach to the slasher movie genre, especially towards the holidays.
Once he dons the Santa suit and goes on his killing spree, the film drops any attempt at story as we watch him move from one scenario to the next, killing those he encounters, or as he thinks of it, "punishing the naughty." It's all pretty dopey, but the lead (Robert Brian Wilson) gives it his all, and some of the gore effects are memorable.
I've watched numerous 'slasher' films over the years, so I flatter myself I've seen most things when it comes to the genre, but 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' kind of left me speechless.
It has a simple enough set up (but fairly original) with a young kid who sees his parents killed in front of him by a disgruntled Santa Claus, becomes an orphan, and then snaps when he's an adult and under the control of some nuns.The movie is not any kind of 'high art'.
With the approaching Christmas season, and with me being a huge horror fan, I just had to get my hands on Silent Night Deadly Night--the band Santa slasher that really scorched a lot of mothers in its day.When the movie started it was freaking good, the scene with the grandfather in the mental institution is classic.
"He punishes those who are naughty." But about twenty minutes into the movie, once we see a grown up Billy working for a toy store(an obvious prop), the budget surfaced, and the rampage that follows just wasn't quite bloody enough for my desensitized appetite--it was comparably to an early Friday the 13th film.But don't let this deter you, because if your reading this, your most likely into b-horrors like myself and can put up with such things.
Billy's parents see someone on the side of the road, it is the Santa Claus killer, he pulls out a gun and ends up killing Billy's father, he rapes his mother, slits her throat while Billy is hiding.Billy and his brother Ricky are in an orphanage where the mother superior runs it with an iron fist, she makes Billy's life more difficult, even around Christmas.Years later he's a teenager working in a toy store and flips out after having to dress up in a Santa Claus suit.He murders one co worker when he sees him raping a female coworker and she is ungrateful, he kills her and the others in the store, he goes on his killing spree and Sister Margaret, the nun who is sympathetic to Billy growing up figures out where he is going to go next, her and the Police Chief go to the Orphanage where Billy kills a cop and is about to kill Mother Superior, Billy Gets shot by the chief, his last words are, "It's alright, Santa Claus is gone", he dies, his little brother Ricky was looking down, then looks up and says "Naughty".I give this movie 10/10 stars, I am so glad that I have this movie on DVD.
He scares the heck out of the little boy saying that Santa Claus punishes the bad.This film is very freaky, all true horror fans should see it.
Billy is traumatized after watching his parents being brutally murdered by a psychopath dressed in a Santa suit after his loony grandpa tells him that ol' Saint Nick punishes bad little boys and girls.
"Silent Night, Deadly Night".This horror movie "perfect" for holidays is about a traumatized boy who when grows up, for the trauma (a thief that kill her dad and mom in Christmas eve) go with a disguise of Santa Claus in Christmas eve and kill a lot of people.
SPOILERS Billy Chapman is deeply traumatized at age five when a man dressed as Santa Claus kills both parents and rapes his mother on Christmas Eve. A combination of this murder and something his insane grandfather tells him leaves the impression to him that Santa leaves presents for the good children punishes the naughty children.