Silent Night, Deadly Night - Not bad for its time

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.  Yes, there’s nothing that new about what you get here – killer stalks various people and despatches them in bloodthirsty ways.  However, the whole feel of the film just left me unsure of what I was watching.

This ‘vibe’ I’m talking about is either a deliberate attempt to do something a little different with the genre, or just bad film-making.  I think there are arguments for and against each of these.  I’m not sure whether the structure was supposed to be all over the place, but I was left never really sure where this film was going until about the final third (where it does start to conform to a more generic slasher film structure).

You’ve probably seen the promotional material depicting a ‘killer Santa’ so I’ll just leave it at that and I won’t go into too much detail regarding the plot because I’d never seen the film before and I genuinely didn’t know what to expect (besides the obvious slasher stuff).  There are some bits that are actually quite neat and offer a slightly more refreshing take to a genre which was already pretty old when this film was released in 1984.

Then you have bits of the film which suddenly become so damn cheesy and daft that you wonder whether this is a film that’s a little more ‘self aware’ than you gave it credit for.  Bits of it are so over the top I could see them being parodied on something like South Park.

The gore isn’t great, most likely due to budget restraints, so don’t expect too much of the red stuff or any death scenes that you haven’t already seen before.  It may all be a bit tame (and very dated!) by today’s standards, but, if you’re looking for a classic slasher film with a few weird quirks and things you might not expect, this one may do the job.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights