Day 10. Silent Night, Deadly Night

In my Rare Exports write-up, I'd mentioned that it's a common bad idea in Christmas horror movies to make Santa Claus the killer. In discussing 1984's Silent Night, Deadly Night (probably the most recognized title from the Killer Santa file) that deserves some clarification. Primarily, I feel the concept is opportunistic and cheap. 

It's easy to subvert a totem of innocence. Carrying Christmas into the slasher movie calendar sweepstakes of Friday the 13th and Halloween seemed the obvious next move. The difference is that turning Santa Claus evil demands meaning but is by default disingenuous. At worst, its entailment of childhood corruption is played as a cheeky joke. Yet without a basis of credible traumatic experience (as when Ice Cube corrupts nursery rhymes to express stolen innocence in his "Gangsta's Fairytale" raps), it comes across as a gag played at kids' expense. Who was ever scared of Santa Claus?

Everything in Silent Night, Deadly Night falls predictably in line. It doesn't much think or care about its meaning, only passing as entertainment for the undemanding. 

Upon visiting him in an institute, young Billy's grandfather breaks from a catatonic state to warn that Santa Claus will punish the naughty. Driving back home with his parents, Billy observes, wide-eyed and frightened, as the car is stopped by a thief dressed in Santa gear who murders his father, and strips and murders his mother. By the age of 18, Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) reaches some level of stability, even finding work at a department store under the employ of Anthony Michael Hall's dad in Weird Science (Britt Leach). It's when he's asked to play store Santa that his Christmas trigger goes off, and people will be killed. 

Partially artistically salvaged in its edit and score, which bring some personalized idiosyncrasy to dead body and teamwork montages, the bulk of Silent Night, Deadly Night is creatively drained. Billy isn't a tragic outsider (like Jason Voorhees, Frankenstein's monster and others) because he's an inevitability of fate rather than an ugly product of the status quo. Fatalism and nihilism are the only messages here. Billy isn't allowed even the option to cope with his trauma. His tragedy must make him a remorseless killer, because apparently the world order (unlike the best teen slashers) does not believe in youth survival and empowerment. In Silent Night, Deadly Night, it isn't just the usual protocol where sex is punished. All joy is punished. Director Charles E. Sellier must have felt some remorse for this, as he quickly abandoned the slasher genre for a lucrative career producing Bible films. 

Which is fine because Silent Night, Deadly Night has only the most cynical understanding of slasher movies anyway. Sorry folks. This one just seems hateful.

Silent Night, Deadly Night and the Meaning of Christmas

Christmas sucks because it will cause those traumatized by the holiday to kill you. 

Tomorrow: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2