Silent Night, Deadly Night
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| Silent Night, Deadly Night | |
|---|---|
 Second Theatrical Poster after First was banned |
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| Directed by | Charles E. Sellier Jr. |
| Produced by | Ira Richard Barmak |
| Written by | Paul Caimi Michael Hickey |
| Starring | Lilyan Chauvin Britt Leach Gilmer McCormick Robert Brian Wilson |
| Music by | Perry Botkin Jr. |
| Cinematography | Henning Schellerup |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures Slayride Inc. |
| Release date(s) | November 9th, 1984 |
| Running time | 79 minutes 85 minutes (uncut version) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $750,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 1984 slasher film directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Britt Leach and Leo Geter. This was the first film from TriStar Pictures. The film also has a small, but devoted cult following.
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[edit] Plot summary
The movie begins in December, 1971. Billy Chapman, a little boy, goes with his parents and younger brother Ricky to see their grandfather at a mental hospital. Billy's grandfather (played by Will Hare), is sitting there in a catatonic state, when the parents go off to review Grandpa's records with the doctor, leaving him alone with Billy. Grandpa starts talking to Billy, and tells him the frightening truth about Santa Claus: Santa Claus only gives presents to the good boys and girls, but punishes the naughty ones. As soon as the parents return, Grandpa goes back into his catatonic state.
After leaving the mental hospital, Billy asked his mother if Santa ever had to punish her. He is scared to see Santa Claus. Billy's mother assures him there is nothing to be scared of, and that Grandpa is a crazy old fool. Billy then says, "It's naughty to say bad things about old people; Santa Claus will punish you".
Not far away, a man in a Santa Claus suit (played by Charles Dierkop) goes to a convenience store and robs the place at gun point. He kills the clerk and runs out of the store, only to find that he stole a grand total of $31. "Thirty one bucks? Merry Fucking Christmas!" The man then drives off into the dark. Later that night, the Chapman family are on their way home and they see a man in a Santa suit pulled over at the side of the road. They ask him if he needs help, but he pulls out a gun. Billy's dad puts the car in reverse and tries to get away, but the man still manages to shoot him. Billy gets out of the car and hides, when he sees the killer try to rape his mother but she resists and he slits her throat. The killer starts looking for Billy, saying, "Where are you you little bastard?" When Billy looks up, the killer is gone, and Billy is left to take care of his little brother.
Three years pass, and Billy and his little brother Ricky are living at St. Mary's Orphanage. Billy is in class, and the kids have been assigned to draw Christmas pictures. When Billy shows his drawing of a bloody Santa Claus and a decapitated reindeer, the teacher sends Billy to Mother Superior (the headmistress, played by Lilyan Chauvin). She sees the drawing and sends Billy to his room as punishment. Sister Margaret (played by Gilmer McCormick), a sympathetic nun, can see that Billy still is haunted by his parents' deaths. Mother Superior does not care what Sister Margaret thinks, and tells Margaret that she will take care of Billy personally. Later on, Sister Margaret lets Billy come outside to play. As Billy leaves his room, he hears the noise of a couple making love. Mother Superior sees it and beats them with a belt. She comes out and is mad at Billy for leaving his room. She tells Billy that "Punishment is necessary, punishment is good," then sends Billy to his room and beats him with a belt. Later on that night, Billy has nightmares and runs out of his room, only to be caught by Mother Superior, who then ties him to his bed. In the morning, when the kids line up to sit on Santa Claus's lap, Billy is forced to join in, but he wiggles away and punches the fake Santa and runs to his room, scared as Mother Superior comes in.
It is now 1984. Billy (played by Robert Brian Wilson), is now 18 years old and Sister Margaret is trying to help him get a job at Ira's Toy Store. He meets Mr. Simms, the store owner (played by Britt Leach), and hires Billy. (The song "Warm Side of the Door" plays as Billy is working). Things go well until Christmas comes around. Billy's co-worker named Andy (played by Randy Stumpf), starts yelling at him for no apparent reason and he claims Billy was an alright kid at first, but now he is giving him attitude, snapping at him and staring off into space. Billy has a crush on his female co-worker named Pamela (played by Toni Nero), and has a dream about making love to her, but being stabbed for his acts. Billy gets scared when he sees the store Santa after he had gotten yelled at again by Andy. The next day, Billy is asked to play Santa Claus because one of his fellow employees was injured. A little girl gets scared on Billy's lap as he is Santa, but Billy says stop it, she is being naughty, he doesn't bring presents to naughty children and he punishes them severely. Sister Margarent calls the store and asks how Billy is doing and when she is told about him being the Santa, she hangs the phone up and has a scared look. Later that night, when the employees are celebrating, Andy takes Pamela back to the stock room. When Billy goes back to the room a few minutes later and sees Andy attempt to rape Pamela, he has flashbacks of his parents. Billy snaps, realizes that he has the power to punish, since he is now Santa Claus, then says "Naughty!" and hangs Andy by the Christmas lights. Pamela becomes upset and starts yelling at Billy, who gets the box cutter on the shelf and stabs Pamela saying "Punishment is necessary Pamela, it is good." Mr. Simms hears the noise in back and checks it out, thinking he is hallucinating in his intoxication. When he turns around, he is hit in the head with a hammer. The assistant manager, Mrs. Randall (played by Nancy Borgenicht), sees the lights turned off and goes to look for Mr. Simms in the stock room. When she sees his corpse, she becomes hysterical and tries to call the police, but someone cuts the phone line. She sees Billy with an ax in his hand and tries to hide. When Billy comes closer, she knocks him down and tries to escape by breaking the window glass with the ax. Billy picks up a bow and arrow and kills her. Having killed everyone in the store, Billy leaves to go punish the "naughty people". When Sister Margaret comes to pick up Billy, she sees Mrs. Randall's corpse and screams.
Later, Billy sees two teenagers making love. The girl, Denise (played by Linnea Quigley), hears something upstairs. Thinking the cat wants to come in, she opens the door. The cat comes in, but she sees that Billy is there as well. He shouts, "Punish!" then impales her on the antlers of an antelope head hanging on the wall. Denise's boyfriend, Tommy (played by Leo Geter), goes to look for her and sees her hanging on the wall, bleeding. Tommy tries to call the police, but Billy stops him and throws him out the window. Cindy, Denice's sister, sees Billy on the street in his Santa Claus outfit. He asks Cindy if she has been naughty or nice. When Cindy says that she has been good, Billy gives her the box cutter he used to kill Pamela, then leaves. The police are on the look out for Santa and nearly shoot a dad dressed as Santa going in his daughter's window. Billy goes through the forest as he hears police sirens.
Later on, two kids going sledding are attacked by bullies. The first bully slides down the hill, telling the other to join him, when Billy chops the second bully's head off. The first bully watches as his friend's head and body roll down the hill separately and then screams when they stop.
On Christmas morning, Sister Margaret is at the police station. Captain Richards (played by H.E.D. Redford), tells her there have been three more murders. Margaret tells the captain that there is an order to the killings, and then realizes that Billy is the killer. Sister Margarent understands there is a connection after what he has been through and the officer thinks Billy is nuts, but not stupid. She quickly deduces that his next attack will be at the orphanage.
At the orphanage, the children are waiting to see Santa Claus. Mother Superior is in a wheelchair now and asks them to write thank you notes to Santa. The police are looking for Santa and are ordered to shoot and kill if necessary. A man in a Santa suit walks up to the orphanage. Officer Barnes (played by Max Robinson) arrives just in time to tell the man to stop. He ignores Barnes and keeps walking toward the orphanage, when the cop shoots him, the kids panic and Ricky becomes shocked when the man's blood spatters over his face. The Captain and Sister Margaret think it is over till the dispatcher tells them the report is all wrong. Sister Margaret realizes too late that the police shot Father O'Brien. He didn't stop because he was deaf, not because he was the killer. Officer Barnes, who shot the priest, unsuccessfully attempts to explain what happened to Mother Superior. She becomes angry at what happened and stomps away, fuming, and Barnes walks off to search the grounds. When he sees an open door that leads to the basement, he goes down to look and finds nothing. However, when he gets back to the door, he hears "Punish!" Billy comes up out of the dark and slams his ax into Barnes' stomach. Billy starts walking toward the orphanage, and one of the kids sees him and lets him in. Billy is about to kill Mother Superior, when she tells him "There is no Santa Claus." Billy frowns, says "Naughty!", and begins to swing his ax, but Captain Richards shoots him just in time to save Mother Superior. Although he killed many people, Sister Margaret is sad to see Billy die. Before he passes, Billy says, "You're safe now... Santa Claus... is gone." Billy's little brother, who watched Billy die, looks down at his dead brother's body, then slowly looks up with a cold stare and says, "Naughty!"
[edit] Taglines
- You've Made It Through Halloween, Now Try and Survive Christmas.
- He Knows When You've Been Naughty
- He's Dreaming of a Red Christmas
- Shocking... Disturbing... the Movie They Tried to Ban
- If A Nightmare On Elm Street gave you sleepless nights, or if Halloween made you jump in every shadow, or if Friday the 13th was more frightening than others... THEN BEWARE!
[edit] Controversy
Silent Night, Deadly Night was one of the most controversial films of the 1980s because the killer is dressed as Santa Claus. The PTA fought to have this film removed from the theaters due to its subject matter and the fact that it was shown around Christmas, although an earlier film with a similar synopsis had gone unnoticed.
Upon it original release in 1984, the film created serious controversy. Siskel and Ebert condemned the film and went so far as to read the films production credits on air, saying "shame, shame" after each one.[1] Leonard Maltin also condemned the film, giving it zero stars and asking "What's next, the Easter Bunny as a child molester?" Large crowds (mostly angry mothers) formed at theaters and malls around the nation to protest the film. TriStar Pictures, its original distributor, pulled all ads for the film six days after its release (November 15). The film itself was also withdrawn shortly thereafter due to the controversy[2] It was later re-released by an independent distributor.[citation needed]
[edit] Sequels and remakes
The film spawned four sequels. Anchor Bay Entertainment released this film, along with its sequel as a double feature DVD in 2003, which is currently out of print. Anchor Bay Entertainment re-released a new DVD of Silent Night, Deadly Night on December 11, 2007.
On January 2007, Screen Gems announced plans to remake the film. Joe Harris is in talks to write the script with David Foster, Ryan Heppe, Nick Phillips, and Scott Strauss producing the film. The film is currently scheduled for a 2008 release.[3] According to IMDB, Shauna Macdonald, most known for her role in The Descent, will play Sister Margaret in the film.
[edit] References
- ^ YouTube - Siskel & Ebert At the Movies 1984 Silent Night, Deadly Night
- ^ Unknown. Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film [DVD (Region 1)]. United States: THINKfilm.
- ^ Clint Morris. "Silent Night, Deadly Remake?", Moviehole.net, 2007-01-02.
- Psychotronic Video Guide (1996) - Michael J. Weldon
[edit] External links
- Silent Night, Deadly Night at the Internet Movie Database
- The Silent Night, Deadly Night Resource
- Silent Night, Deadly Night review with animated screenshots
- Watch trailer on YouTube.com
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