| Silent Night, Deadly Night | |
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Second Theatrical Poster after First was banned |
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| Directed by | Charles Sellier |
| Produced by | Ira Richard Barmak |
| Written by | Paul Caimi Michael Hickey |
| Starring | Lilyan Chauvin Gilmer McCormick Linnea Quigley Toni Nero Robert Brian Wilson |
| Music by | Perry Botkin Jr. |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 9, 1984 |
| Running time | 79 minutes 85 minutes (uncut version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $750,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $2,491,460 |
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 1984 slasher film produced by Ira R Barmak, directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter. It focuses on a young boy who, after witnessing his parents' brutal murder at the hands of a man clad in a Santa suit on Christmas, grows up tumultuously in a Catholic orphanage and slowly emerges into a spree killer himself. The film caused an uproar when released in 1984 during the holiday season, and has since developed a devoted cult following.
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On December 24, 1971, Salt Lake City, Utah, Billy Chapman, a little boy, goes with his parents and younger brother Ricky to see their grandfather for Christmas at a mental institution. Billy's grandfather is sitting in a catatonic state, when Billy's parents go off to review his records with the doctor, leaving him alone with Billy. Grandpa starts talking to Billy, and tells him the frightening "truth" about Santa Claus: Santa not 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. Afterwards, the family leaves the mental hospital.
Not far away, a man in a Santa Claus suit goes to a convenience store and robs it at gun point. He kills the clerk and runs out of the store. Later that night, the Chapman family are on their way home and see the same man in the Santa suit pulled over at the side of the road. When they ask him if he needs help, he pulls out a gun. Billy's dad puts the car in reverse and tries to get away, but the man shoots him and pulls his mom out of the car leaving his brother behind. Billy gets out of the car and hides. When he sees the killer rips his mother's blouse open and try to rape her, he looks away. Baby Ricky remains in the car crying and his mother resists and he slits her throat. When Billy looks up, the killer is gone.
Three years pass, and Billy and his brother 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. She sees the drawing and sends Billy to his room as punishment. Sister Margaret, 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. When she comes out she 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 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 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, who hires Billy. Things go well until Christmas. Billy's co-worker named Andy, 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, 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 was 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 does not bring presents to naughty children and he punishes them severely. Sister Margaret calls the store and asks how Billy is doing. When she is told the Santa incident, she hangs the phone up with a frightened look on her face. Later that night, when the employees are celebrating, Andy takes Pamela back to the stock room. When Billy goes to the room a few minutes later and sees Andy attempt to rape Pamela, he has flashbacks of his parents. Billy snaps, thinking that he has the power to punish, since he is now Santa Claus, declares "Naughty!" and hangs Andy by the Christmas lights. Pamela becomes upset and starts yelling at Billy, who stabs Pamela saying "Punishment is necessary Pamela, Punishment 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, 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 the phone line is cut. She sees Billy with an axe 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 axe. 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 having sex. The girl, Denise, hears something upstairs. Thinking the cat wants to come in, she opens the door. She sees that Billy is there. He shouts "Punish!", then impales her on the antlers of an antelope head hanging on the wall. The boy goes to look for her and sees her hanging on the wall. He tries to call the police, but Billy stops him and throws him out the window. A little girl sees Billy at the door in his Santa Claus outfit. He asks her if she has been naughty or nice. When she says that she has been good, Billy kindly gives her the box cutter he used to kill Pamela as a Christmas present, 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 two bullies. While one slides down the hill, Billy cuts the others head off. On Christmas morning, Captain Richards tells Sister Margaret there have been three more murders. Margaret tells the captain that there is an order to the killings, and realizes that Billy is the killer. Sister Margaret understands there is a connection after what he has been through during his childhood, while Richards thinks Billy is insane 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 due to an unknown illness and asks the children 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 arrives and tells the man to stop. He ignores Barnes and continues walking toward the orphanage. When the police shoots him, the kids panic. The Captain and Sister Margaret think it is over until the dispatcher tells them the report is all wrong. Sister Margaret realizes too late that the police shot Father O'Brien, who did not stop because he was deaf. Officer Barnes unsuccessfully attempts to explain what happened to Mother Superior. She becomes angry at what happened and leaves. 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 steps around the corner and slams his axe into Barnes' stomach. Billy starts walking toward the orphanage. One of the kids sees him and lets him in against Mother Superior's orders to keep him out, since she knows Billy will kill her as revenge for abusing him. As Billy is about to kill Mother Superior, she tries to reason with Billy by telling him "There is no Santa Claus." Billy frowns, says "Naughty!", and begins to swing his axe, but Richards shoots him. 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 Ricky, who watched Billy die, looks down at his dead brother's body, then slowly looks up with a cold stare towards Mother Superior and bitterly says, "Naughty...".
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 theaters due to its subject matter and the fact that it was shown around Christmas, although an earlier film with a similar premise had gone unnoticed.
Upon its original release in 1984, the film created serious controversy. Siskel and Ebert condemned the film and went so far as to read the film's production credits on air, saying "shame, shame" after each one. Siskel also said that all the money the filmmakers were making off of this film was blood money.[1] Leonard Maltin also condemned the film, calling it a "...worthless splatter film", giving it zero stars and asking: "What's next, the Easter Bunny as a child molester?" Large crowds (mostly angry families) 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, Aquarius Films, beginning in spring 1986, with an ad campaign which replaced the original "Twas the night before Christmas" audio track with a new one that centered on the controversy surrounding the film and edited out all close-up shots of Billy, in the Santa suit, with weapons. The print ad material also replaced the original 'Chimney' picture with one that talked about the controversy.
In United Kingdom, the movie was never submitted for certification to the BBFC. As such, although it had never been actually classified as a "video nasty", its distribution was prohibited in the UK. However, in 2009, Arrow Films submitted the film to the BBFC for classification, who passed the film uncut with an 18 certificate.[3] The UK DVD was released on November 23, 2009.
Its sequel was denied a BBFC certificate in 1987 after the distributors refused to make the cuts required for an '18' certificate.
The film was released theatrically in the United States by TriStar Pictures on November 9, 1984.[4] On its opening weekend, the film outgrossed Wes Craven's landmark slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street, which also opened the same day. Before being pulled from theaters, it grossed $2,491,460 at the box office.[5]
The film was released twice on DVD in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The first release was a double feature disc alongside sequel Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 in 2003.[6] The second release was in 2007.[7] Both region 1 releases are currently out of print.
The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2009 by Arrow Video. This set includes an audio interview with director Charles E. Sellier Jr., poster, booklet including “Deadly Director: Charles Sellier Interviewed by Calum Waddell” and “Silent Night, Sex Night: The Slice and Times of Linnea Quigley”.[8]
The movie was re-released on 12 December 2009 in the Brattle Theatre as double feature with Black Christmas.[9]
Despite its controversial release and subject matter, Silent Night, Deadly Night spawned four sequels.
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