The Reboot by Mike P. Nelson is nothing short of a gift for slasher fans!
For those not around for the release of the original Silent Night, Deadly Night, the film earned its notoriety thanks not only to being one of the meanest slashers out there, but to the protests that sprang up over its use of the Christian holiday’s iconography for its sleazy and nefarious ends. This was compounded when it hit VHS—when I first became aware of its existence—where it sat for rent on the shelf in its big-box glory usually reserved for the gnarliest of the gnarly, sharing space in the horror section with I Spit on Your Grave, Faces of Death, and Make Them Die Slowly.
While there’s been a slew of sequels over the years, including the iconic Silent Night, Deadly Night 2—which, in a rush to hit video-store shelves, was composed mostly of flashbacks from the first film paired with one of the most batshit-crazy, over-the-top performances ever captured on celluloid (“GARBAGE DAY!”)—we also can’t forget the one with the killer toys, either. While Mike P. Nelson’s latest update isn’t the first attempt to reboot the franchise, I’m going to say this might be the one that wakes the slumbering IP for another run, thanks to trading the film’s relentless nihilistic sleigh ride for some intriguing and propulsive lore and a Hallmark-channel-esque love story.
Given the film has some surprising turns, I’m going to tread lightly on spoilers.
The film stars Corey (Rohan Campbell) from Halloween Kills as Billy Chapman, our handsome drifter and killer Santa. When the film begins, it’s Dec. 20th, and unlike the original—where our killer simply went on a one-night Yuletide rampage, killing everyone who crossed his path—this film immediately starts laying out its lore. Our Billy must kill one person a day in the month of December and then blot his victim’s blood in a grisly advent calendar that looks like it came out of Art the Clown’s trash bag. We follow Billy as he wakes up in a hotel after his latest kill, with the police outside, as he hops a bus to wherever it’s going—which just happens to be the small town of Hackett.
This is where the Hallmark of it all begins to creep in, our ruggedly handsome, out-of-town serial-killer Santa gets a job at the local trinket shop as a stock boy (instead of a toy store), after its young cashier stuck in a small town (Ruby Modine), Pamela Sims, catches his eye in the local diner. While the two begin a holiday romance during their shifts together in the store, Billy spends his off hours adding some naughty customers to his advent calendar. This is when the film starts to make some impressive big swings—not just with its story, but by putting our killer Santa in a few situations where he might even be a good guy. Like having him dispatch a room full of Nazis—seriously.
Silent Night works so well because the horror and romantic elements seamlessly meld together into a surprisingly coherent and batshit-crazy narrative that’s as faithful to the original as it is refreshingly different. It’s less mean-spirited, for sure, which makes it one hell of a fun watch once we get our footing as to what’s going on. It’s something I struggled with during that first watch to grasp—just what’s going on—since Billy gets his orders doled out by an ever-present inner voice that only he hears (who sounds like Ralphie from a Christmas story), but once I understood where writer/director Mike P. Nelson was heading, I was happily on board. This is thanks not only to our more-than-capable leads, who have a rather impressive chemistry that sells the whole Hallmark angle, but also to the more comedic and less rapey approach to the source material.
It’s when the film finally puts all its cards on the table that you’re going to know if you’re in or out, and I was VERY much in. Sure, the film sidesteps the original’s ’80s tits-and-gore aesthetic for something stranger, but it’s much more interesting and satisfying, to be honest—infusing the one-night rampage with a lore-infused take that recontextualizes what we think we know about the series. It’s something I’ve spent the last few days mulling over, given how well the approach worked within the sandbox of the original, and how this should no doubt be the bar for these kinds of reinventions going forward.
As a fan of the series, I couldn’t have asked for anything more for Christmas. Mike P. Nelson leans into the ridiculousness of the concept of these films, offering up something that plays by the same rules yet has something more complex it’s attempting to say. This, along with merging two of my favorite holiday subgenres—the Lifetime/Hallmark movie and the Yuletide slasher—creating something completely new that forever changes the reboot game. Simply stated: Silent Night is a hilarious Hallmark holiday film with one hell of a body count and one thing’s for damn sure: you don’t want to be on Billy’s naughty list.
