In 1984, Silent Night, Deadly Night petrified the American public when it was released in theaters, featuring an iconic poster of an axe-wielding Santa Claus slinking down a chimney. Protests were organized by parents and others who wanted to keep the Christmas season sacred. Combined with the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, the film’s theatrical release was buried, but it would later gain a cult following that remains relevant to this day. Flash forward to 2025, and director Mike P. Nelson has given the iconic slasher new life.
The most important element of the remake is casting Billy Chapman himself. To my extremely pleasant surprise, Nelson found Rohan Campbell, who many will remember from the polarizing finale of Halloween Ends (2022). It’s evident that Campbell’s performance as Corey Cunningham informed the casting decision, and it ultimately works in the film’s favor. Campbell brings an innocence to the role of Billy that nicely juxtaposes the more sinister intentions he has within. He works to make the role his own in tandem with the similarly unique script, crafting a Billy Chapman fit for modern audiences.
The premise of the film starts nearly the same: a man in a Santa suit killing those deemed “naughty.” However, right out the gate, something seems different about this version. Billy has a voice in his head, and he drifts from place to place with no real roots. He sees the potential in these roots when he meets Pamela (Ruby Modine), and a romantic relationship blossoms. The love story is the emotional core of the film, and Modine has a natural chemistry with Campbell that keeps the story whole. I was even more surprised by Modine, as she has an incredible ability to juggle ferocity and composure. Since it’s shown that Pamela is a smidge loose around the edges herself, the remake comes off as almost a twisted Hallmark Christmas movie.
Despite the surprisingly heartwarming love story at its center, we still get some twisted murders throughout. Billy is ruthless, using his iconic axe to punish the naughty. And the definition of naughty has changed. While the original film was incredibly subversive for its inclusion of violence as well as female nudity, this film explores what actual evil is in the world. To this version of Billy, naughty is murderers, kidnappers, and neo-Nazis.
In a viral scene, Santa spends an entire sequence in the film murdering attendees of a Nazi Christmas party. I was shamelessly grinning from ear to ear as Campbell’s Billy hacked and slashed his way through the event.
Other sequences are similarly entertaining, but what holds them back is how lackluster they look. For a company like Cineverse, which prides itself on the iconic bloody violence of the Terrifierfilms, I found myself mildly unsatisfied by Silent Night, Deadly Night. There could have been a way to juxtapose the mushy romance between Pamela and Billy with his true nature and lean more into the violence he commits. It doesn’t make the film a failure, but I left the theater wanting more.
A film like Silent Night, Deadly Night does not get released to much pushback nowadays, especially considering last year’s Terrifier 3, which features Art the Clown in a Santa costume similar to Billy. There were definitely more opportunities to push boundaries in the same ways that the Terrifier films did, but unlike the Terrifier films, Silent Night, Deadly Night’s script holds more emotional weight. I would rather watch a movie with a better script and less violence than one with excessive violence that overshadows any character arcs.
At the end of the day, Silent Night, Deadly Night is a bloody blast and a unique spin on an otherwise straightforward slasher. Campbell and Modine deliver compelling performances individually, coming together to craft one of the best horror romances of recent years. Emphasizing story over gratuitous violence ultimately works in its favor, even if it wasn’t what I expected from Cineverse. This remake is not going to be as divisive as the original, but it’s one of the better Christmas horror films in recent memory and one that will most definitely become a yearly watch for me.
Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain
Feature Image Credit to Cineverse via IMDb