The Best Christmas Horror Movie Ever
For a holiday that’s supposed to be about Jesus Christ and/or family (depending on your religious persuasion), Christmas has inspired a lot of horror films. The best Christmas horror film upset a lot of parents and children. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s a masterpiece.
The best Christmas horror film was part of the 1980s slasher trend
Why are there so many Christmas horror films? Perhaps it’s because the wholesomeness of the holiday lends itself to so much bloody subversion. Some Christmas horror films have been widely praised, including Gremlins, but the majority haven’t received their dues.
For example, the original Black Christmas from 1974 paved the way for the slasher boom, but few people who aren’t horror fans have heard of it. Similarly, Christmas Evil is a fascinating character study but it was overshadowed by Friday the 13th, another slasher flick that came out in 1980. Silent Night, Deadly Night wasn’t exactly ahead of the curve, but it was the best of its kind.
Released in 1984, the 1980s slasher craze had slowed down a bit by the time that Silent Night, Deadly Night entered theaters. The film focuses on Billy, a child who was traumatized when a man in a Santa Claus suit killed his parents. Subsequently raised in an abusive orphanage, he eventually gets a job in a toy store. When he’s asked to play the part of Old Saint Nick, his mind starts to unravel.
What makes ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ the best Christmas horror flick
Silent Night, Deadly Night sticks out from other slasher movies because it focuses on the life of the killer from his childhood to his eventual outburst of violence. The early scenes are harrowing. They make the later scenes feel more justified.
On top of that, the movie is more hardcore than most of its genre. The tone is meaner, the violence is more potent, and the dark humor is sharper. If you thought Gremlins was a good Christmas horror comedy, wait until you’ve seen Silent Night, Deadly Night spoof the Grinch.
The film was controversial before it found an audience
The Duquesne Duke reports the movie was inflammatory for portraying a killer Santa. In 2013, screenwriter Michael Hickey said it eventually found an audience. “To me, that’s a relatively recent occurrence,” he said. “I think it has to do partly with the big leap in video and the internet, which has allowed Silent Night, Deadly Night fans to come out of the closet, after seeing other people’s comments on YouTube, where somebody wrote on some of the clips as, ‘This is the greatest Christmas movie ever made!'”
Producer Scott Schneid said the controversy helped Silent Night, Deadly Night. “When there is a repression of something — and if that something is intended for a rebellious teenage audience, that increases its cult factor,” he opined. “If it is being repressed, people want to see it much more. It was banned in the U.K. until 2009. It was on video in the United States for a while, but then some of the video companies went out of business, and for a while, the only copy available was a big box VHS, which was selling on Amazon for $125. All of these amplified the cult significance of the film.”
Silent Night, Deadly Night is one of the biggest cult horror movies of the 1980s — and it deserves some more mainstream appreciation.
