By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Rohan Campbell, Ruby Modine and David Lawrence Brown
Written and directed by Mike P. Nelson
Cineverse
It’s been said that the movies that should be remade are the ones that didn’t get it right the first time, and in this humble reviewer’s opinion, 1984’s SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT left, shall we say, some room for improvement. The new redux, following 2012’s sorta-remake SILENT NIGHT, is an improvement on the original in every way, showcasing stronger filmmaking and production values and replacing crude psychopathology with a somewhat more layered characterization of its Santa-dressed serial killer.
Rohan Campbell, previously seen channeling a different holiday’s evil in HALLOWEEN ENDS, plays the updated Billy Campbell, who nonetheless has a similar backstory. As a young boy (Logan Sawyer) in the prologue, he has an unsettling encounter with his grandfather in a nursing home, then witnesses his parents being murdered by a miscreant clad in St. Nick’s red suit. In the present, he’s a homicidal drifter who converses, VENOM-style, with an unseen presence named Charlie (voiced by Mark Acheson). Charlie compels him to punish the naughty in brutal ways at Christmastime–though from the early scenes, it’s clear Billy is conflicted about this–and he “records” his crimes with blood smears in an advent calendar whose already red-pocked state makes it clear he’s been doing this a while. Charlie also encourages him to never stay in one place for too long, which is how Billy winds up in the wintry town of (ahem) Hackett, Wisconsin.
The most significant alteration from the ’84 film is its inclusion of a love interest for our antihero, in the person of Pamela (Ruby Modine), who works at Ida’s Trinket Tree with her dad Dean (David Lawrence Brown). After Billy takes a stockboy job there, and Pamela reveals she’s a true-crime junkie as well as what her father calls “explosive personality disorder,” an attraction grows between the two. In particular, the way she reacts to her little nephew being bullied makes it clear these two are made for each other. Charlie doesn’t think this is a good idea due to Billy’s side hobby, but it allows writer/director Mike P. Nelson to further humanize Billy. It also gives him the opportunity to grimly and amusingly satirize the endless string of made-for-cable/streaming Christmas romances (many of which have been directed by horror veterans).
Billy’s internal struggle with his deadly actions, exacerbated by his growing romance with Pamela, is given an empathetic reading by Campbell, nicely complemented by the spiky energy Modine brings to her atypical role. Nelson does a good job balancing their burgeoning relationship with the gradually unfolding revelations regarding Billy’s past and the corruption lurking under Hackett’s friendly surface. Most notably, the area is being plagued by The Snatcher, a mysterious someone who’s been abducting local kids.
If Nelson handles all this intrigue well on a narrative level, his tone becomes a bit wobbly. While a good deal of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is played straight, it occasionally veers off into the outrageous, as when Billy makes a most unexpected discovery after tracking one victim to a roadside bar. And the murder scenes we’re intended to take seriously sometimes sit uneasily alongside others that are played for splattery camp, with the occasional accompaniment of Yuletide songs. Nelson does keep the nudge-nudge in-references to the details of the first SILENT NIGHT to a minimum–the most explicit is a restaging of its most famous murder under very different circumstances–though there is a cute shout-out to SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2, plus a quick appearance by a key prop from the original BLACK CHRISTMAS.
Most crucially, Nelson rallies for a tense climax that takes place in a great, original and very apt twist on a traditional serial-killer setting. Throughout, Nelson and cinematographer Nick Junkersfeld make effective use of a prowling camera, with an appropriately overcast look to Hackett by day, and makeup effects creator Doug Morrow (CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD) provides plenty of well-executed red beyond Billy’s chosen garb. This SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT may be emerging at a time when a killer Santa doesn’t provoke the controversy its 41-year-old predecessor sparked, but it’s good enough to earn attention based on its own merits rather than its contentious nature.
