12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 7

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" (1984)

“You see Santa Claus tonight you better run boy, you better run for your life!”

Of the three major Christmas slasher films - "Black Christmas," "Christmas Evil," and this - "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is the least of the bunch. This isn't the one with "the killer in the house" ("Black Christmas"), nor is it the one with the kid who views his dad, dressed as Santa Claus, engaging in sexual congress with his mother (that's "Christmas Evil"). This is the one with the kid who views his family being murdered by an axe-wielding maniac dressed as Santa, then he grows up to fear Christmas but is forced into wearing a Santa suit and all hell breaks loose.

This film is nasty, unforgiving, pandering, and it was $4.99 at Best Buy about three months ago, so I picked up a copy. I mean, shit, five bucks, y'know? But it was interesting to watch recently, especially with the recent news of a sex offender's attempt to participate in a volunteer Santa program offered by the US Postal Service. You'd like to think there's some kind of formal screening process for this kind of thing, at least to keep the sex offenders and the axe murderers out of the running.

The film stars the incomparable Linnea Quigley, 80s scream queen extraordinaire; other than her, everyone else on the cast list can list this film as the height of their resume (some can even call it the only film on their resume), unless they were fortunate enough to show up in, say, "Silent Night Deadly Night 2," or part 3, or part 4. Huh; a quick jump through IMDB shows that there were five of these wretched films, and a remake on the way. Well, that makes my Christmas complete.