Terrifier 3 already saw Art The Clown ruin Christmas, but why stop there? The slasher business is booming, so it’s as good a time as ever for Cineverse to bring back an old holiday horror: Silent Night, Deadly Night. Premiering December 12, the new film is billed as “A reimagining of the controversial 1984 cult horror classic,” which scandalized audiences with its marketing campaign centered around a killer Santa Claus.
More than 40 years later, here’s the synopsis for the Cineverse remake: “When Billy witnesses his parents’ grisly murder on Christmas Eve at the hands of Santa, it ignites a lifelong mission to spread holiday fear. Every Christmas, he dons the jolly red suit and delivers a blood-soaked massacre to feed his twisted sense of justice. This Christmas Eve, Billy wants to know: ‘Have you been naughty?'”
The Silent Night, Deadly Night teaser gets right to it with ax-wielding action and blood splattering on Santa’s (fake) snow-white beard. Audiences are probably more desensitized to the shock of a killer Santa in 2025, but in 1984 parents protested that the depiction—even just in the marketing—was traumatizing for kids. The outcry ultimately led to the ads being pulled from the press and later the film being pulled from theaters. Critics didn’t dig it either, with Gene Siskel calling out everyone involved with making the movie and declaring “Shame on you” on At The Movies. In 2012, The A.V. Club‘s Noel Murray had a milder view, observing it was “as run-of-the-mill a slasher film as the ’80s produced, enjoyable today primarily for its kitsch value.”
Despite the controversy or the quality, the film was successful enough to spawn four sequels and a “slick but soulless” (in Murray’s words) remake starring Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King, and Donal Logue. Cineverse’s new take stars Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) as Billy, with an ensemble cast that includes Ruby Modine, Mark Acheson, David Lawrence Brown, and David Tomlinson. We’ll see where this one fits into the Silent Night pantheon.
