People born after 1984 will never know how much trouble Silent Night, Deadly Night caused in the cinema space. In other words, they’ll never experience how conservatives forced slashers to pivot away from graphic violence causing independent horror films to go underground for a few years. And it was all because of Santa Claus.
But V/H/S tapes saved the genre from extinction and soon those who were offended forgot what they were mad about. They mostly hated that Santa was shown in a menacing context. They thought kids watching the TV spots promoting the film would harm them. Fair enough, but it was their picketing at theaters showing the yule tide the horror movie that got it pulled from cinemas.
At the time producer Ira Barmak said, “People have taken offense at Santa being used in a scary context… Santa Claus is not a religious figure, he’s a mythic character. I didn’t deliberately ride roughshod over that sensitivity and I didn’t anticipate the objection to it.”
Now, the company behind Terrifier 3 are remaking the classic, and it promises to be bloodier than the original! Take that Boomers!
The first teaser for Cineverse’s Silent Night, Deadly Night dropped and you can watch it below.
Mike P. Nelson wrote and directed this remake. You might know him from his segment in V/H/S/85 (2023) or the Wrong Turn (2021) reboot.
In theaters starting December 12.
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) is a “reimagining of the controversial 1984 cult horror classic – 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?’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries