Silent Night Deadly Night

If you live in the UK, you may or may not be aware of the censorship of movies during the UK.  Lots of movies particularly horror movies were banned, or denied certificates within the UK. Silent Night Deadly Night is one of the longest pieces of censorship from this time, while it was never banned, the certificate issuers (the BBFC – British Board Of Film Classification) decided that this 1984 slasher movie should not be seen, why? For its message is that while Santa Claus will happily bring presents for the good, for those that have not been so good there is a very different offering. Now for the first time ever in the UK Silent Night Deadly Night is available uncut, and with scenes missing from other worldwide releases re-inserted for the first time.

In Christmas 1971 a family travel across Utah to visit their father, and to the children grandfather. Being Christmas time the family are eager to get back home so there young son Billy and his brother can enjoy a proper Christmas. While visiting the Grandfathers residence (a mental facility) Billy is left alone with his Grandfather who tells him (although he’s not meant to even be able to speak) that Santa will only visit him and give him a present if he has been good all year long. If he has not Santa will punish him.

Having barely been able to recover from the terrible incident than a man dressed as Santa kills his mother and father, leaving Billy and his brother orphans. Moving forward to the present day (well 1984) Billy still traumatized by Christmas related events is forced to work as a Santa in a toy store, and its only a matter of time before the memories all come flooding back.

I can’t lie, Silent Night Deadly Night is a pretty awful movie, while the idea is great, the execution (in more ways than one) is not so hot. The acting is fairly sub standard, and the way the story carries itself is pretty limp. What to me makes Silent Night Deadly Night so interesting is that it’s a testament to how ridiculous censorship was in the UK during the 80’s and for the most ridiculous of reasons.  The movie was denied a rating not on the basis of sex, or violence; but because someone felt a killer Santa would damage a developing mind.

You have to feel sorry for Billy, having endured the horror of his parents murdered by Santa, at the orphanage he is yearly tormented by the memories as the nuns force him to participate in Christmas, and one year to actually sit on the lap of a man dressed as Santa. The message of Billy’s horrific life is hammered home quite a lot during the movies first portion. And this is the movies downfall, because although the acting is bad the story flows really well right to the moment that as an adult Billy snaps and reaches for a string of Christmas lights, by the time he has picked up a hammer, axe, and impaled a young woman (played by 80’s horror icon and Scream Queen Linnea Quigley) the stories hard working plot is a distant memory.

Sadly in the 2000’s this movie is going to deliver more laughs than scares, particularly in what should be the most scary moments. There is a great sled scene which shows the kid riding the sled ending his ride without a head.

As the movie progresses Billy moves to punishing the bad, but the way he decides whom is good and who is bad becomes incredibly shaded. How exactly does Billy manage to find all the bad people, well its because all assembly of story goes missing.

The movies restoration is good, but you can easily identify where the joins are as the print is much darker, even with today’s modern technology unless the movie is a blockbuster its very hard to find the money to make the movie complete, and the reality is that there will only be a few thousand units of the DVD released; its difficult to make money out of a genre that has only a limited interested audience. But this is also a strength, because for those with a passion for the sort of movies we were not aloud to see in the 80’s this is a must have movie to see or buy.

On release (elsewhere in the world) Silent Night Deadly Night was a popular movie simply because of its basic storyline; so popular was the idea that it spawned four sequels; and its basic premise was replicated in a whole variety of other movies. Like it or love it Silent Night Deadly Night earns its place in movie history.

Image by Zanastardust via Flickr