SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT movie poster | ©2025 Cineverse

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Rohan Campbell, Ruby Modine, Mark Acheson, David Lawrence Brown, David Tomlinson, Sharon Bajer
Writer: Mike P. Nelson, based on a screenplay by Michael Hickey, based on a story by Paul Caimi
Director: Mike P. Nelson
Distributor: Cineverse
Release Date: December 12, 2025

The new SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, directed and scripted by Mike P. Nelson, gives credit to the 1984 original of that title, which was directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. with a screenplay by Michael Hickey, based on a story by Paul Caimi.

Filmmaker Nelson takes pains to recall elements of the earlier SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, with character names and classic kills and of course a serial killer in a Santa Claus suit.

However, where the first SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was absolutely an ‘80s slasher with an insane focal figure, the new edition seems to owe as much to Showtime’s DEXTER series as it does to the older movie.

We meet eight-year-old Billy Chapman as he endures a traumatic Christmas Eve, which culminates with his parents being murdered by a man in a Santa suit.

Twenty years later, Billy (Rohan Campbell) is a drifter with a very assertive voice in his head (Mark Acheson) telling him where to go, what to do when he gets there, and the consequences of what happens if he fails. This is not what we might initially expect.

Billy winds up in a cozy small town in December, where he takes a seasonal helper job in the local gift shop. The owner, Mr. Sims (David Lawrence Brown), appears to be a nice enough fellow. One of his adult daughters, Pamela (Ruby Modine), manages the store. She’s not exactly what we or Billy might expect, either.

Wouldn’t you know, the shop needs someone to step in and play Santa this year. Little do Mr. Sims and Ruby suspect what qualities this brings out in Billy.

Like all small towns, this one has its secrets. We know from all those “missing children” flyers at the outset that there’s a child abuser among the citizens. Then there are some hidden facts that are outright gonzo.

Nelson plays fair in terms of his mythology, providing flashbacks that fill in the hows, whys and wherefores of Billy’s peculiar condition. He adds an explicitly supernatural aspect to the proceedings, which clarifies matters but also puts the brakes on certain possibilities.

A movie with a determined axe murderer as its protagonist obviously qualifies as horror but, with its specific viewpoint, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT registers more as an actioner with humor and gore than as a scarefest.

Sometimes we’re slack-jawed as we get new information, and Billy is right there with us. Nelson stages a mid-movie sequence that is euphorically sustained, bloody and delirious, genuinely memorable both in how it celebrates the film’s premise and in how it delivers an uncommonly comfortable axe-wielding experience (unless the viewer is averse to blood and violence overall, in which case it’s worth wondering how they wound up watching SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT in the first place).

While Billy has some uncanny parallels with Campbell’s role in HALLOWEEN ENDS, the actor here pulls off a character who can be authentically shy and diffident sometimes and fiercely committed at others. Modine gets to be pleasingly forceful, Acheson is properly gravelly and Sharon Bajer contributes a strong turn as a diner waitress.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT occasionally gets a little self-satisfied with how it straddles genres. Mostly, though, it’s fun for those who enjoy a Merry Christmassacre.

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