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Future inspiration for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT?

posted 15 years ago by petekrug17
13 replies | jump to latest

Let's look at the similarities: both are films about a guy dressed as Santa Claus who murders people on Christmas Eve. OK, there's a fair number of movies like that. However, there are more things these two films have in common that others don't. (At least, not to my knowledge.)

The beginning of both movies take place years earlier from when they came out. At the beginning of both, the protagonist is a little boy who at the moment is still in the Santa-believeing age. He witnesses an event involving his mom and a guy dressed as Santa (who, the boy naturally believes, really is Santa) that horribly tramatizes him for life. Then we jump ahead to December in the present day (1980 or 84, depending on the film). The protagonist is all grown up. He really isn't a bad person, he actually wants to be good, but he's just really screwed up. Finally he dresses up as Santa and then goes out murdering people who he considers to be naughty. Also in both films the protagonist has a brother.

CHRISTMAS EVIL may have done it first but, in my humble opinion (and I know there's people who will disagree with me,) SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT did it better. There's alot more killing and more gore in SILENT NIGHT, also for some reason I always found myself feeling much more sympathy for Billy, the protagonist of SILENT NIGHT, maybe because we see him suffer alot more as a child. Also Billy really wants nothing to do with Santa Claus, but then he has it more or less thrust upon him, and then he thinks,"OK, I have to be Santa, then I have to punish naughty people." While Harry always wanted nothing more than to be Santa.

[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

I'd say this probably influenced "Silent Night, Deadly Night." I was actually surprised to learn this was from 1980 because it didn't seem to raise a stir when it was released, as opposed to the other film, which was very controversial. Chalk it up to marketing, I guess.

It seems that Christmas was mostly off-limits to the horror genre except for the excellent "Black Christmas" and in a few films like "He Knows You're Alone," which I believe has a Christmas backdrop at one point. But even "Black Christmas" didn't introduce Santa into the mix. Would this be the first Santa-based slasher?

Frankly, neither film is very good, but both have their moments of twisted inspiration.

[–] Kuro-Inu 14 years ago

Actually "Tales From the Crypt" (1972) Predates both films. The first Segment "And All Through The House" would later be remade as an episode of the HBO Series, but this Deadly Santa Vignette came first.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Danimal_77 11 years ago

Actual, Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) came out the same year as Tales From the Crypt.

[–] Forlorn_Rage 10 years ago

Silent Night Bloody Night has nothing to do with Santa Claus or even Christmas for that matter. It's barely even mentioned in the film.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] stickley85 11 years ago

There was also another film with this theme and it was called To All A Good Night.That also came out in 1980.

[–] WarpedRecord 11 years ago

Thanks for the recommendation. "To All a Goodnight" sounds cool. I shall seek it out.

[–] stickley85 11 years ago

It's on You Tube if you wanna watch it.It's very hard to get being that it was only available on VHS,and never on DVD.

[–] WarpedRecord 11 years ago

Thanks for the tip! I'll watch it on YouTube.

[–] stickley85 11 years ago

Here's the link for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTa4izxTzhw

[–] WarpedRecord 11 years ago

Thanks very much! I'll watch it soon.

Say, how long has YouTube been able to include complete movies in one file like that? It's been a couple months since I've watched a complete movie on YouTube, but they were always in five or six takes, each about 15 or 20 minutes long.

[–] stickley85 9 years ago

Update.You can get this on Blu-Ray if you want now.