Silent Night, Deadly Night

The film gets advertised with being from the same production company as Terrifier 2 & 3 so you'd expect some gore but there is so little of it that I'd nearly rather call it a romance movie. There is absolutely no creativity with the kills, nearly everyone is with an axe. Even tho the film has such a short runtime it bored me at times.

What an unusual little movie this turned out to be. First of all, I'm not sure if the IMDb synopsis is entirely accurate. That wasn't really what the film was about. Secondly, most people aren't going to realise that because the film waits until damn near the end to actually explain what is happening and why. It's all very odd.

Putting "From the studio that brought you Terrifier 2 & 3" on your movie poster is an odd choice to me for this film. Maybe it will get some bums on seats, but it sort of misleads you into thinking there will be some creativity with the kills, which there is certainly not. You can only see so many people chopped by an axe before it becomes very mundane. There was even a scene where it's discussed if he should use a gun instead, and I thought to myself that at this point that may be a more interesting option.

A horror film based around bad people getting their justice in a brutal way is almost certainly a film that can be made to work, but 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' went about it all the wrong way I think. It needed to make clearer earlier on exactly what was happening and why. It needed more tension and more adversity for the lead character. And it needed more creativity with the kills. Get those right and this could've been something special. Maybe they will the next time this is remade. 5/10.

On the plus side I liked it better than the other remake Silent Night Mixed feelings on this one Some aspects stay pretty much the same as the original and I could play the Nazi party scene on repeat (If you know you know) But I would have liked more backstory on his messed up childhood I was not a fan of "Charlie" his talking conscience Kills are pretty cool It takes me awhile to warm up to remakes So I'm not ready to call it a instant classic But I could see it growing on me if I watched it more than once.

Billy witnesses his parents being murdered by a man in a Santa Claus suit. Years later, that man, Charlie shows Billy the "way".

Billy takes care of the "trash" with the help of Charlie. Charlie shows him who is truly evil and together they murder evil people during Advent.

Billy takes a liking to a gal, Pam in his most recent community so he decides to stay awhile. Lucky for him Pam's a bit crazy too!

This isn't too bad. There's still plenty of gore for the horror hounds.

Mike P. Nelson's Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) swings into the holiday slasher battlefield with a bloody wink and a bold pivot: this isn't a shot-for-shot redo of the 1984 cult classic, nor a spiritual successor to the 2012 remake. Instead, Nelson stitches together a gnarly, grindhouse infused Christmas nightmare that plays fast, loose, and occasionally paranormal with its source material.

You know how Black Christmas now has two wildly different remakes? The SNDN franchise is officially in that club, another beloved slasher with a pair of cinematic "re-imaginations" that couldn't be more different from one another. And honestly? This 2025 version is a pretty good time... even if it occasionally stumbles in its ambitions.

The biggest surprise is the origin story. Gone is the trauma-driven, psychologically scarred Billy of 1984. This Billy, played by Rohan Campbell is something different altogether: a December active, morality-obsessed serial killer who hunts the "naughty" like a holiday-season Dexter.

It's a change that definitely shakes the snow globe. It also introduces some grindhouse aesthetics: flashy splash screens announcing each victim, a mid-film sequence (yes, the one that leaked online) that goes full exploitation cinema, and a tone that occasionally dips into supernatural territory. It's bold... even if not fully committed.

Campbell does genuinely good work here. It feels like a chance for him to wash off the stink of being stuck in Halloween Ends, where he got saddled with a character arc that deserved at least two movies, not one and a half scenes of being bullied by band geeks. This film uses him better, but you can still feel some DNA from Ends bleeding into the storytelling. Almost as if this was a middle finger to Blumhouse.

The film has energy. It has personality. It has ambition.

What it doesn't quite have is... iconic kills.

Some of the score choices miss the grindhouse tone entirely, and while the vibe suggests over-the-top carnage, the execution doesn't always get there. For a movie pushing the "naughty list" slasher angle with splash screens, you expect something gnarlier, something with more "oh damn!" moments. Instead, the kills, while fun, are mostly forgettable.

That's the part that stings, because the movie wants to go big. It just doesn't always deliver. Some people will love it. Some will hate it. Some will be like, "Wait, why did that part feel like a trailer for another movie?"

But for me? It was a fun one-time watch with genuine rewatch potential. The same way the Black Christmas 2019 remake grew on me until it became an annual holiday comfort film, Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) might climb that list for me over time. I just need another viewing to know for sure.

And hopefully I'll get that second watch in before our holiday slasher rankings on YouTube, because as wild as this one is, I want to give it a fair shake. Right now, it sits in that interesting zone of: "I liked it... I just don't know how much yet."