SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (2025) is not a great remake, but it’s a fun one, a solid one, mostly because it’s a playful one. The first couple scenes seem like a pretty straight forward update of the 1984 original – there are some funny additions, but it’s young Billy Chapman (Logan Sawyer, “Kid #1,” FOLLOWING YONDER STAR) visiting his grandpa (Darren Felbel, ALWAYS AND FOREVER CHRISTMAS, OUR CHRISTMAS LOVE SONG) and getting freaked out by an outburst about Santa punishing the naughty, then witnessing the murder of his parents by a man in a Santa costume. So I figured it was gonna mostly follow the original, but that’s not the case at all. Writer/director Mike P. Nelson (WRONG TURN [2021], Angry Orchard and the Jason Un1v3rse present SWEET REVENGE) understands that not much is sacred about SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT. You mostly just gotta have a Killer Santa. So Nelson plays around with our assumptions of what’s going on, and takes us for a fun ride.

First, a time jump to adult Billy (Rohan Campbell, a.k.a. Corey Cunningham from HALLOWEEN ENDS!) in a hotel having a bad time. You know, it’s that type of time jump where you start the movie with the traumatic past event and then you cut to the present with the person waking up from a nightmare. It tells us the first part was exactly what really happened but also the dream he just had, and even though we have had dreams before and know for sure that’s not how they work we still accept it because movies are magic and besides, it’s Christmas. Have a heart.

If it were following the original he’d be a well meaning guy whose Santa-related childhood trauma and abusive, judgmental Catholic orphanage upbringing eventually bump up against extenuating circumstances (getting drunk, being made to dress as Santa Claus at work) and cause him to snap and go around murdering people for being “naughty.” A pretty ingenious spin on the moralistic post-FRIDAY THE 13TH slasher formula in my opinion. But oh shit, why does he have a dead guy in the bathroom? He already seems to be a serial killer! And he hears a voice talking to him about it. Some guy named Charlie (Mark Acheson, REINDEER GAMES, ELF). Also he pokes the dead guy’s wounds, goes to his wooden advent calendar, opens up the day and puts a fingerprint inside. And I couldn’t help but notice it was already bloody. Okay, this is weird!

So yes, there’s a supernatural aspect, and I suppose you could argue this is a Thorn-Culting of Billy Campbell. But since there’s never been any consistency in this series and there were psychic powers in part 3, witches in part 4 and killer toys in part 5 I would be surprised if many people took offense. Come to think of it, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT did what Carpenter tried to do starting with HALLOWEEN III, and just became a holiday-horror anthology series. Now we’re only sort of going back to the beginning. Maybe it’s more of a remix than a remake.

Billy drifts into a small town called Hackett, stops at a diner, where he spots Pam (Ruby Modine, HAPPY DEATH DAY, SATANIC PANIC). Doesn’t talk to her, but against a waitress’s advice he takes a liking to her, and against Charlie’s he follows her to the little shop she works at selling Christmas decorations and stuff. He acts like a weirdo (even talking to Charlie in front of her) but notices a help wanted sign and later gets hired by the owner, Dean (David Lawrence Brown, ORPHAN: FIRST KILL), also Pam’s dad.

It takes Pam a bit to warm up to him, but he’s actually a nice guy (outside of the murders) and wins her over. I like that she’s not a generic girl-next-door type of love interest – one reason she likes him is that he doesn’t judge her for her bouts of uncontrollable rage, like the one where she beats the shit out of some kids at a hockey game for picking on her nephew. Don’t be embarrassed of that, girl! I like that the movie goes off on little tangents like that. Keeps you guessing what this is gonna be about.

This might be a minority opinion, but I think the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is kinda good. Only kinda – it’s not effective enough for me to prefer to the comically shoddy part 2 – but it’s good at making me uncomfortable. It’s very dedicated to the concept of this kid being turned into a maniac, and violently enacting the simplistic morals he was taught. I don’t want to sound like I enjoy seeing it but man, that scene where he impales naked Linnea Quigley on deer antlers is upsetting! Which is the idea. They homage that here, as in the last remake, but without the nudity it’s more cute than disturbing.

Which I don’t mind. This is a different tone. Any queasiness comes from the casual amorality of making this Killer Santa a more relatable protagonist than the o.g. Billy. While the original was designed to cause outrage and attract sickos, this was knowingly and respectfully made for horror fans who might appreciate specific types of horror catharsis. Pam has an ex named Max Benedict (David Tomlinson, THE LEGEND OF JACK AND DIANE) who keeps coming around and not taking no for an answer. He’s a cop and she dumped him because he punched her in the face. If you’re the type of person who says “Yeah, exactly, cops are like that” then you might enjoy some of the movie’s other attitudes.

There’s an obvious standout scene that to be honest is pandering but I think most of you will agree with me that it’s an appreciated type of pandering in the year 2025. It happens when Billy goes to Pam’s nephew’s hockey game and gets annoyed by Delphine (Sharon Bajer, “Receptionist,” NOBODY), one of those mean yelling sports parents. SPOILERS THIS PARAGRAPH ONLY. It’s already funny to see Billy zero in on her for that reason, and then he gets invited to her Christmas party and (HERE COMES THE BIG SPOILER) it turns out to be a Nazi Christmas party, so he decides to kill everyone there. And he insists on using his ax because “guns are for pussies.”

ACTUALLY COME TO THINK OF IT SPOILERS THIS PARAGRAPH ALSO. One of the other turns that’s pretty funny is that there’s a logic to his killing spree that actually attempts to justify it. He’s cursed and he’s doing something important. Making a sacrifice, in addition to a list that he checks twice. I like that it asks us to accept that at face value, doesn’t try to be responsible about it. You gotta be reckless about something to earn your spot in this series.

Obviously there are little nods to the series and other Christmas horror. Nothing too cute, as far as I could tell. There was one part that seemed like it was a reference I didn’t know/remember – a lady saying she used to date Pam’s dad but was “kind of a slut” back then? – maybe someone will explain it to me.

I’m an avowed HALLOWEEN ENDS fan, and I’d take that over this one, but it’s kind of cool to see Campbell expanding his holiday horror repertoire. He was mentored by Michael Myers and now he’s replacing the most famous Killer Santa. I look forward to seeing what part of the calendar he hits up next. There’s something compelling about the act that I can’t really tell where he lands on the hunk to weirdo spectrum, and Modine is a great match for him. Both have a presence but don’t seem like typical leads, and that’s interesting. Also I enjoy seeing a horror movie where (ANOTHER SPOILER HERE) the killer reveals his secret to his girlfriend and she doesn’t break up with him.

I have one minor slasher-fan complaint and it’s that we don’t really have any classic kills. It’s not lacking in gore, there is plenty to work with, but I saw it less than a week ago and I can’t recall many specifics. Whatever it may be lacking in that area, though, it makes up for in a story that keeps shifting, revealing new information, keeping things lively. I like that there’s kinda too much going on here. Did I mention that local kids have gone missing because of a psycho known as The Snatcher? Lots of threads to tie together, and Nelson does it in 96 minutes. There was a particular place it ends up that I saw coming and enjoyed being right, another little bit I didn’t guess and got a kick out of. It’s goofy fun. In Christmas horror terms it’s certainly not on the top shelf, but there are so many barely watchable ones that I’d say it’s in the upper percentile. I’ll probly watch it again some day, and I hope it gets a sequel. Welcome to the rotation, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 2025.

p.s. My other reviews of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT motion pictures

(warning: some of these reviews are 20+ years old, when I was dumber)

SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT / SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 2 double feature
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT III: BETTER WATCH OUT!
SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER
SILENT NIGHT (2012)
CHRISTMAS BLOODY CHRISTMAS (unrelated movie made from rejected pitch for this remake)