As a young boy, Billy witnesses the murder of his parents by Santa Claus. He believes Santa punishes the bad and starts reliving the memories during his stay at a Catholic orphanage. He suffers abuse there at the hands of Mother Superior, gets a job at a toy store as a young man, then he goes on a demented killing spree as Santa.The DVD opens with the statement that this is “the most complete and unrated version,” which is why there are scenes of varying quality.

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Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
aka: Slayride
Directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr.
79 mins

I find this strange because the DVD is rated “R”, not Unrated. Also, there seems to be a rape scene missing. Some people say that Santa rapes the mother of the young boy, but this is never shown unless it was edited out. There is an attempted rape, but ends at the shirt ripping.This film, while not very gory, initially struck me as disturbing and then later, stupid. There are scenes of a young boy watching his parents being murdered by Santa, a preteen adolescent being beaten and tied up by the Mother Superior, and then cops shooting a deaf priest. The story starts out well showing the tortured boy and his evolution to a serial killer, but it goes down hill after that.

There are also moments of unintentional humor like when the young boy grows up to be a muscle bound hunk in tight pants. There is a goofy montage of him working in a toy store and playing with Mr. Potato Head while a strange Christmas song plays.

There were countless discrepancies, which made no sense, but help the audience laugh. For instance, child Billy has brown hair and brown eyes, orphanage Billy suddenly has blue eyes, and adult Billy magically grows blonde hair.

The film quality was okay, but sound was spotty in some parts. The SFX was decent, but most death scenes were simply splashed blood. The director also sleazed it up in several parts. While there is plenty of boobage, the sex scenes were pretty boring and consisted of partners laying on top of each other motionless and confused.

There is also a weird underlying message here about the importance of Christmas and Religion. Why would a Catholic orphanage tell children to write thank you notes to Santa for gifts, Isn’t the typical religious protocol to pray? And there is an interesting comparison to a Hallmark holiday and a manmade religion.

So who is bad here? The Naughty vs Nice/ Black vs White Simpleton Santa Claus? The unsympathetic, abusive, but organized Religion? Or the innocent, yet murderous Mentally Ill that slips through the cracks in our legal system?

This film was banned 2 weeks after it’s theatrical release due to an angry uproar and protests. What is strange is that parents claimed that “Christmas is sacred” and that is why this film is bad. I disagree. I thought the original idea was a great and the first f’ed 30 minutes were pretty good. If they wanted to complain about something, then why not the unethical treatment of children by authoritative, religious figures? Or how about the representation of nuns as domineering imbeciles? Or why not the sleazy way the women were depicted? Lee Harry, the director of the sequel, even states in commentary that it seems as though the women were only placed in the film to be abused by the men.

DVD Extras: Scene Selection and Audio Interview with Director. “Santa’s Stocking full of Outrage” features random letters of hate by critics, angry parents, and even Mickey Rooney who later starred in the Part 5!

Bottom Line: I would recommend that horror fans check this out simply to see what the controversy is.

Rating: 6/10

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