The Silent Night, Deadly Night series is notorious for its evil depiction of Santa, with the 1984 film prompting protests from those who saw it. Despite its controversy and poor critical reception, the series has developed a cult following, spawning five films and a loose remake in 2012. 2025’s Silent Night, Deadly Night looks to be a revitilization for the franchise, reimagining the cult classic with it’s buddy-cop centered storyline.

The film follows Billy, played by Rohan Campbell, a serial killer dressed as Santa Claus who strikes his victims during the holiday season. Moving from town to town in order to evade capture, he is hired on as part-time help at a Christmas-themed shop, where he strikes up a romantic relationship with Pamela, the daughter of the store’s owner, played by Ruby Modine. With his newfound relationship, he struggles between sticking with his life of murder or ditching it in order to maintain the happiness he finds with Pamela.

Having a central protagonist who is a sadistic serial killer asks the audience for lots of leeway. Even in films like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, although they focus heavily on the villains, the main character is always a good, well-mannered person, making them easy to root for. Silent Night, Deadly Night is very much not that, but luckily finds a way to make the protagonist likable despite murdering dozens of people in the film. Billy is more of an anti-hero than a straight-up villain, targeting those who’ve done heinous acts to others and deserve to be brutally murdered. This justification allows the audience to weirdly root for Billy, making for a far more complex protagonist than what was expected.

Despite its new take on the holiday serial killer, the writing isn’t nearly as compelling as it thinks it is. The dialogue is horrendous at times, blatantly explaining what is supposed to be taken away from the scene instead of allowing the images to do the talking. Despite Rohan Campbell and Ruby Modine giving solid performances, the dialogue they are given makes it impossible to root for them, as it features one of the year’s most forced romances. Instead of building a nuanced relationship, it feels as if they should be together because they work at the same place and are around the same age. Romance elements in a genre film can be easy to overlook, but because the plot revolves so much around their relationship, it was difficult to ignore how bad it was.

Not only is the film a horror movie, but it also has elements of a buddy cop film. Billy has a voice in his head that guides him on his murderous voyage, telling him whom to kill and why, similar to the Venom films. While this, at times, adds a fun element to the horror, Mark Acheson’s voice work lacks the gravitas the role requires. Acheson’s diction comes off as if he’s reading the words into a microphone instead of being present with Billy in the film, giving their relationship a disconnect that is hard to gravitate toward.

Plots are meant to evolve as the film progresses, but Silent Night, Deadly Night doesn’t evolve whatsoever. While Billy contemplates what he wants to do with his life throughout, his character ultimately shows no sense of growth. What happens to him comes across as circumstantial, having zero development, and ends almost abruptly. For a protagonist set up to be as complex as Billy, it’s bizarre how straightforward his path is.

There are very few films where the music and sound work against it, but Silent Night, Deadly Night is one of those. Not only is the sound poorly mixed in the movie, being overtly loud at times and drowned out at others, but the score is also lacking in originality. Instead of enhancing the film and building emotion, it works mainly as background noise, which is the worst crime a film score can commit.

Easily the worst sequence in the film is a driving sequence near the climax, in which Billy delivers an exposition dump to Pamela. There are times when exposition is necessary to give a scene content, but what Billy explains here is already known to the audience, making for an infuriating couple of minutes. What’s made even worse is that the film unnecessarily drags this sequence out to show a couple more kills, coming off more like the filmmakers attempting to pad the runtime instead of implementing a scene that is integral to the story. If there is one scene that sums up the film’s flaws, it is easily this one.

Despite its haphazard filmmaking, a sequence involving the mass murder of a group of Nazis holds strong as the best in the film. Not only are practical effects brilliantly utilized in the kills, but the film a layer of entertainment that the rest of the film is missing. For a horror film taking place on a holiday, it is surprisingly bleak, but the Nazi murder sequence shows that holiday horror thrives when it doesn’t take itself seriously. If the rest of the film had the tone and execution of this scene, then it would’ve been a much more pleasant experience.

Although there are some standout qualities, Silent Night, Deadly Night fails to justify its existence, instead coming across as a lazy rehash of other films, with few standout traits of its own. While some fans could make the movie a cult classic, like the previous films in the series, normal moviegoers will likely find it a dull experience.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is now playing in select theaters

Rating: 3/10

Oscar Prospects:

None