Silent Night, Deadly Night is a fun night at the movies for fans of this genre! This remake is a sharp, self-aware holiday slasher that trades 1980s moral outrage for modern irony and a Santa that can be very naughty!
When the average person thinks of a Christmas movie, their mind usually gravitates to evergreen classics like Jingle All The Way, The Santa Clause, Home Alone or Die Hard (Yes, it’s a Christmas Movie! Just accept it)
However, the average B-Grade Horror Movie fans mind, would most likely remember the 80’s controversial cult horror classic “Silent Night, Deadly Night. Now seen as a sharp cultural snapshot of Reagan-era America, at the time it was released it was marred in controversary for its depiction of a serial killing Santa and over the top violence.
Fast forward to 2025 and we welcome an updated retelling of the disturbing original with major tonal changes and differences.
The remake unfolds during a seemingly cheerful Christmas season where humble Christmas traditions mask something much more sinister and disturbing. As the Christmas holidays approach, a killer dressed in familiar red begins stalking the community, turning the season’s obsession with “naughty or nice” into a deadly game.
Blending slasher thrills with dark humour, the film transforms Christmas iconography into a stylish, knowing nightmare—where the cheer is fake, the rules are brutal, and survival is the only gift that matters.
Directer Mike P. Nelson—best known for the lean, brutal Wrong Turn reboot and the cult-friendly nastiness of The Domestics—treats the killer-Santa concept like a loaded stocking: familiar on the outside, sharp and dangerous once you reach inside though.
Where the ’80s slasher was emphatic in its grindhouse cruelty, the 2025 film understands the assignment. This is a movie fully aware that “Santa slasher” is now a genre punchline, and it leans hard into that awareness.
The biggest shift is tone. The 1984 film played its trauma straight, almost painfully so, as if every homicidal candy cane was a grim morality tale. The 2025 outing, by contrast, treats the mythology like a cursed legend passed down at horror conventions—still violent, still bloody, but far more self-aware. Blades glint brighter, the kills are nastier, but the film smirks as it swings, and boy does it really go for it! You can easily tell that this film was made by people that grew up watching VHS slashers. Wholeheartedly embracing its B Movie feel, you’d expect nothing less from the studio that brought us Terrifier 2 and 3.
Visually, the reboot is leagues ahead too. Where the original had fluorescent lighting and department-store grime, Deadly Night 2025 embraces neon Christmas hellscape energy: snow that looks chemically enhanced and lights that feel slightly demonic.
What I also noticed is that it knows when to nod to its predecessor. Iconography from the ’80s film is repurposed rather than copied—callbacks that feel like dark inside jokes for fans who remember the controversy, the picket lines, and the VHS-era outrage. The infamous moral panic that once followed the film is now part of the text, not the threat.
Is it scarier than the original? I’d have to say No. The 84 film is still very unsettling with very little levity. But the 2025 version isn’t trying to be a relic—it’s aiming to be a commentary. It’s a movie made in an era where nothing shocks anymore, so it settles for making you laugh, wince, and then laugh again, which I did multiple times.
Verdict: A fun night at the movies for fans of this genre for sure! A sharp, self-aware holiday slasher that trades 1980s moral outrage for modern irony and a Santa that can be very naughty!
Silent Night, Deadly Night is in Australian cinemas from 11th December 2025.
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