I can’t say I knew what to expect from a remake of 1984’s infamous, controversial cult favorite, Silent Night, Deadly Night. The original, for all its faults (of which there are far too many to count), is one of the most iconic slices of low-budget pulp exploitation ever released. Its famous poster image of an axe-wielding Santa Claus descending down a snow-covered brick chimney has haunted the nightmares of young and old alike for over four decades, and that’s no small achievement.
But a remake? That’s been a tough nut to crack. Others have tried, most notably indie action director Steven C. Miller with his grisly one-note 2012 slasher Silent Night, but none have been successful or made a lasting impression. It’s almost as if they do not exist.
Enter writer-director Mike P. Nelson. Coming off his successful 2021 Wrong Turn reboot and his excellent contributions to 2023’s V/H/S/85 (“No Wake” and “Ambrosia”), the talented filmmaker takes his crack at Silent Night, Deadly Night and comes up with a dismembered, blood-soaked holiday delight. Nelson takes core ideas from the original and spins them in an entirely new direction. This time around, Santa suit–wearing serial killer Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell) may not be the unhinged psychotic brutally dispatching the naughty that he initially appears to be. Heck, once paired with foul-mouthed gift shop clerk Pamela (Happy Death Day and Satanic Panic scene-stealer Ruby Modine), he may not even be a villain at all.
The movie is as nice as it is naughty, and even its more uncomfortable and inflammatory (maybe even offensive) moments are transformed into something gleefully and grotesquely cathartic once its secrets are revealed and true evil comes literally face-to-face with a gore-splattered axe blade. This is a strong remake and — dare I say it? — outdoes the original in every way that matters. A lump of yule-tide coal this film most assuredly is not.
I stole a few minutes to chat with Nelson about his new take on Silent Night, Deadly Night. Here are the edited transcripts of our conversation:
Sara Michelle Fetters: What with Wrong Turn in 2021 and now this, are you just the go-to filmmaker to reboot/restart/reignite cult franchises now?
Mike P. Nelson: I don’t know. [laughs] When opportunities come up, my first reaction is always, “That sounds cool.” I just don’t know how to say “no,” and I then give it a shot. But I feel like that’s so much of it: The trying. The being interested. You are forced to figure it out, because you have to go in and pitch, and you’re not always going to be told “yes.” But when you are? You have to go. You have to go hard. That’s just the way it is.
SMF: That’s what I love about this film. You go for it. Let me be honest — Silent Night, Deadly Night, the original film, is not very good. It’s a lot of fun to watch, but — and I do hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this or that it sounds cruel — it isn’t particularly good.
MPN: No, no, no…it’s a strange movie. You’re okay.
SMF: And I know that had to do with the guerrilla way they were making it, the limitations of the budget, all of that, so I do get it. I give them gigantic kudos for accomplishing what they did. But that movie is so notorious, and has such a giant reputation, and has such a devoted cult following, and others have tried to do a remake before you. Did you feel some sort of absurd level of pressure to get it right?
MPN: I didn’t want to overthink it. I was given the opportunity. [Executive Producer] Brad Miska reached out to me and said they were working on a remake with the original film’s producers and asked, “What do you got?” I was like, give me a beat. There was no way I was going to say “no” to that. I mean, just that original poster was so influential to me as a person, let alone a filmmaker. The imagery in that poster, even before I saw the movie — a big piece of my childhood was that poster.
So, I went and did my crazy thing and asked, “Can I do this? Should I do this? Yes. I am going to do this.” And that was really it. That was the conversation. It was a lot of internal play, and that’s where my idea for this take came from.
I think there is a lot of me in Billy and Pam. I knew these characters going in. They’re both dealing with their dark sides, and my question was: Could two dark sides make a light? In this case, it does, and that’s because I allowed myself not to be beholden to anything [that came before].
What I do like to do with IP or franchises like this that I get to have a little fun with [is] to pull out the pieces from those properties that are influential to me and see how I can use them. Here, I do bring in a couple of the kills from the original. I insert little nods or winks from other Christmas horror movies. Or, why not even throw in a line from Indiana Jones in there. Like, who cares? If I’m going to do it, I’m going to have fun, and I’m going to make sure when we hit that midpoint [of the film], viewers are like, “I’m in, let’s f-ing go.”
SMF: What is the balance between making these new iterations of the characters interesting but also still delivering the thrills, chills, and gore that audiences expect?
MPN: I loved flawed, dysfunctional characters, where at a certain point you cannot deny that you love them. There are a lot of movies with dysfunctional characters that you just can’t stand watching. I wanted to make sure that Billy and Pam were two people that you could relate to and that you wanted to succeed.
Even if you don’t know Billy’s true intentions at the beginning, I still wanted to make sure you were taken with him. There’s something different about this guy. I wanted audiences to initially like him, even if they couldn’t say they liked him right away. What is his thing? Then, of course, you get to a point where you say that you want him to win. He deserves to win.
Then you discover that it’s not just him, it’s Pam and Billy. They’re a duo. But then you realize that they’re not a duo, it’s a fucking trifecta, man, because you’ve got fucking Charlie in there, too. And, look, this lovely, weird love triangle ends up coming together in a weird, really fun way, and I love injecting heart into my movies, as bloody and as nasty as they can get. I think that’s where I feel the charm comes from. That’s what makes the characters endearing and increases the stakes. That’s what makes the stakes high.
SMF: For audiences, whether they are diehard fans of the original or newcomers who see the poster and think, “Wow! That looks cool,” what do you want them to take away from your film? What do you hope they’re talking about?
MPN: I really hope that they look at this as a brand-new, fresh approach that’s also a fun movie that they can pull out at Christmastime and be like, “It’s this one tonight.” It’s always been a dream for me to create a Christmas movie, especially a Christmas horror movie, as these were such a big part of my own life. Watching movies during Christmastime, there’s just a feeling that they give, whether they are Home Alone or Gremlins or Black Christmas. There’s just something about them that makes you want to wrap yourself up in a big fluffy blanket, no matter what is going on.
I hope that, people will watch this and get those same sort of warm, fuzzy feels and that their bloodlust is satiated. If they go into the film not knowing what to expect, I hope that they are going to be surprised. I want them to go in thinking [they] know what it is — only to realize they’re wrong. And, if they do? We have them. We’ve done our job. They’ve experienced something unexpected.
But that’s moviemaking. If you’re not having fun, if you’re not having a good time, if it’s not a joyful experience, then what they hell are you doing?
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