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The movie starts out with a married couple and their 2 very young
children going to visit their grandfather on Christmas Eve. The grandpa
is actually in an institution, and looks to be completely out of it.
When the parents leave young Billy (their oldest son) alone with his
grandpa for a minutes, he gives Billy a good scare by letting him know
that Santa punishes all children who have been naughty but rewards
those who have been nice. Once he admits that he's been naughty, his
grandpa warns him to run for his dear life when he sees Santa.
While driving home from the institution, the family sees someone
dressed up as Santa in the middle of the road with a broken down car,
so the family stops to help. When this Santa pulls out a gun, they
throw the car in reverse and try to get away but the father who is
driving is shot and the car gets stuck in a ditch. With the father dead
at the wheel, young Billy gets out of the car and runs leaving his
mother and younger brother in the car. Then this Santa proceeds to rape
and murder the mother yet leaves the kids alone.
Then the movie cuts forward and shows the two brothers a little older
living in an orphanage. Billy still has memories of his parents murder
by Santa, but his younger brother was too young to remember. One of the
nuns at the orphanage really punishes Billy over and over, getting it
stuck in his head that if you are naughty you must be punished.
Then the movie cuts forward again to an 18 year old Billy who gets a
job at a toy store, a few months before Christmas. When Christmas time
does roll around, Billy is forced to dress-up as Santa for the kids.
And once in the Santa suit, he remembers what he's been taught "Punish
those who have been Naughty". Thats when the real fun begins, and this
movie really gets rolling.
It does take awhile for this movie to build up the story and really
form this character of Billy, but once it does total madness ensues. We
see Billy kills his fellow workers at their Christmas party while
everyones drunk. Billy is absolutely relentless in his ways of murder
using everything from Christmas lights to a bow 'n arrow, and thats
just at the Christmas party where he first begins his killing spree.
Once Billy leaves the store, it is quite clear that his trusty ax that
he took from the store is his weapon of choice. Billy then proceeds to
search for those who have been naughty to make sure they are rightfully
PUNISHED. The messed up thing about this is that the character of Billy
actually believes what he is doing is just, from everything we're shown
that he's been there. He's a tormented kid who has no idea just how
wrong his actions are. It may come off sounding cheesy or really
unrealistic but the way everything is executed in the movie some how it
works and strangely seems to make sense.
My only real complaint about this movie and main reason why I'm not
giving it a 10 is the finale. It just seemed to fall flat. For a movie
such as this, I was not expecting an epic conclusion but I was
expecting a little more drama or excitement. This movie did not have
the greatest budget so it is understandable, but it may just leave you
thinking once its over "Wait, that's it?".
With that said this movie is quite enjoyable, and exceeded my
expectations going in. For the time of this movies release and
considering the budget, the gore is actually pretty well done. The
acting for the most part is acceptable, just don't go in expecting any
Oscar worthy performances, after all, it is about someone dressed up as
Santa going around slaughtering those who are naughty. So if you get
the chance to sit down and watch this, just go in with an open mind and
enjoy the ride, just make sure you haven't been naughty as Santa
himself will PUNISH those who have.
Posted By: gorehound62 at 8:03pm, November 17, 2008
i thought this was supposed to be a groundbreaking slasher film. it sucked. if i here the word, punish, one more time, i will scream. looks to me like your typical 80s slasher movie. nothing special. below average.
Posted By: thedescent08 at 2:37pm, August 18, 2008
I wasn't entertained in the least. For me, it was slightly above 'so bad it's good' and slightly below 'so bad it's funny'. Just very, very awful and a complete waste of time.
Posted By: summer_nights at 11:30pm, August 17, 2008
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (4 Stars) - A good 80's slasher film... I wasn't crazy about the restored scenes, as the film quality was quite bad. While some people would really appreciate those extra scenes, I think it would have been better without them - Or with the option to exclude/include them. Other than that, it's a good film that any horror/slasher fan will appreciate.
This is the kind of horror movie that's so bad it's good. A very entertaining, yet generic, slasher flick. And dare I say, a terrific holiday movie to watch during Christmas (if you're a horror nut, that is).
Any horror fan who enjoys cheesy slashers such as the Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp or pretty much any of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels will probably get a kick out of this cheesy gem of a movie. I'd also suggest watching it with like-minded friends for full enjoyment.
THE HORROR HYPE METER Excited to see this movie? Rate it here!
