Santa and the Horror of it All
You as a horror fan know the deal. It was 1984 and Santa underwent a significant change that parents were picketing against in protection of the innocence his image represented. Since '84, horror hasn't been denied its own variation on the Santa image...there's room to turn Jolly Ole St Nick into a maniac. Or that those in the Santa costume, wrapped in that supposed image of innocence, were subject to brutality themselves.
Silent Night (2012) was on the dvd shelf of Blockbuster during the Christmas season just a few years ago. I wrote about it on the blog and it was a flop. It was also a surprising flop on the IMDb horror message board which I just assumed would be where it would take off. Because the film has this nasty, anti-Christmas sentiment that just drives it like this engine of rage and cynicism, I do think this film will continue to thrive as the years continue. Let's be honest: the season doesn't always have warm and sunny feelings. There's this opposite sentiment from those who look at the holiday with a different mindset. Watch Black X-Mas (2006) which follows a similar Middle Finger to the season; it doesn't have Donal Logue and his "fuck you" to the holidays but there is still that direct rolling of the eyes and thumbing of the nose that permeates. I watched Silent Night again with my wife Friday night, the 16th, kind of a semi-start to a horror binge that will come and go until I get closer to the 24th where I'll go all Christmas Carol and Holiday Affair and It's a Wonderful Life. Until then, I will watch a few that have Santas either killing or dying.
Silent Night has slight homage to what many think it is: a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). I think besides a half-hearted tribute in the scene where this catatonic grandpa awakens long enough to forewarn his son of what evil exists ahead in the town and a revist to the notorious "antlers kill" where Quigley was hoisted upon the antlers of a deer head hammered to a wall. Both scenes in Silent Night are obvious but not all that exciting or important to the filmmakers so instead of feeling like a pleasant fanboy inclusion, they are forced-to-comply recalls with little inspiration behind them.
I had just watched Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) not that long ago, and in that sequel, where the director was again seemingly encouraged to include almost the entire film in the hopes of securing financial restitution lost due to the mothers picketing it in '84, there was a sense that the film was far more important to those involved in trying to produce their own stamp, as their association with the SNDN franchise was afforded little in budget. Freeman himself was a major reason it took off and has insured the sequel wasn't entirely labeled a shameless plug for the first film with no reason to exist.
Silent Night was barely at all linked to SNDN besides those two homage scenes and a psycho donning the Santa suit. Everything else was its own. It has the infamous "porn site nude" pressed into a Christmas Tree woodchipper and backstory involving a maniac setting his cheating wife aflame with a blowtorch. It had Malcolm McDowell as this egomaniac sheriff quite confidant he'd catch the Santa killer executing naughty locals (like a bratty spoiled rotten girl bullying her mom and a deputy electrocuted right before his lover has pieces of her body found throughout their lovenest.
Silent Night (2012) was on the dvd shelf of Blockbuster during the Christmas season just a few years ago. I wrote about it on the blog and it was a flop. It was also a surprising flop on the IMDb horror message board which I just assumed would be where it would take off. Because the film has this nasty, anti-Christmas sentiment that just drives it like this engine of rage and cynicism, I do think this film will continue to thrive as the years continue. Let's be honest: the season doesn't always have warm and sunny feelings. There's this opposite sentiment from those who look at the holiday with a different mindset. Watch Black X-Mas (2006) which follows a similar Middle Finger to the season; it doesn't have Donal Logue and his "fuck you" to the holidays but there is still that direct rolling of the eyes and thumbing of the nose that permeates. I watched Silent Night again with my wife Friday night, the 16th, kind of a semi-start to a horror binge that will come and go until I get closer to the 24th where I'll go all Christmas Carol and Holiday Affair and It's a Wonderful Life. Until then, I will watch a few that have Santas either killing or dying.
Silent Night has slight homage to what many think it is: a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). I think besides a half-hearted tribute in the scene where this catatonic grandpa awakens long enough to forewarn his son of what evil exists ahead in the town and a revist to the notorious "antlers kill" where Quigley was hoisted upon the antlers of a deer head hammered to a wall. Both scenes in Silent Night are obvious but not all that exciting or important to the filmmakers so instead of feeling like a pleasant fanboy inclusion, they are forced-to-comply recalls with little inspiration behind them.
I had just watched Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) not that long ago, and in that sequel, where the director was again seemingly encouraged to include almost the entire film in the hopes of securing financial restitution lost due to the mothers picketing it in '84, there was a sense that the film was far more important to those involved in trying to produce their own stamp, as their association with the SNDN franchise was afforded little in budget. Freeman himself was a major reason it took off and has insured the sequel wasn't entirely labeled a shameless plug for the first film with no reason to exist.
Silent Night was barely at all linked to SNDN besides those two homage scenes and a psycho donning the Santa suit. Everything else was its own. It has the infamous "porn site nude" pressed into a Christmas Tree woodchipper and backstory involving a maniac setting his cheating wife aflame with a blowtorch. It had Malcolm McDowell as this egomaniac sheriff quite confidant he'd catch the Santa killer executing naughty locals (like a bratty spoiled rotten girl bullying her mom and a deputy electrocuted right before his lover has pieces of her body found throughout their lovenest.
Maybe it stems from its imprint from Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973), but
the chase scene has always been one that sticks with me. I remember such a
chase in The Burning (1981), as the
runner (Brian Backer) tries desperately to avoid the pursuit of his own DOOM. Such a scene is in Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984) a nasty piece of work from England
featuring lots of London and Santas dying in the city. Kelly Baker brakes for
it when the maniac stalking and brutalizing Londoners in Santa costume breaks
the glass of her stripper booth. With the Casio at full steam baw-bawnking
away, Baker rushes down the sidewalk and decidedly stops around the corner of a
building…instead of running somewhere safe! Pretty much the entire cast dies
thanks to a maniac (Alan Lake who happened to commit suicide right before the
film premiered, adding some Slaughter
High notoriety to the film). I also wrote a review for this bad boy, but it
flopped like Silent Night. Halloween
is a bit better to me than Christmas.
Anyway, Don’t Open…
has a lot of people in Santa outfits dying. I mean, A LOT of Santa folks not
taking a hint…quit wearing Santa costumes! One unfortunate fella gets castrated
while taking a piss as another tries to find safety in Piccadilly Theater where
Caroline Munroe does her best Crystal Gayle number. Lake bugs his eyes behind
that fro he’s rocking while Purdum, who directed most of this, takes his
medicine from the “powers that be” at the “New” Scotland Yard for not catching
the killer…who happens to be (BIG TWIST) his brother. I’ll be watching Christmas Evil (1980) tonight, and the
ending of Don’t Open… is quite
similar in that an event from when the killer was a kid: catching Santa in bed
with a lady (one happens to be daddy with mommy while another is daddy with
another woman) which warps him for life into a tormented soul.
David Hess was well known as Krug among other rapist degenerates during the 70s. There was quite a novelty in his directing an early 80s slasher film revolving around Christmas, with the Santa suit donned by another psychopath. This film, To All a Good Night (1980), deals with a setup familiar to fans of Prom Night: a young beauty, student at a boarding school for girls, falls from a balcony during a prank that results in her demise. This is the obvious catalyst behind the Santa killer or else why have that as the setup? It isn't overtly impressive and over quickly, especially in comparison to Prom Night. It is emblematic of the entire film: it is uninspired and pedestrian. There is not one single thing in the film that begs for us to look back with any thought. Someone complained that this gets the shaft in favor of SNDN which came four years later. That film is still on the lips of Santa horror fans because it was willing to plunge the depths of bad taste and take steps towards depraved behavior TAaGN simply doesn't. It had promiscuous girls (late teens/early twenties) having invited their boyfriends to the boarding school with only the cook (a seemingly sweet and pleasant woman who tolerates their randy and openly sexual personalities) and a creepy caretaker (who else?) at the estate. When the caretaker is later found dead, the police arrive, posting two cops as protectors (and who really do little to stop the onslaught). It is once again a body count movie where the girls and their guys unknowingly are not alone: Santa killer surprises them all. I think the actually most surprising set piece involves the killer in a suit of armor. While not all that creative in its violence, there is a head hanging inside a shower and Judith Bridges goes full frontal as a Santa killer stares her down with butcher knife in hand (deciding not to kill her in a rather unusual twist; Judith is more than a bit sexually active and actually beds multiple partners in two nights in the movie).
Don't Open... and To All... both feature characters comfortable with their sexual lives, and there's plenty of naughty behavior to go around. Don't Open... is a bit more in your face with its sleaze as London favors New York of the 80s quite significantly. To All... has its girls as aggressive and open to shag without any complications. It isn't just the guys ready...the girls are, too!
So Santa's image is used in the slasher film in numerous ways. He's a psychological trigger that sends folks off the deep end, offers a costume for killers who use Santa as a disguise, and can be representative of not just what is innocent but to many (like Donal Logue in Silent Night) a deceptive figure for a holiday that often brings less that jolly good cheer. Horror does that, though. It puts a dark spin on something often colorful and bright. And when colorful and bright can be used as the aesthetic for a plot that is anything but...the genre of horror does that quite well.
David Hess was well known as Krug among other rapist degenerates during the 70s. There was quite a novelty in his directing an early 80s slasher film revolving around Christmas, with the Santa suit donned by another psychopath. This film, To All a Good Night (1980), deals with a setup familiar to fans of Prom Night: a young beauty, student at a boarding school for girls, falls from a balcony during a prank that results in her demise. This is the obvious catalyst behind the Santa killer or else why have that as the setup? It isn't overtly impressive and over quickly, especially in comparison to Prom Night. It is emblematic of the entire film: it is uninspired and pedestrian. There is not one single thing in the film that begs for us to look back with any thought. Someone complained that this gets the shaft in favor of SNDN which came four years later. That film is still on the lips of Santa horror fans because it was willing to plunge the depths of bad taste and take steps towards depraved behavior TAaGN simply doesn't. It had promiscuous girls (late teens/early twenties) having invited their boyfriends to the boarding school with only the cook (a seemingly sweet and pleasant woman who tolerates their randy and openly sexual personalities) and a creepy caretaker (who else?) at the estate. When the caretaker is later found dead, the police arrive, posting two cops as protectors (and who really do little to stop the onslaught). It is once again a body count movie where the girls and their guys unknowingly are not alone: Santa killer surprises them all. I think the actually most surprising set piece involves the killer in a suit of armor. While not all that creative in its violence, there is a head hanging inside a shower and Judith Bridges goes full frontal as a Santa killer stares her down with butcher knife in hand (deciding not to kill her in a rather unusual twist; Judith is more than a bit sexually active and actually beds multiple partners in two nights in the movie).
Don't Open... and To All... both feature characters comfortable with their sexual lives, and there's plenty of naughty behavior to go around. Don't Open... is a bit more in your face with its sleaze as London favors New York of the 80s quite significantly. To All... has its girls as aggressive and open to shag without any complications. It isn't just the guys ready...the girls are, too!
So Santa's image is used in the slasher film in numerous ways. He's a psychological trigger that sends folks off the deep end, offers a costume for killers who use Santa as a disguise, and can be representative of not just what is innocent but to many (like Donal Logue in Silent Night) a deceptive figure for a holiday that often brings less that jolly good cheer. Horror does that, though. It puts a dark spin on something often colorful and bright. And when colorful and bright can be used as the aesthetic for a plot that is anything but...the genre of horror does that quite well.
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