Silent Night, Deadly Night - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

I'll be quick this week as we have a house full of lurgy, a migrane ridden husband and a sick child.

I'm torn yet again with what I thought about this weeks movie.  I can definately see the appeal to the masses.  It's a typical 80's slasher movie.  Young boy (Billy) witnesses a tragedy that is the murder of his parents and rape of his mother by a criminal dressed as Santa Claus (who he already has a fear of Santa anyway following a rather sinister conversation with his 'supposedly' catatonic grandfather in a home - who it turns out is far from catatonic).  This leaves him and his brother Ricky as orphans.  This already warped young mind is further twisted by nuns in the orphanage where he is placed.  Evil catholic nuns is a favourite in horrors.

As an adult, for reasons best known to himself, Billy ends up working in a toy store. For a boy/young man who has such a problem with Santa/Christmas its possibly not the best choice of career.  Predictably he ends up having to stand in for the store Santa and spends the day scaring the bejezus out of all the kids.

Here Billys killing spress starts after he witnesses the girl he thinks he is in love with that he works with getting off with someone else.. another horror staple for pushing the guy over the edge.  There is plenty of opportunity for topless women, another staple.... you can see why I'm not jumping up and down about this one....

What follows is Billy killing lots of people in a variety of ways, including impaling on reindeer antlers which I suppose was one original scene in the movie.  We also have a decpaitation, knife stabbing, Axing.

We also have a little twist at the end, which is a must have in this kind of movie.  I found it hard to let this one pull me in as it was full of so many cliches and I felt like I'd watched it many times before, even though I know I haven't.  I'm not saying it's a terrible movie by any means, I know it will appeal to many people who are fans of this kind of movie.  It just didn't do it for me.  I don't feel I have completely wasted my time by watching it, yet I don't feel its one I would recommend anyone rush out to see either.  It is a typical 80's slasher movie.  I suppose there is the additional draw of the seasonal aspect, but I can't see any reason to watch this outside of December.

If you want a no-brainer seasonal horror, by all means, you could do much worse than this one.  If you want something good to watch, probably best not bother.