Hollywood can’t seem to make up its mind, when they bring out a film that’s been done before, if it’s a remake or a reimagination. A remake I would suggest is pretty much a carbon copy of the original, a reimagination a new take on an original.

Silent Night Deadly Night definitely fits into the latter category as other than the opening killing of Billy’s parents and his subsequent transformation into a killer Santa this new version bares very little resemblance to the 1984 original of the same name (it’s worth searching it out just for the shear awfulness of it). Thankfully the 2025 version is a vast improvement

If you’re not aware, (and I imagine that you won’t be as the original was only in US cinemas for a week before it was pulled due to protests over the depiction of Santa as a stone-cold killer, it didn’t even get a UK cinema release and wasn’t seen until it was released on DVD in the mid-90), a young Billy Chapman, after witnessing the death of his grandfather in a care home and the brutal roadside slaying of his parents by a demented Santa, becomes a killer himself.

In the original Billy dons a Santa suit and becomes a killer on Christmas Eve after his traumatic experiences at the hands of the Nuns at the orphanage in which he stayed. In director Mike P. Nelson’s modern version Billy (Rohan Campbell) is possessed by some entity that talks to him and tells him who’s been naughty or nice.

Now grown up and having become a drifter Billy ends up in a small town where he meets Pam (Ruby Modine, daughter of Matthew). Getting a job in her father’s Christmas store, and despite falling for Pam’s charms, Billy dons the Santa suit and begins his annual Christmas Eve killing spree.

There’s nothing particularly original about Silent Night Deadly Night, it could have just as easily been titled Venom in a Santa Suit and a bizarre scene where the towns Nazi lovers are brutally slain feels like something straight out of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. But given that the whole thing is pretty much played for laughs, that can be forgiven.

Silent Night Deadly Night is a bloody Christmas cracker that comes highly recommended.