'Silent Night, Deadly Night' Reboot Coming Down The Chimney In 2022
Silent Night, Deadly Night, a movie that's probably more well-known for its controversial poster than for its actual content, is getting a reboot for 2022. Orwo Studios and Black Hanger Studios are handling the new film, which will be inspired by the uber-trashy 1984 film about a guy who watches his parents killed by a guy dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and then grows up to be a killer Santa himself. The original film garnered plenty of controversy for its marketing material of an ax-wielding Santa dropping down a chimney and ended up being pulled from theaters a week after release.
Here's a not-so-controversial statement: Silent Night, Deadly Night is not very good. And neither are its five sequels (although Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 does feature the now-iconic moment of a character yelling "GARBAGE DAY!"). With that in mind, Silent Night, Deadly Night is probably the perfect horror "classic" to remake. Too often, producers will simply remake stuff that's already pretty good to begin with, when the best course of action would be to take a bad movie with a good idea and try to rework it into something better.
In the original film, a kid named Billy watches as a killer dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders his parents on Christmas Eve. Billy goes to an abusive Catholic orphanage and grows up to a mentally disturbed man. One Christmas season, Billy completely snaps, dresses up as Santa, and starts murdering people. It's trashy as hell, but I suppose it has its charms. When Silent Night, Deadly Night arrived in 1984, it faced immediate backlash for its killer Santa idea, and the flick was pulled from theaters a week after release. The backlash may have ultimately helped the film in the long run, because Silent Night, Deadly Night became a cult hit and spawned several sequels, most of which have nothing to do with the original.
The remake concept was brought to Orwo Studios by producer Anthony Masi of MasiMedia. The original film's producers Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead of Wonderwheel Entertainment will join Orwo in "bringing an exciting new vision of this cult classic to modern movie audiences in 2022." Schneid, Whitehead, and Masi will produce along with Jake Seal, Terry Bird, and Jamie R. Thompson of Orwo Studios/Black Hangar.
There have been plenty of killer Santa movies, and Christmas horror movies in general, since the release of the original Silent Night, Deadly Night, so it would be wise for this reboot take to try something fresh and new to differentiate itself.