SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)

Director: Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

Writers: Michael Hickey from a story by Paul Caimi

Producer: Ira Richard Barmak

Cast: Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Tara Buckman, Britt Leach, Danny Wagner, Jonathan Best, Will Hare, Charles Dierkop, Gilmer McCormick, Nancy Borgenicht, Jeff Hansen, Toni Nero, Randy Stumpf, Linnea Quigley, Leo Geter, Max Robinson, Amy Stuyvesant, A. Madeline Smith, H.E.D. Redford, Eric Hart, Vince Massa, Michael Alvarez, John Bishop, Richard Terry, Spenser Alston, Alex Burton, Max Broadhead, Oscar Rowland, Melissa Best, Spenser Ashby, Angela Montoya, Don Shanks (uncredited)

After witnessing the Christmas Eve murder of his parents (Tara Buckman and Jeff Hansen) by a killer (Charles Dierkop) dressed as Santa Claus, five-year-old Billy Chapman (Jonathan Best) is sent to an orphanage. As he grows, Billy (Danny Wagner) continues to be tormented by the memories of his yuletide tragedy and is subjected to strict punishments from Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin), the head nun at the orphanage. Many years later, the teenage Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) gets a job at a toy store. On Christmas Eve, the store’s owner (Britt Leach) coerces Billy into being the substitute Santa Claus for the store’s young customers. Donning the costume of his childhood horror deranges Billy, who becomes a murderous St. Nick punishing those he deems naughty.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Despite what Andy Williams’ seasonal crooning would have us believe, the most wonderful time of the year is always complicated with Christmas controversies:

• Get a real or artificial tree? 
• Buy gifts or give money? 
• Open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
• Turkey, goose, or ham for Christmas dinner? 
• Who the hell does the dishes?

So, in the yuletide spirit of peace on Earth and goodwill to men, allow me to settle some Christmas controversies: 

• If you do the trimming, buy any damn tree you want. 
• Giving money is always the right size. 
• Opening gifts Christmas Eve must not interfere with my drinking time and opening them on Christmas Day must be done after I sleep off my drunk. 
• Anything that makes a good base for booze can end up on my Christmas dinner plate. 
• Serve the dinner on paper plates and I’ll do the dishes. 

However, back in 1984, even my yuletide pragmatism could not quell the controversy caused by the holiday horror of Silent Night, Deadly Night. This film was released as the slasher film craze had begun to wane and so had the self-righteous indignation of self-appointed moral guardians. But the television ads for this movie about a killer dressed as Santa Claus were traumatizing tots all over the United States. That resulted not only in renewed lambasting by the slasher film-hating movie critics, but also protests from parents that prompted the immediately profitable film to be pulled from theaters. The violation of children’s joyful image of Santa Claus for an R-rated horror film was treated as child abuse. I find it rather ironic that, prior to this film’s ads, probably half of the panicked parents’ kids would already scream bloody murder or be petrified with fear when they were made to sit on a department store Santa’s lap, anyway.

Despite all the outrage directed at Silent Night, Deadly Night, it was certainly not the first time the movies made maniacal, murderous merriment with a sinister St. Nick. Both 1972’s Tales from the Crypt and 1980’s Christmas Evil featured dangerous Santa Claus imposters. Apparently, the 1984 film’s ad campaign was all too effective in an era when the horror sub-genre of the slasher film had become yet another scapegoat for misbehaving youth and poor parenting. The fact that these R-rated films were unable to be seen at the theaters by lone youngsters under 17 years of age did not matter. Yeah, yeah, I understand it was the TV ads creeping into families’ homes during prime time that was causing the shit storm. However, I also understand that the outrage was not directed at the marketing, but at the very existence of the film itself. My response to such censorship sentiment is a hearty “Bah! Humbug!”

According to director Charles E. Sellier, Jr., the aim of the film was for the financing distributor, Tri-Star Pictures, to hit the low-budget/low-risk tier of film production with just the sort of product that had been profitable in recent years. Horror film aficionados will notice that the filmmakers behind Silent Night, Deadly Night were making a list of slasher flick tropes and checking it twice:

holiday-themed mayhem ✔✔

prologue of past trauma ✔✔

traumatized maniac menace ✔✔

distinctive outfit for the killer ✔✔

gory kills via a variety of techniques ✔✔

sex and nudity ✔✔

There are also a few variations from the slasher film norm that make Silent Night, Deadly Night distinctive. The identity of the traumatized maniac is not a mystery; we know who he is and see how he becomes a menace. While there is nothing very deep and profound being expressed in this film, we spend a lot of time seeing how an ongoing series of tragedies and abuse contribute to the maladjustment of the boy who will grow up to become the film’s murderous main protagonist. There is an odd mix of decency and brutality. While not only the nasty people get offed in the traditional slasher film, there seems to be a few instances here where not only are nice people killed, but their deaths seem even more undignified than usual. I think the impact this film has is an ongoing sense of injustice. Both people and fate can be indiscriminate doling out punishment.

Billy Chapman is the kid whose Christmas karma is consistently crapped on. Five-year-old Billy and his family are visiting his catatonic grandpa (Will Hare) at a mental facility on Christmas Eve. As soon as Billy’s parents leave him alone for a moment with his unresponsive grandpa, the old codger gets a wicked gleam in his eye and tells Billy that Christmas Eve is the scariest night of the year. Grandpa gets Billy to admit he wasn’t always a good boy that year, so Grandpa says that Santa will arrive that night to punish him. As soon as the parents return, the sadistic, old geezer plays catatonic again. No reason is ever given for Grandpa’s behavior, and this is the last we see of him, but the movie is already establishing an unsavory vibe for the yuletide season. This is my favorite scene in the film, as it just seems so strange and inappropriate. Will Hare should have nabbed an Oscar that year.

From this point on, Billy’s Christmas and all his Christmases to come are cursed. On the Chapman family’s drive home from the mental facility, they are flagged down by an armed robber in a Santa suit, who kills the parents. Billy and his baby brother are raised in an orphanage that is run by the strict nun Mother Superior, who preaches that no one ever gets away with being naughty and punishment is good. Unfortunately, as poor Billy ages, his past Christmas trauma makes him act out during the yuletide season and he keeps getting punished.

Once Billy is old enough to hold a job, the kindly Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick) finds him a position stocking shelves at Ira’s Toys. The young man seems to be an exemplary employee until the store’s Santa Claus for the kids can’t perform and Billy is pushed into the role. Despite his horrific Santa memories, Billy somehow manages to endure playing Santa until things get out of hand at the store’s after-hours Christmas Eve party. Then Billy snaps, becomes the Santa of his grandpa’s malicious taunts, and sets out to punish the naughty and just about anyone else who gets in his way.

In his very first role as the full-grown Billy Chapman, Robert Brian Wilson has a likable and naïve demeanor. When suited up as Santa, his smiles seem both childlike and demented. His best scene is during his Christmas Eve killing spree when he offers a young child (Amy Stuyvesant) a gift. This is suspenseful, peculiar, and funny.

The stunning Tara Buckman appeared in a lot of television roles, but the only other thing I recall seeing her in is the action-comedy The Cannonball Run (1981), where she played the blonde bombshell race driver partnered with brunette bombshell Adrienne Barbeau. As little Billy Chapman’s mother, Buckman’s murder is Silent Night, Deadly Night’s nastiest moment and sets the tone for the rest of the film.

The 1980s scream queen and B-movie favorite, Linnea Quigley, is featured in a small role. Her character’s reluctant involvement with deer antlers is probably the film’s most famous scene.

Silent Night, Deadly Night defied its critics and protesters by spawning four sequels. Paradoxically, the veteran Hollywood actor who had objected to the original film, Mickey Rooney, starred in Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991). The original film was remade as Silent Night in 2012. A brand-new version of Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) is currently playing in theaters this holiday season.

So, if you want to wallow in nostalgia for an era when a cinematic Christmas cash grab could cause a commotion and gain cult status, see Silent Night, Deadly Night. It always puts me in the holiday spirit. Seeing a serial-killing St. Nick brutally punish others who are naughty helps me appreciate those lumps of coal I keep getting in my stocking every year.

GRADUATION DAY (1981)

Director: Herb Freed

Writers: Herb Freed, Anne Marisse, David Baughn

Producers: David Baughn, Herb Freed

Cast: Patch Mackenzie, Christopher George, E. Danny Murphy, Michael Pataki, E.J. Peaker, Richard Balin, Linnea Quigley, Denise Chesire, Bill Hufsey, Karen Abbott, Beverly Dixon, Hal Bokar, Carmen Argenziano, Vanna White, Virgil Frye, Ruth Ann Liorens, Tom Hintnaus, Carl Rey, Patrick Wright, Linda Shayne, Aaron Butler, Viola Kates Stimpson, Erica Hope, Grant Loud, Fred Beshid, Deborah Dutch, Felony (the band as themselves) 

Midvale High School track star Laura Ramstead (Ruth Ann Llorens) collapses and dies at the end of her winning race. As graduation day approaches, a series of murders are committed against the rest of the members of the Midvale track team. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

1981 was the year of the slasher film. Hardly a week would pass without another production of the genre being released. This youth-centric horror film craze was at its peak and Graduation Day was designed to meet the demand. Being released in May of that year, when its target audience was about to graduate or seeing their older classmates about to do so, there was a sanguinary simpatico between audience and film that made Graduation Day quite a financial success on its modest budget.

Co-writer and director Herb Freed provides the slasher movie essentials to deliver what the audience expects: A tragedy that opens the film which provides the motivation for the horrors to follow; a mystery killer picking off victims one-by-one; plenty of red herrings provided to keep the audience guessing; a bit of comedy relief; and some teenage sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

The slasher film buff won’t find much in Graduation Day that hasn’t been done better elsewhere. Although this genre is often filled with simple characters, which I think usually compliment rather than distract from the horror of the situations, there are really no characters that engage much of our interest in this film. The dead track star’s older sister Anne Ramstead (Patch Mackenzie), who returns home from her Navy assignment, is also a potential suspect. She seems to be the heroine and should have our sympathies, but she may also be the killer. She is out of the story for long stretches in the film. This keeps her a bit distant from the audience and also allows her ample opportunity to commit the murders. That lends this story a bit of distinction. 

Graduation Day manages most of its interest for me with its non-essential to the genre bits of business: The beefy lout of a truck driver (Patrick Wright) that nearly gets his eggs scrambled copping a feel on our hitchhiking Navy Ensign heroine; the heroine’s absolute asshole of a stepfather (Hal Bokar) that resents her for reasons unknown; the grouchy high school principal (Michael Pataki) and the beyond professional relationship he has with his sexy secretary (E. J. Peaker); the inexplicably-popular-with-the-high-school-bimbos music teacher (Richard Balin) that has the cute blonde Dolores (Linnea Quigley) seduce him to avoid a flunking grade.

Another point of interest is that it seems that some of the characters are set up to be unlikable jerks and buffoons, which usually means they will add to the body count, yet they are completely passed over. They are not victims or movers of the plot in any way. They were probably only meant to add to the list of possible suspects and provide a bit of eccentric and humorous diversion. 

Speaking of suspects, Graduation Day goes the extra mile to make sure that we never stop playing the whodunit guessing game. Since the killer has a switchblade knife, wears gray sweats and black leather gloves, and uses a stopwatch to time the kills, that means we see plenty of characters unpack their luggage or open desk drawers to reveal they own some of those very items. We also have someone behave in an odd manner for no apparent reason except to make that person seem suspicious. If I have any criticism of this movie, it is that this kind of suspicion finger-pointing is so heavy-handed. 

Veteran actor Christopher George, as the hot-tempered Coach Michaels, tops the list of suspects here. George is a welcome addition to the cast for horror fans of this film era. During the last years of his life, George had been appearing in a string of fright flicks that have given so many horror junkies so much fun. 

As the promiscuous Dolores, Linnea Quigley begins to establish herself as an '80s scream queen. She would become a favorite sexy attraction in many more horror and exploitation flicks throughout the decade and beyond. 

Another notable cast member is pre-Wheel of Fortune letter turner Vanna White as one of a pair of motor-mouthed Midvale High School girls. 

For the slasher movie connoisseur, the variety of kills is the special sauce that makes this cinema junk food so tasty. The killer in Graduation Day comes up with a couple of very inspired and outrageous ways to kill. Even one of Batman’s super villains would be hard pressed to work out such diabolical tricks. We later find out that the killer has a room with edged weapons decorating the walls. I suppose that fixating on such things for years may have given the fiend the aptitude to quickly improvise some of these gory gimmicks. 

There is a bit of extra energy provided by some hyper-kinetic editing during key moments in the film. This was a rather unusual technique back in 1981. Nowadays edits nearly this frantic are done almost constantly throughout any shitty fantasy or action flick to fool the audience into thinking their brains are experiencing the most intense bowel movement ever.

HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS (1988)

Director: Fred Olen Ray

Writers: Fred Olen Ray, T.L. Lankford

Producer: Fred Olen Ray

Cast: Jay Richardson, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer (as Michelle McClellan), Gunnar Hansen, Dawn Wildsmith, Esther Elise (as Esther Alise), Tricia Burns, Jerry Fox, Jimmy Williams, Michael Sonye (as Dukey Flyswatter), Susie Wilson, Dennis Monney, Jerry Miller, Steve Welles, Charles O’Hair, Jeffrey Wilson, Gerry Jenkins, Gary Levinson, Sandy Palm (uncredited), Christopher Ray (uncredited) 

Los Angeles private detective Jack Chandler (Jay Richardson) is looking for a runaway girl (Linnea Quigley). In the course of his investigation, he stumbles upon a cult of chainsaw-wielding hookers that murder their clients to appease their god. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

As the '80s videotape market created an insatiable demand for more movies to rent and more diverse and idiosyncratic tastes to be catered to, the low-budget filmmaker found a new lease on life beyond the drive-in by making direct-to-video product. Although some of the more ambitious low-budget productions would achieve some theatrical and cable channel showings, videotape sales and rentals were essential outlets to make a profit. To get the attention of the video renting audience, producers came up with lurid titles that were as over-the-top as the content of their movies. These productions often strove for a self-aware sense of parody in exploitation excess. No movie epitomizes that approach better than Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

Boobs, blood, and baloney are the main ingredients in this simple stew of a film. This movie seems to exist only to justify the attention-getting title. The boobs and the blood are the exploitation ingredients to be found in many low-budget horror films of the time. The baloney is required to provide a reason for hookers in Hollywood to be using chainsaws to kill. Because that baloney is so outrageous, it makes this film a parody of exploitation cinema in general. 

Dawn Wildsmith opens the film as the very first chainsaw hooker we meet. She gives a fine and funny performance that really sets the tone for the whole film. Her character’s rather schizoid personality veers from nonchalant whore to gleeful killer. Later, she acts like a giggling bimbo that we can’t trust for a second. Wildsmith has great comic flair and I really need to see more of her work. 

Two of the main attractions in the low-budget world of '80s genre films appear here. Michelle Bauer (billed here as Michelle McClellan) and Linnea Quigley top the cast of sexy ladies. They are the bad girl and the good girl, respectively. They also co-starred in other productions during this era. Bauer was probably the film’s major selling point as she is the beautiful brunette brandishing a chainsaw on the film’s poster and promotional material. She also is the naked spectacle in the film’s best-remembered scene.

Gunnar Hansen is the stunt casting here. Who better to play the leader of a chainsaw cult than the original Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)? He gets one of the funniest bits when he introduces “The Virgin Dance of the Double Chainsaws” as if he is an emcee at a talent contest instead of directing a cult ritual. 

It is Jay Richardson’s performance that really holds this simple and silly thing together. His Jack Chandler is a fun throwback to the hard-boiled private eye characters of film noir. He delivers every line with cynical relish and his voice-overs provide some of the best laughs. 

This movie works because it does not violate its loopy sense of reality while we are all too aware of its absurdities. Therefore, we can engage with the characters and situations on two levels: appreciating the sexy and gory shenanigans being investigated by the hard luck hero while knowing that we are being fed exploitation clichés that are barely justified by an outlandish, evil MO. The movie never quite breaks the fourth wall, which is why it still has a bit of charm. 

Co-written, directed, and produced by prolific exploitation filmmaker Fred Olen Ray, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers manages to be crass and crude at the same time that it lets us all in on the joke. It is probably Ray’s most appreciated film and is great fun for the jaded horror fan looking for a change of pace. The film also performs a public service with a safe sex message that is just as important over thirty years later: If your partner puts on a shower cap in the bedroom before sex, get the hell out of there!