Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
The story concerns a young man suffering post-traumatic stress from witnessing his parents' murder on Christmas Eve by a man disguised as Santa Claus and his subsequent upbringing in an abusive Catholic orphanage. Once out of the orphanage and into a new job at a toy store the Christmas holiday joy gives him a psychological breakdown and he goes on a killing spree dressed as Santa.
One of the better Christmas slasher films out there with some decent levels of brutality and one outstanding kill scene involving a topless Linnea Quigley and a pair of wall mounted antlers.
Highly controversial at the time due to alleged traumatized children thanks to the imagery of a killer Santa Claus but now it simply comes across as run of the mill when we have the likes of cinematic killers Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers adored by kids all over the world.
|