Nerdly » ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Blu-ray Review

10th Mar2026

‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Rohan Campbell, Ruby Modine, David Lawrence Brown, David Tomlinson, Mark Acheson, Logan Sawyer, Erik Alhavale, Rick Skene, James Durham, Sharon Bajer, Tom Young, Krystle Snow | Written by Paul Caimi, Michael Hicke, Mike P. Nelson | Directed by Mike P. Nelson

Directed by Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics, Wrong Turn), Christmas slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night is a remake of Charles E. Seiler’s 1984 original, a low-budget axe-wielding Santa movie that spawned four sequels and a subpar 2012 remake. This film makes a slight adjustment to the basic set-up, but that works in the film’s favour, ensuring a festive hack-’em-up that delivers plenty of thrills and kills.

As with the original film, the story begins with a prologue, in which young Billy Chapman (Logan Sawyer) sees both his parents brutally murdered by a man in a Santa suit, named Charlie (Mark Acheson). Years later, a now grown-up Billy (Rohan Campbell) is haunted by Charlie and hears his voice in his head, compelling him to don a Santa suit and kill people in the 24 days before Christmas, leaving a bloody thumbprint in an Advent calendar after every murder.

When Billy winds up in the appropriately named small town of Hackett, Minnesota, he gets a job at a seasonal knick-knack store and begins a relationship with Pamela (Ruby Modine), the tempestuous daughter of the store’s owner, Dean (David Laurence Brown). With Charlie’s help, Billy sets about identifying and stalking his proposed victims, and soon he’s giving the old axe quite the festive work-out.

The aforementioned tweak to the set-up is slightly spoilery, so if you’d rather find out for yourself, please look away now. Still here? Okay then. It turns out that, much like TV’s friendly serial killer Dexter, Billy only kills people who really deserve it, assembling a naughty list and hacking his way through it.

To that end, Billy hits the jackpot when he identifies an irritating local woman (Sharon Bajer) heckling at a local ice hockey game and follows her home to murder her, only to discover that she’s hosting a White Power Christmas Nazi rally, in full costume. That gives rise to the film’s best set-piece, as multiple Nazis meet satisfyingly grisly ends.

The lead performances are excellent. Campbell makes a solid lead, keeping Billy just the right side of twitchy weirdo and giving him enough nerdy sweetness that the romantic relationship convinces. Similarly, Modine is terrific as Pamela, giving her several interesting layers, of which RAGE is just one.

In fairness, Silent Night, Deadly Night does have a handful of minor flaws. For one thing, it ends up getting a bit overstuffed with characters and backstory, with one character in particular (David Tomlinson as Pamela’s ex-boyfriend cop) getting decidedly short shrift as a result. The same is true of a subplot involving the town’s own serial killer called “The Snatcher”, with the mystery of his identity getting rather lost in the mix.

On a similar note, the focus on the axe as Billy’s weapon of choice does prove slightly limiting when it comes to the inventiveness of the kills, although there are a few notable deviations, one of which is a fun nod to the original film.

Silent Night, Deadly Night arrives on Blu-ray presented in 1080p high-definition with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, faithfully preserving the movie’s original theatrical framing. The transfer is encoded using the MPEG-4 AVC codec, delivering a sharp and detailed presentation that suits the film’s cinematic scope. On the audio side, the disc features an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, offering a clear and immersive surround sound mix, alongside an audio descriptive track for accessibility. English SDH subtitles are also included. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for extras, the StudioCanal Blu-ray only includes the following:

Special Features:

Unwrapping a New Legacy

Silent Night, Deadly Night is an extremely solid remake, an entertaining, darkly funny Christmas slasher that leaves the door wide open for future instalments. Basically, if you wanted a new horror franchise in your stocking this year, Santa has you covered.