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A red jacket and white false beard lie on a toy shop counter under an amber lamp. A wooden sledge rests by the door as snow falls outside.
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Essential Christmas · 1984

Silent Night, Deadly Night

56/100Festive FactorWhy it scores 56 ↓
UK certificate 1879 min
Horror

A cheap, mean slasher that knew exactly which button to press, and the button was Father Christmas.

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Plan this film night ↓Can the kids watch? ↓
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Explore this film 11 sections

The CineClaus Christmas score

Festive Factor

Christmas in good measure.

Two paper elves inspect a miniature snowy toy shop, one with a magnifying glass and the other holding a sledge. A red jacket and white beard lie inside.

A little magic in the making.

Five ingredients make the Festive Factor.
Open an ingredient to find out more.

Christmas in the storyIt can't exist without Christmas.30/30

What we ask: Take Christmas out. Does the plot survive? Worth up to 30 of the 100 points.

A world dressed for ChristmasVisibly Christmas for most of it.15/20

What we ask: How much of the running time is visibly Christmas? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

The little seasonal details5 of the 10 kinds of Christmas icon we count turn up on screen.8/15

What we ask: How many kinds of Christmas icon turn up on screen: trees, lights, snow, carols and the rest? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

A Christmas heartHow far the ending rests on goodwill, family and belief: not at all.0/20

What we ask: Does the ending depend on what Christmas means: goodwill, family, redemption, belief? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

A returning traditionNiche at Christmas (under 25,000).3/15

What we ask: Is it actually watched at Christmas in the UK? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

8/100

Cosiness Rating Rating

Cold or hostile in tone. Genuinely frightening. A bleak ending.

How we score →
What do these scores mean?

Festive Factor measures how Christmassy a film is. Five ingredients add up to 100: story (30), setting (20), seasonal details (15), emotional heart (20) and returning tradition (15).

Cosiness is a separate score for warmth of tone, sense of safety, visual comfort, a reassuring ending and how easily you can settle into it.

How the Festive Factor works →
Your next film night

Where to watch

United KingdomChecked

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Streaming changes constantly and we cannot promise it is still right - check the service before you settle in. Streaming availability information provided by Streaming Availability API by Movie of the Night (opens in a new tab). Sky and Rakuten TV data by JustWatch.

The story

About Silent Night, Deadly Night

A small boy watches his parents murdered on Christmas Eve by a robber in a Santa suit, then grows up in a harsh, nun-run orphanage where the season becomes an occasion for punishment. As a young man he takes a job in a toy shop and is made to wear the Santa costume for the festive rush, and the buried trauma erupts into a killing spree aimed at anyone he decides deserves punishment.

The CineClaus verdict

A cheap, mean slasher that knew exactly which button to press, and the button was Father Christmas.

The season does all the heavy lifting here: take away the red suit and there is barely a film left. It is clumsy and often dull between the killings, but the notoriety was earned, and British viewers could not legally buy a copy for a quarter of a century.

Worth a look for horror completists and anyone curious about the fuss. Nobody else needs to go looking for it.

The family desk

Can the kids watch?

18

Our take: a gory slasher with sexual violence and a killer dressed as Santa is the last thing a child needs in December, so keep it for adults only.

BBFC advice: Strong gory violence, sexual violence.

Content advice & accessibility
Where the advice comes from
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
Our age guidance
Editorial, separate from the official 18 certificate, and never looser than it.

The series

The Silent Night, Deadly Night films

2 films, in release order

  • 1984

    You’re here

    Silent Night, Deadly Night

    1984

    You’re on this film’s page
  • 1987

    The film after

    Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

    1987

    Not in our catalogue yet
The people behind the film

Cast and crew

The faces in front of the camera, and the people who brought the story to life.

Main cast

In billing order
Lilyan Chauvinas Mother Superior
Gilmer McCormickas Sister Margaret
Linnea Quigleyas Denise

Behind the camera

Directed by
Charles E. Sellier Jr.
Original score
Perry Botkin Jr.
Writing & production credits
Writer
Michael Hickey
Keep the Christmas feeling

Music & soundtrack

That tune you recognised. That score you loved. Take a little of the film into the rest of your Christmas.

Every track on the soundtrack album, in album order.

Behind the music. Perry Botkin Jr. composed the score.

About this music list

These are the songs and soundtrack we hold for the film, not a complete cue sheet, and they give no scene timings. Album track lists and durations come from MusicBrainz. Spotify and Apple Music links open the matched recordings; links marked Search open a search on that service. Album covers are each release's own, from the Cover Art Archive, credited under the cover.

Rotten Tomatoes ↗ (opens in a new tab) MusicBrainz ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Step into the story

Filming locations

The real places behind Silent Night, Deadly Night. Choose one to explore.

Find it on the mapUtah

© OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in a new tab)

Open larger map ↗ (OpenStreetMap, opens in a new tab)

Map shows the selected place. Drag to explore; use + and − to zoom.

Location sources

Utah · Wikidata filming location (opens in a new tab)

Map pins mark the place, not a camera position or a route. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including any pin positions read from OpenStreetMap.

A little more Silent Night, Deadly Night

Film facts &
behind the scenes

For the fans who stay after the credits.

On set

Pulled after protests over the TV ads

A group called Citizens Against Movie Madness objected to the television advertising after seeing it during a football game. Protests grew and the studio withdrew all the TV ads in mid-November 1984, soon after the film opened.

Read the story

Source: Morbidly Beautiful ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On set

A second release leaned into the row

Aquarius Films re-released the film a year later, and that campaign made the earlier controversy part of the pitch.

Read the story

Source: Morbidly Beautiful ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Movie magic

Re-edited four times to escape an X rating

The film was cut and re-cut four times before the MPAA moved its rating from X to R. The producer had pitched it to Tri-Star in 1983 on a negative pick-up deal, so the studio distributed it without having paid for production.

Read the story

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On set

Shot in Heber, Utah as Slayride

Filming ran from 26 March to 21 April 1984 around Heber, Utah, under the working title Slayride. The budget was under a million dollars, and the finished film opened in November, ahead of the holiday season.

Read the story

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Music & sound

One original song carries the credits

Perry Botkin composed and performed the score, and the only song the AFI catalogue lists as playing in the film, Santa's Watching by Morgan Ames and Doug Thiele, plays over the opening and end credits.

Read the story
On your next watchListen to the credits at both ends for the song's seasonal jingle against the dark material.

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On set

Pulled from cinemas after about two weeks

Tri-Star withdrew the film after roughly two weeks, citing poor box office, and returned the rights to the producer. A later deal with Aquarius Film Releasing barred any re-release in the holiday season, from September to mid-February.

Read the story

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

And at a glance

The Christmas in it
Snow on screen. Set on 24 December. The story opens on Christmas Eve in 1971 and returns to Christmas Eve in 1984; a snowy orphanage scene appears early on.
Releases and certificates
: In cinemas (US). Opened by Tri-Star in the US and withdrawn after about two weeks.
Sources & a note on these facts

Each production story is linked to its source, in our own words. Ending details stay behind a spoiler reveal.

Good to know

Questions about Silent Night, Deadly Night

When was Silent Night, Deadly Night released?

It opened in the US on 9 November 1984 through Tri-Star and was withdrawn from cinemas after about two weeks.

Where was Silent Night, Deadly Night filmed?

In and around Heber, Utah, over about four weeks from late March 1984.

Is there a sequel to Silent Night, Deadly Night?

Yes. Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 followed in 1987.

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