Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) review: A glossy but generic remake

Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s time for another addition to our Festive Frights feature and this time it’s something brand new… Well, kinda. We are reviewing Mike P. Nelson’s Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025).

A quick plot recap

Anyone who is up on their Christmas horror knowledge is going to recognise the title Silent Night, Deadly Night instantly. It’s the 1984 b-movie slasher classic that continued the tradition of Christmas horror that movies like Black Christmas (1974) and Christmas Evil (1980) started.

This 2025 version acts as sort of a spiritual remake of the original but it isn’t the first. 2012’s Silent Night was actually the first but it went under the radar quite a bit.

“The action is designed to appeal to that part of your brain that can only consume horror in bite-sized form.”

The similarities are not as apparent as you may think. Let’s look at the plot first. The story follows the character of Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell). Billy’s parents were killed by a Santa outfit clad murderer back when he was still young.

Ever since, Billy has been on a killing spree of his own. Every December he attempts to claim a new victim each day of advent. His rampage takes an unexpected turn, however, when he meets antique shop clerk Pamela (Ruby Modine) and begins to fall in love.

Same Billy, completely different story

On the surface, the similarities between this 2025 series reboot and the 1984 original are very apparent. Billy is essentially the same character and he has the same backstory but that’s where the two films begin to deviate drastically. This is a movie with a distinct supernatural element and a finger on the pulse of socially conscious topics.

The original took us through Billy’s life bit by bit. We saw his troubled youth spent at the orphanage, we learned about his disdain for all things festive, we witnessed him becoming a man. We were also voyeurs to the event at the store which caused him to finally snap before he really went postal. It was surprisingly slow-burn and very gritty.

There’s no such story building here; we are dropped right in with the killing spree already in progress. Billy’s just claimed a victim and is moving locations to escape the police. He winds up in Pamela’s antique store and, due to an instant attraction to her, decides to apply for a job there as a stocking assistant.

We arrive at a similar destination to where the original took place but we take a very different path to get there. Billy has apparently already cracked and the store he works at is far less populated. There’s also a romance plot taking centre stage and Billy has an inner dialogue that hints at auditory hallucinations. It’s a very strange setup.

A slasher through and through

Clearly, we are missing a lot of backstory and fans of the original are probably going to feel a little perplexed. Where’s the character building? What happened to Billy being a somewhat sympathetic character? Well, Silent Night, Deadly Night is going to get there; it’s just going to take a little while. Story building will come in the form of flashbacks and occasional drips of exposition.

The killing takes centre stage here and that is going to become obvious very quickly; this is a slasher through and through. The pulp style overlays that expound on Billy’s next victim hint at a movie that is far more concerned with style and violence over lore and character development. What more should we expect from the producers of Terrifier 3?

So with our expectations correctly aligned, how does the movie hold up? Well, that depends on where you land when it comes to slasher preference. If you like deep, complex stories, you are going to feel short changed. I don’t think fans of the original will find this movie particularly satisfying, either.

This is one of those films, much like the Terrifier series or director Mike P. Nelson’s 2012 film Wrong Turn, that wants you to switch off your brain and enjoy the blood-letting. The story is ridiculous to a point of being farcical so attempting to grasp on to where the narrative is heading is an exercise in frustration. It’s overly padded, convoluted, and nonsensical at the best of times.

A romance subplot but who cares about that?

Viewed as a modern slasher with a very 2020’s apt political and socially conscious bent, it can be fun. Billy is constantly harassed by a disembodied voice, performed in fantastic comic-book narrative fashion by Mark Acheson, which seems to give him super powers. It guides him to victims which means there is very little in the way of stalking and much more in the way of axe swinging.

We get to the kills quickly and with very little fanfare. A romance sub-plot provides the backbone of the narrative and affords Billy a chance to grow as the movie goes on. It’s hardly the thing that will separate this film from other slashers, though.

The writers take some daring plot pivots here and there but I doubt anyone paid for their ticket hoping to see smooching and star-crossed lovers. It’s the killing we are here for and it holds up fairly well; if not at times a little lethargically.

One scene where Billy takes on an entire barn full of Nazis feels weirdly slow and rather poorly paced. For a generation raised on John Wick and progressive attitudes however, it’s going to provide a few laughs and maybe even a reason or two to cheer. It feels like it is made to be clipped and shared on social media.

Bite-sized action for a busy generation

That speaks to a lot of the action in Silent Night, Deadly Night. It’s designed to appeal to that part of your brain that can only consume horror in bite-sized form and for those moments when the only thrills you can handle come in chunks the length of your average TikTok video.

“There’s a definitive sheen to everything that hints at a budget that wasn’t the size of the director’s credit card limit.”

It follows a predictable structure, too – kill, plot building, flashback, kill etc. My biggest criticism here is that none of it really stands out; it’s all generic and pretty formulaic. None of the kills are memorable and it all feels very rote.

Billy’s devotion to the style of axe used in the original actually becomes a bit of an albatross. You will be begging for some weapon diversity rather quickly. With that being said, as a slasher, it is absolutely fine. It feels a lot more polished than the original, as well.

It still wants to pay homage to its b-movie roots but there’s a definitive sheen to everything that hints at a budget that wasn’t the size of the director’s credit card limit. I am sure plenty of people will enjoy the 70s horror nods placed throughout. There’s some real deep-cut Easter eggs for fans of Christmas horror movies, too.

Well acted but an ultimately average film

Acting is solid enough considering the type of movie. Rohan Campbell does a nice job and actually feels reminiscent of Robert Brian Wilson in the original. One thing he lacks, however is Wilson’s impressive and imposing stature. Campbell feels smaller than many of the men around him which undermines his presence as a scary killer just a tad.

Ruby Modine is fun and pretty atypical for the love interest in a slasher. She’s a mean, no-nonsense chick who takes no bullshit and that helps her character feel quite fresh. Modine does a very nice job.

Again, Acheson is probably the standout actor here, even if it is in disembodied voice form. It’s a performance very reminiscent of Mike Patton’s in the video game The Darkness. Fans of that series will know exactly what I mean. He reads like the narrator from a pulp noir detective movie; I really enjoyed it once I got over how much of a departure it was from the original.

When all is said and done, Silent Night, Deadly Night is a slasher that would feel very ordinary had it been released at any other time of year. The Christmas theme elevates it just barely. It’s consistently unremarkable but enough of a novelty to still be enjoyable. It is more polished than its inspiration but I wouldn’t say better.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.