Movie Review - Bible Based: Silent Night, Deadly Night

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Deadly Advent

Plot Overview

making a list seeing Santa Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell)'s grandfather is lingering in a rest home, whom Billy age eight visits just before he dies. Billy also has a visit with Santa Claus whom he asks what happens to good boys? Answer: “Good things.” “And bad boys?” “They get punished.” On the way home their car is waylaid by a man in a Santa suit, and Billy's folks are killed, but not before they waste Santa in turn. There's some kind of woo woo energy transfer between the expiring elf and the traumatized kid. Having an imaginary friend does not bode well for Billy in the foster care system. At age seventeen he is out and on his own with “imaginary” Santa whispering in his ear tips on securing odd jobs as he travels about.

He dons a Santa suit and “punishes” selected miscreants day by day during the 24 days of Advent. As they are helping the Grim Reaper make up his quota, they figure they're sparing some innocent lives. Whispering Santa helps him avoid the police and advises him on likely small towns harboring secret vices. In Hacket he takes up with one Pamela “Pammy” Sims (Ruby Modine) who is managing Ida's Trinket Tree until she inherits it from her dad. Various customers and townsfolk die violently, day by day, until the cops get onto him, and then he goes on the lam accompanied by Pammy who has a thing for serial killers. Author Bill Scheft has it that, “Men are usually equipped with one of two seminal delusions. The first is ‘She digs me,’ the second, ‘I can take this guy’” (79). Billy lucks out in one out of two.

Ideology

winking Santa There's a Christmas special playing on TV in the rest home as the movie opens, and the same one is seen in the background in Hacket later on. It's a sci-fi yarn in which adoring Martian children want Santa to come visit them, but he can't leave Earth right now at Christmas for his obligations there. Martian Santa is one helluva nice guy while ours is a veritable hellion of a vigilante. The former is what we've made out of him, while the latter is more a takeoff from the biblical character.

We're comparing the film's start to Noah as a type of Santa Claus. Consider Santa provisioning his sleigh with gifts manufactured by elves at the North Pole. Let's compare Santa's sleigh with Noah's ark. Researcher Mark DeWayne Combs working from Genesis and ancient sources tells us, “we can reasonably propose accurate proportions of the ark to be 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet in height” (27.) That would dwarf the people working on it making them look like elves. Furthermore, “Christ himself referenced the flood (Matthew 24:39) … that those outside of Noah's immediate family ‘knew not until the flood came and took them all away.’ … This brings a detail that would impact the choice of location — the absolute necessity of isolation” (Combs 52). In our modern Santa myth, the elves' construction takes place at the supremely isolated North Pole, which could be a metaphor like Siberia.

Santa Santa's sleigh is pulled by eight reindeer harnessed in pairs. Noah's ark was filled with pairs of exotic animals. (Gen. 7:17) “And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.” Santa's sleigh also flies up above the earth. The ark landed on (Gen. 8:5) “the tops of the mountains”, the roof of the world. The sleigh lands on the rooftops, too.

hearth Next, Santa comes down the chimney to take care of the families on his route. Noah himself collapsed in a drunken heap to deal with the families in turn. (Gen. 9:18-19) “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” At this point he's to take care of all his three children and the grandkids, and so cover all the children on earth, not violating any laws of physics.

Here's what happened. (Gen. 9:20-23) “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.” The song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” tells us, “He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice.” Ham was naughty in disrespecting his father, while Shem & Japheth were respectful.

Noah sorts out his gifts according to his naughty and nice lists. (Gen. 9:24-27) “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Shem and his brother Japheth were a nice pair as were Ham and his son Canaan a naughty pair. The blessings come down through the generations by means of what we call the Christmas spirit, and so do the warnings at least, here embedded in a movie.

owl and eye Ham had put himself in jeopardy according to, (Prov. 30:17) “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Especially pertinent in this case is Noah's control over the animals including the raven (Gen. 8:7.) Noah, however, intervened to cheat death.

eye trim There's a parity of eye loss and servitude given in (Exodus 21:26) “And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.” Ham and his line—represented by Canaan in his lineage—could be given servitude rather than mutilation.

Ham's youngest son Canaan is the particularly noted recipient of the malediction. Later when the Israelis invaded the promised land, the Canaanites were due for destruction, but the Gibeonite branch (the Hivites of Joshua 11:19 & Gen. 10:15-17) did a deal with Joshua who was the Jewish leader. They'd heard what happened to other Canaanite tribes, so they sent ambassadors dressed as if they'd come from a long journey (Joshua 9:3-6) and persuaded Joshua to make a league with this “distant” tribe. When it was discovered they'd tricked Joshua into sparing them, (Joshua 9:24-27) he made them bondmen, which was more to their liking.

corporal punishment More germane to modern times is perhaps the lineage of Cush. Cush was also a son of Ham (Gen. 10:6), settling in Africa. Cush is Hebrew meaning black. Researcher Bodie Hodge confirms that “As a general trend, Ham is the father of many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan the youngest” (62).

Our movie takes off as if Noah punished Ham with the requisite mutilation instead of invoking servitude. Our planet would be different with the naughty ones being slaughtered. Noah grew up in an extremely wicked world. In the Bible God sent the flood, because the earth was (Gen. 6:11) “filled with violence.” (Gen. 6:5) “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Noah's ark allowed him & his to escape the cleansing flood, while those (everyone else) who had ignored his preaching were left behind. (Jasher 6:24-25) “And the sons of men approached in order to break into the ark, to come in on account of the rain, for they could not bear the rain upon them. And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals that stood round the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from that place.” Noah would not let them in who now faced an apocalypse.

Daniel's accusers fed to lions In the aftermath of the flood, God instituted the death penalty to keep violence in check: (Gen. 9:5-6) “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” In primitive societies without sophisticated implements, wild beasts were used, e.g. lions den, snake pit, ant hill. A man's brother was expected to carry out retribution before they had a developed legal system. All this was, of course, not lost on Noah.

In the movie Santa goes in for slaughter and mutilation, which follows from one branch of Noah's options. Here he pegs people for naughtiness solely by their violence, while ignoring any sexual sin. This follows a curious line from Noah's wife or concubine, Ham's mother. Researcher Mark DeWayne Combs posits that, “Although Jasher specifically references the births of Japheth and Shem, there is no such reference to the birth of Ham. … that Ham may have been much younger than his brothers and that he may have had a different mother” (389). Combs also observes, “Fathering a child, particularly a son, through a handmaiden or servant girl would not have been an uncommon or forbidden practice in that time period” (165).

stockings Similarly, we have made Martin Luther King Jr. into a saint for his nonviolence even though he was a womanizer of some renown. As for judging people by their character, such was well hidden in this sleepy town, but ghost-Santa could tell right off who the naughty ones were once he saw them through physical-Santa's eyes. We might tell in the case of the Nazi gathering (“I'm Dreaming of a White Power Christmas”) where they wore swastikas, but otherwise we just accept the artistic license used here. Santa balances the good and bad in people and is especially partial to respect of parents. Man's laws, however, seem to be at odds with this Santa's mission. Okay.

Production Values

“” (2025) was directed by Mike P. Nelson who wrote the screenplay with Michael Hickey based on a story by Paul Caimi. It stars Rohan Campbell and Ruby Modine. The film was so dark it was hard to make out their faces, but their acting seemed good to me. The title is a double entendre from a Christmas hymn whose German author Joseph Moore wrote it in a war-weary Austrian town in 1816 after having endured the Napoleonic Wars. He was commemorating the bated breath anticipation of the arrival of the Christ child. Other movies such as “Silent Night” (2023) do the same thing.

It's certified TV-MA. It was filmed on location in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Runtime is 1 hour 36 minutes.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

This is a thinking man's slasher movie tailored to the Christmas season. It's not for everyone.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat frights. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Seasonal fare. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Three and a half stars out of five.

Works Cited

Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software, print.

Combs, Mark DeWayne. End the Beginning. USA: Splinter in the Mind's Eye Pub., 2014. Print.

Drunken Noah scene rendered in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877. Image by licensor iStock.com/Getty Images, used under license.

Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.

Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.

The Book of Jasher. Translated from the Hebrew into English (1840). Photo lithographic reprint of exact edition published by J.H. Parry & Co., Salt Lake City: 1887. Muskogee, OK: Artisan Pub., 1988. Print, WEB.

Movie: Silent Night, Deadly Night

Bible Based Review