Silent Night, Deadly Night

The latest Silent Night, Deadly Night is an audacious 2025 season capper for Cineverse and a solid achievement for Nelson, one that promises the director will give us more genre worth unwrapping down the line.

It's silly at times. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Yet, it also has something pretty loud and timely to say. It goes hard with the gore when it needs to. The movie feels a little long in the tooth at times, particularly before we figure out what's going on, but that's a minor crime compared to what Nelson got away with here.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is no great piece of art, but in the same way that candy stuffed in a stocking is far from a five-star meal, it doesn’t matter to those seeking it out, and it’s enjoyable all the same.

Silent Night, Deadly Night, is at its best when Nelson remembers how schlocky this material is, and he falters when he tries too hard to take it seriously.

Do Hollywood suits think we want nothing more from a Christmas movie than to feed on the dead carcass of an undeserving horror franchise? The scary part is they may be right.

What none of the tonal shifts and story tweaks can do is distract us from his boringly flat direction, failing to justify why something so drab and cheap-looking would warrant the surprisingly wide theatrical release it’s receiving this weekend.

The film is even less than the sum of its genre trappings.