Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)

I absolutely had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started Silent Night, Bloody Night (not to be confused with the 1980's film Silent Night, Deadly Night).

I had heard some vague rumblings about its comparison to the 1974 Black Christmas, and I'm sure I've seen it on some "Horror Movies For The Holidays!" lists. While I'm certain I heard echoing arguments of this being a Super Fantastic Classic, I'm also pretty sure I heard it was a super terrible waste of time.

So I decided to (more or less) ignore all whisperings and wander right into watching a story about snow, New England winters, and trusty holiday madness with no assumptions and a strong desire for this oppressive summer heat to end.

Folks, this is a disturbing film. Very disturbing. Okay okay okay, so the quality of the actual film isn't perfect, but the story line is bone-chillingly dark, twisted, and original. The dialog and characters are strong and menacing, and it really took me right up until the end before I put all the pieces of this alarming horror show together.

Although entertaining, I would not call this one a 'fun' film, by any means. No, no, no, folks. I highly recommend you have your guard up when approaching. I saw one comment header in the IMDB message board titled "Yikes!". This word still resonates with me - I couldn't have summed up this movie watching experience better. Yikes!

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I think many people would also thoroughly enjoy this film but it's not one for the inpatient or loud horror movie fan. I have a lot of respect for this little dark horse. It took on some challenging subjects with grit, creativity, and hair-raising suspense.

You will not walk away from this one feeling like you just got off an awesome roller-coaster ride. Instead, I suspect many will walk away as I did: cold, sad, confused, and a little bit mind-blown.

For the best movie watching experience I recommend watching this one alone on a cold, dark night. All lights off. Keep food and beverages to an absolute minimum. Although the Christmas holiday is looming large in the background of this film, it's not necessary to watch during the holiday season. In fact, I think it might just be best to watch in the middle of summer.

I saw this film for free through PubDHub channel on my Roku. And now you can watch it for free too, compliments of the Internet Archive: