This December, horror fans will get a new taste of Christmas Evil as Mike P. Nelson’s Silent Night, Deadly Night flies its sleigh into theaters. A remake of the 1984 classic of the same name, Nelson’s film also follows a young man named Billy (Rohan Campbell) who has a compulsion to kill people while wearing […]
This December, horror fans will get a new taste of Christmas Evil as Mike P. Nelson’s Silent Night, Deadly Night flies its sleigh into theaters. A remake of the 1984 classic of the same name, Nelson’s film also follows a young man named Billy (Rohan Campbell) who has a compulsion to kill people while wearing a Santa suit. Christmas-themed violence ensues.
Nelson’s film departs from the original in many ways, but hisSilent Night, Deadly Night still has many of the ingredients that gave birth to a classic, including everything from festival holiday decor to axe murders to a very dark sense of humor. It also features more than a few over-the-top kills, which of course especially reminded us of the first film and its four sequels.
Yes, we got five Silent Night, Deadly Night movies between 1984 and 1991, and they all feature some truly bonkers kills even by slasher diehard standards.
So, in celebration of Nelson’s remake, let’s take a look back at every single kill (not including flashbacks and visions or dreams) from the original Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise, ranked from worst to best.
41. The Good Samaritan (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
More than any other film in the series, Better Watch Out relies heavily on off-camera kills, and this is just the laziest of them all. Ricky Caldwell (Bill Moseley replacing Eric Freeman) escapes from the hospital where he was in a coma, gets picked up by a kindly truck driver who offers him clothes, and then promptly kills said truck driver. It all happens offscreen, and we’re just left with a body hidden in shadows as Ricky drives away.
40. The Bystander (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Ricky’s (Eric Freeman) shooting rampage in the first Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel is the stuff of legend, but not because of this particular kill. A guy just happens to be outside, and Ricky shoots him, without so much as a punch line. This one was clearly just there to emphasize the rampage of it all, and it’s the least creative in an otherwise rather creative slasher.
39. Salvation Army Santa (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
This is an offscreen kill, in which Ricky slaughters a Santa on the street so he can steal his costume, but I still kinda like it.There’s something very evocative about the sound design of the bell-ringing Santa, then the sound of Ricky ending him. The little pan over the broken change bucket adds a nice little something, too.
38. Drunk Santa (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
Ricky’s first victim upon waking from his coma just happens to be a drunken hospital employee dressed as Santa Claus. We don’t know much about this guy, just that he’s talkative and he’s had a bit too much at the Christmas Eve party. The kill happens offscreen, but we get a rare POV shot as Ricky closes in on him. The worst part about this kill is that Ricky doesn’t even steal the Santa suit.
37. At the Pump (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
It’s not the kill itself that makes this one memorable. It’s another offscreen offing, as Ricky lures a gas station attendant out to his stolen truck and then, well, kills him in ways we don’t see. What makes it fun to watch is what’s happening in the foreground of the scene: The poor gas station attendant set his phone down during a call with his girlfriend, and she’s trying to have phone sex while he’s out by the pumps getting killed. It’s a nice note of dark comedy.
36. Santa’s Robbery (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
The first death in the entire Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise sees a man in a Santa disguise sticking up a convenience store clerk, then shooting that man dead. This is the same Santa who will soon kill Billy Chapman’s family, and if you’re going into these films for the first time, seeing a Santa do something so callous and brutal can be quite jarring, even more so when you realize it’s only the beginning of a very brutal ride.
35. The Security Officer (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
When Ricky starts his broad daylight rampage down a quiet residential street, the first person to stand in his way is a lone security guard who happens to have a revolver. He pulls the gun, and rather than wrestling with Ricky for it, he just promptly gets devastated. Ricky whips the gun around and puts a bullet right through the guard’s forehead. It’s a little dose of action movie bravado in the middle of this wild horror movie, and it kinda works.
Ricky’s second stop on his way out of the hospital is the nurse’s desk, where there’s just a…scalpel sitting out by the paperwork. For some reason. Anyway, someone left it there, which means that the poor nurse on duty gets her throat opened. It’s not all that graphic, but the pop of color as the blood runs down her poinsettia brooch is a nice touch from director Monte Hellman.
33. The Antenna (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Like Billy before him, Ricky has moments where you can root for him, followed swiftly by moments that remind you just how deranged he is. In this scene, he’s just killed his girlfriend Jennifer’s (Elizabeth Kaitan) annoying ex, and to his surprise, she’s freaked out. Her betrayal means she gets a car antenna wrapped around her neck in another show of the bizarre strength of the Chapman/Caldwell brothers. It’s a rough death, and a reminder that with Ricky, no one is safe.
32. Mr. Sims Gets Hammered (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
The third victim in Billy Chapman’s (Robert Brian Wilson) Christmas Eve killing spree is poor old Mr. Sims, a toy store owner who just wanted to finish out the shopping season with an employee Christmas party. When his guests start to wander away, Mr. Sims goes looking and finds Billy waiting in the dark with a claw hammer. It’s one of the film’s more subtle kills, but it still gets a nice payoff.
31. Under the Bed (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
Poor Jerri (Laura Harring). She just wanted to have a nice Christmas Eve with her boyfriend’s family, and she ended up getting yanked under a bed by the monstrous, Frankenstein’d Ricky Caldwell. We don’t see the most graphic parts of her death, but watching Harring get yanked under the bed like a supernatural force has hold of her really works with the heightened reality of this particular installment.
30. Farewell, Joe Petto (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker)
In case you didn’t understand the reference, Joe Petto is a toy maker who has a son named Pino (Brian Bremer), and it turns out that Pino’s not a real boy. But he wants to be, so when Joe finally goes too far in his alcoholic abuse (yeah, we’re doing Pinocchio with an alcoholic father, just roll with it), Pino kills him, then pretends to be him for the rest of the movie. The kill happens offscreen, but it’s still rather shocking to see Mickey Rooney pull off his own face and replace it with Brian Bremer’s.
29. Wrong Santa (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a blackly comic slasher romp, but it’s also about a young woman who’s been failed by every institution around him, and that includes the police. This film absolutely doesn’t trust them, which is why it makes absolute sense that one such cop would gun down a guy in a Santa suit without checking, only to find he’s killed the local priest who was trying to surprise the children at the orphanage. It’s the most over-the-top dark moment in the movie, and that’s really saying something.
28. Ricky’s Second Doctor (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
Ricky Caldwell in Better Watch Out is not the same as Ricky Caldwell in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. This Ricky is reduced to all but his most base instincts, and those instincts turn out to be killer. When the doctor who resuscitated him (Richard Beymer) tries to confront Ricky and put an end to the violence, Ricky’s base instinct tells him to simply stab the guy. It’s a cold-blooded moment in a movie that gets pretty weird, and it works.
27. The Death of Pino (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker)
After he’s revealed as a robot, Pino reveals that he’s actually a robot with serious psychosexual issues, tries to attack Derek’s mom, and then gets fought off by Derek’s biological father, who just came back from the military (long story). His death basically means he’s smashed to bits, and while this is a truly silly ending to a really wild concept, it’s also kind of a precursor to things like M3GAN, believe it or not. Plus, Brian Bremer absolutely sells playing a dying robot whose last thoughts are of abject despair.
26. The Jeep (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Part of the appeal of the Silent Night, Deadly Night films is their ability to play with our moral compass, showing us kills that are atrocious, along with kills that are often, in some way, righteous. Ricky Caldwell’s first-ever kill, for example, involves him driving a Jeep repeatedly over the top of an attempted rapist. It’s darkly funny, but it also sort of gets us on Ricky’s side, even as we know he’s going to do awful things later.
25. Goodnight, Granny (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 3: Better Watch Out)
The protagonist of Better Watch Out is the blind, clairvoyant Laura (Samantha Scully), who shares a frightening bond with the reanimated Ricky Caldwell. When Ricky kills Laura’s beloved Granny (Elizabeth Hoffman), it’s not about how he does it, but how Laura finds out. Grandma meets Ricky, then disappears for a huge chunk of the movie, only to reappear to Laura as a vision. As soon as she sees her grandmother, she knows Granny’s dead, and the reveal of the body a moment later seals what’s maybe the most emotional moment in any of these movies.
24. The Tale of the Tape (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Huge chunks of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 are basically a clip show, as Billy recounts his story to a psychiatrist (James L. Newman), complete with copious footage from the first film. That means Part 2 needs something to jolt you out of the past and into the present, and we get it when the movie jump scares us with the reveal that Billy strangled the doctor with his own reel-to-reel tapes. It’s a nice little pivot point in the movie and sets up the wild ride of the finale.
23. Billy’s Origin Story (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
When you think about it, the same thing that happened to Billy Chapman also happened to Batman, only instead of a random mugger, it was a guy in a Santa suit. Billy’s parents are dispatched in a truly heinous way, full of wanton and even sexual violence. It’s no wonder the kid grew up traumatized, because it’s still hard to watch.
22. The Window (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Tommy (Leo Geter) just wanted to get some action on Christmas Eve. He’s hanging out at a pool table, next to a sweet painting of a tiger, and then suddenly there’s a strangely buff Santa trying to kill him. He never really had a chance, and to make matters worse, he doesn’t get nearly the awesome death his girlfriend does. Instead, he just flies through a window and…bleeds out? Breaks his neck? It’s never really clear what happens, but then again, Tommy was never the main event of this sequence.
21. Ricky’s Death (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Yes, Ricky and Billy die in basically the same way: Gunned down by cops as they try to get in one last kill. What sets the two scenes apart is the emotional context of each one. Billy’s death is kinda heartbreaking, while Ricky’s is full of rage. He’s almost like Rasputin, and Eric Freeman’s eyes are so wild that for a moment you think he might not go down. It’s like slaying a monster.
20. Devoured (Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation)
There’s no gentle way to say this, so I’m just gonna say it: The fourth Silent Night, Deadly Night film is about a journalist who gets roped into a weird sapphic cult that seems to worship weird alien bugs. It is deeply weird, and those giant bugs get used in all manner of ways, including as killers. As the film wraps up, the cult’s dim-witted assistant Ricky (Clint Howard) ends up eaten by a swarm of the giant larvae these ladies can summon, and since it’s the only time they get put to use in quite that way, it’s pretty memorable.
19. Gun to an Axe Fight (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Did you think the cop who shot Santa Claus was just going to get away? Sure, he gets away with murdering a priest in a Santa suit, but when he heads back out to patrol the orphanage grounds in a search for Billy, he gets an axe to the chest. It’s a pretty simple kill, but it gets an added dose of atmosphere thanks to some old cellar stairs that create a nice, creepy landing spot for Billy’s final victim.
18. Ricky’s Second Death (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out)
Rather than gunning down the killer Santa this time, Better Watch Outchooses to wrap up Ricky Caldwell’s story in another way. Cornered and fighting for her life in a basement, Laura gets a last bit of help from her wounded brother Chris (Eric Da Re), then impales Ricky on a broken stick. It’s a fitting end to the strange psychic journey they went on together, and the first real Final Girl moment in this particular franchise.
17. The Box Cutter (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Billy Chapman’s first kill is a coworker who tries to rape another coworker. It’s an act of vigilantism, and since it’s the first time we’ve seen Billy kill anyone, it feels like maybe he’ll be on the right side of things. Then Billy turns on Pamela (Toni Nero), the girl he saved, and guts her with a box cutter. It’s a shock now, but just imagine how hard this one hit audiences in 1984.
16. The Red Car (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
The first Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel establishes that Ricky is triggered by red cars, something which comes up several times in the film. At the end of his initial shooting rampage, after tagging three different victims with the pistol, he fires on a red sports car driving up the road, crashing it. The car then bursts into flames for added effect, because nothing about this movie can possibly be subtle, even for a second. It’s delightful in its sheer maximalism.
15. String Up the Lights (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Billy Chapman’s first-ever kill is Andy (Randy Stumpf), his nasty, petty stockroom boss at the toy store. Andy’s so sleazy that we can’t wait to see him die, even before he tries to rape Pamela, and his last transgression makes it all the more satisfying when Billy wraps Christmas lights around his neck and strings him up with one hand. It’s the first instance of the insane family strength Billy and Ricky seem to have, but it won’t be the last, and the film gets bonus points for killing someone with actual Christmas decorations.
14. Defective Toys (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker)
The first killer toy we see in The Toy Maker doesn’t really look like something most kids would have lying around, but that’s not the case with the movie’s flashiest kill. While Derek’s babysitter, Merideth (Amy L. Taylor), and her boyfriend Buck (Eric Welch) try to have sex when they’re meant to be watching the kid, demented toy maker Joe Petto (do you get it? Joe Petto? Toymaker?), played by Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney, drops a bagful of toys right by the door. The toys promptly attack, and thanks to a sentient rubber arm, a living rubber snake, and a toy car that sprouts saw blades, Buck’s gone in a matter of moments. It’s ridiculous in the best way, and stands out even in this ridiculous (complimentary) movie.
13. Archery (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Billy racks up four victims in his initial toy store slaughter, wrapping things up with his manager, Mrs. Randall (Nancy Borgenicht). This one’s fun because it’s a misdirect. You think the now-famous fire axe is going to be the murder weapon, but when Mrs. Randall gets her hands on it and tries to break the store windows to summon help, Billy acts fast and shoots her with a bow and arrow. Why is a bow and arrow that can kill a human person sitting in a toy store? Hey, it was the ’80s!
12. By the Fire (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker)
The Toy Maker builds on the weird worm creature premise of Initiation by giving it, of all things, a demonic toy twist, and that all kicks off very early when a Christmas present arrives for a little boy named Derek (William Thorne). When Derek’s father (Van Quattro) catches him with the package, he unwraps it himself, only to find a weird little clockwork ball toy inside that reaches out and attaches to his face. In the confusion, he bangs his head on the mantle above the fireplace, then knocks the fireplace tools over, andthen impales himself on the fireplace poker. So really, the toy was a Rube Goldberg machine, giving us a hell of a way to start a movie.
11. Billy’s Death (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Billy Chapman wants to get back at all the people who have been “naughty” in his life, and in his mind, that includes the dreaded Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin), who ran the orphanage that raised him. After fighting his way past cops, Billy finally has her in his sights, only to be denied his last act of vengeance when the cops gun him down. There’s something in Robert Brian Wilson’s face in this moment that always kinda gets to me, a certain vulnerability in those farmboy looks that makes it a very solid way to off a slasher.
10. Spontaneous Combustion (Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation)
Before Initiation‘s plot really gets underway, we meet Clint Howard as Ricky on the street, then watch along with him as a woman seems to spontaneously burst into flame as she falls several stories onto the street below. Even when you can tell it’s a dummy, the sight of this woman burning to ash is unnerving, and it serves as a genuinely intriguing mystery to jumpstart this story.
9. The Umbrella (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Ricky Caldwell is significantly more creative as a slasher than his older brother, Billy, and he proves it very early in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. We’ve already seen him kill a man with a Jeep, and now he kills a nasty loan shark with an umbrella. But he doesn’t just stab him through with the thing. He stabs him through and then opens the umbrella on the other side. Is it a slightly predictable gag? Maybe, but that does nothing to dim my amusement.
8. Blood on the Carpet (Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation)
Initiationwas directed by Brian Yuzna of Society fame, and he showed it in several ways, one of which is the well-worn power of suggestion. When protagonist Kim (Neith Hunter) is on the run from a deranged Ricky (not killer Santa Ricky, to be clear; we’re talking cult lapdog Ricky played by Clint Howard), her boyfriend Hank (Tommy Hinkley) steps in to save her. Ricky goes in for the kill, and all we see are Hank’s bare feet on the carpet as Kim watches from under a bed while blood rains down. It’s brutal, and all it took was a little fake blood.
7. Mother Superior (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
Mother Superior survived Billy Chapman, the closing of her orphanage, and a stroke that left her confined to a wheelchair, but she can’t survive Ricky Caldwell. In the closing moments of Part 2, Ricky tracks the old Mother (played this time by Jean Miller) to her home and takes a swing with his axe. We don’t find out if he succeeded until a moment later, when the police arrive just in time to watch Mother Superior’s wide-eyed head roll off her neck. It’s a gag that’s two films coming, but it pays off.
6. Conqueror Worm (Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker)
Remember those weird larvae from Initiation? They’re toys now! It’s not immediately clear why, but when one of our characters passes one off to his landlord (Gerry Black) by way of making up for a late rent payment, we see what they can do. While the landlord drives, the worm keeps creeping up on him, until it finally latches on, crawls down his throat, and then pops back out through his eye sockets. It is truly gnarly in a way that’ll stick with you for a while.
5. Burn the Witch (Silent Night Deadly Night 4: Initiation)
The head of the coven trying to lure Kim into their fold is played by none other than legendary Bond Girl Maud Adams, who adds a certain weight and sophistication to the role. But no amount of sophistication can keep you alive when your would-be victim realizes she can twist her hands into a weird worm thing, catch it on fire, and impale you. Yes, that’s really what happens, and it’s all topped off by a fall from the top of the same building that started the whole movie. It might be the most insane thing that happens in any of these movies, and yes, I’m aware how bold that statement is.
4. “Garbage Day!” (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
What was going through Ricky Caldwell’s mind when he made this choice? What was going through Eric Freeman’s mind? Did he know that he was about to go down in cult cinema history? With two simple words, two insane eyes, and one well-placed gunshot, Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 secured its place in horror history. It would be the most memorable kill in a lot of other slasher series based on uncanny discomfort and humor alone, but we’re not done yet.
3. The Battery Charger (Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2)
“Garbage Day!” might be Ricky’s battle cry, but it’s not actually his best kill. That honor goes to something that happened just a few moments before, when Ricky confronted Jennifer’s ex-boyfriend Chip (Ken Weichert), who just happened to be working on his car battery. One well-placed set of jumper cables later, Chip fried before our very eyes. The dude’s eyes pop out of his head! It’s the most over-the-top kill of the movie, and it gets me every time.
2. The Sled Bully (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
No matter what other weapons get used, the red fire axe is the signature weapon of Silent Night, Deadly Night. It’s on the original poster, it’s a fixture of the first movie and the second, and it’s what we all associate with this brand of killer Santa. That weapon’s best moment comes here, when Billy goes outside just in time to see a couple of bullies stealing sleds from some younger kids. In retaliation, he waits in the dark for the bullies to come sliding down the hill, then chops one of their heads off mid-descent just like the real Santa would.
1. The Antlers (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
Silent Night, Deadly Night created public furor upon its release in 1984 for its willingness to profane a holiday like Christmas with its sexuality and violence. This gave the film a certain reputation as one of the nastiest movies of the decade, and to be honest, it doesn’t always live up to it. But it absolutely does when Billy meets Linnea Quigley‘s Denise, a topless girl caught in the middle of a night with her boyfriend. Billy could have killed her in any number of ways, but since Santa needs to use his reindeer for something, he chooses to shove Denise right up on a mounted buck’s antlers. The result is one of the most iconic kills in all of horror, referenced everywhere from Hannibal to The Final Girls Support Group to The Indian Lake Trilogy.
This article is presented by Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Produced by Bloody Disgusting, the grizzly update to the most controversial horror film ever made stars Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) and Ruby Modine (Happy Death Day), directed by Mike P. Nelson (V/H/S 85). Exclusively in theaters December 12, 2025.
