"Silent Night, Bloody Night" focuses on a small town New England mansion with a grim past; Wilfred Butler, the home's owner, burned to death there on Christmas Eve 1950. Some years later, a lawyer of Butler's son arrives in town on Christmas Eve to assess the property for sale, setting in motion a night-long series of axe murders.I first saw "Silent Night, Bloody Night" years ago via an absurdly grainy, muddy print with near-inaudible sound, and remember being completely perturbed by everything about it. At the time I wasn't sure if this was because of the turbid quality of the film stock, or just because the movie gave off that sort of vibe. I've since been able to watch the film in a higher quality print with optimal sound (this print carries the title card, "Death House," and is the best in circulation), and can now say that I think it may have been a mixture of both."Silent Night, Bloody Night" may be the first real Christmas horror film, though it is not a picture that plays much into the holiday theme; instead, it merely employs the Christmas Eve setting as a backdrop for the profoundly Gothic and twisted horror story it has to tell. It also may be one of the first real slasher films, even predating "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and its holiday horror peer "Black Christmas," which really makes it stand out from a historical perspective. In some ways, "Silent Night, Bloody Night" has been neglected outside of genre purists, and the film honestly deserves a wider audience.Let's make things clear here: this is most definitely a B-movie. The performances are uneven, at times hammy, and there is a gritty edge to the entire thing that pervades almost every scene; and yet, there is also something surprisingly elegant about the film. Though you can't tell from most of the prints in circulation, it is actually a really nicely shot film; the looming mansion and snowy New York countryside (posed as a Massachusetts stand-in) are chillingly captured, and the scenes that unfold within the mansion are dark and atmospheric. The entire film is drenched in a dreary tone that really works to offset the Christmas theme, which makes for an intriguing combination. I hate to be speculative—but I'm going to be anyway—in saying that the film also appears to have been inspirational to some of the key elements of the cult classic "Black Christmas," which would follow it two years later. They are remarkably different films, but share in common menacing phone calls and unnerving POV shots from the killers' perspectives that are too similar to be mere coincidence. Where "Black Christmas" aims for ambiguity, "Silent Night, Bloody Night" takes a more classical approach, unraveling a small-town history and subtly exposing itself with a twisted resolution that is in some ways almost Shakespearean.The film features an array of respected old Hollywood actors, including John Carradine, Patrick O'Neal, and Walter Able, as well as Mary Woronov as the mayor's daughter, and a variety of fellow Warhol superstars making small appearances as asylum inmates in a key flashback scene.Overall, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a moody and genuinely unnerving slasher film that deserves a wider audience than it has. The nearly incomprehensible print of the film—which also happens to be the most widely circulated—has probably lost it a great deal of viewers, which is understandable on some levels, but beneath the grit and the grime, there is a truly eerie and demented horror film that is far more layered than you'd expect it to be. Oh, and did I mention it has one of the greatest axe murder scenes in movie history? 9/10.

"Silent Night, Bloody Night" is a frustrating film. It manages to set a great mood--chilling and brutal. Yet, it then seems to lose so much momentum late in the film--and left me feeling totally uninterested.When the film begins, you learn that a rich guy died 20 years ago under mysterious circumstances. In the meantime, his home has sat abandoned until recently when his son declares that he's going to sell the place. Soon after his attorney arrives in town to finalize the deal, folks start getting hacked to pieces (the first few are amazingly realistic). All this worked well. However, to explain who it was and how it was, the film had a HUGE and awkward flashback sequence that seemed to take up the last third of the movie!! Surely all this could have been done in a much more straight forward and less sloppy manner. And, as a result the film left me wondering if perhaps a re-write might have resulted in this becoming a much more popular and worthy movie. As it is, I'd only recommend it to die-hard horror fans or folks wanting to see a young Mary Waronov in a major role.

Extremely campy, low-budget, Christmas cult horror flick from the early 70's? I'll take it. Take it for what it is though, which is a cultastic piece of low-budget goodness. The film moves along slowly for the first half hour or so, but by the middle of the film, things begin to pick up speed. None of our players are very notable, with the exception of the beautiful Mary Woronov, James Patterson, and the wonderful John Carradine, who doesn't utter a single word throughout the entire film.The film is mostly visual, and is pretty scarce on every character's dialogue for most of the film, but the visual telling of the story is nice and atmospheric, and the diminished quality of the 16mm print only adds to the film's nostalgic feel. The ending of the film begins to drag again, but like I said, it is well-photographed and still manages to keep you intrigued enough to finally see the mystery solved. The long flashback sequence near the end is very Warholian, which makes sense when we realize that a lot of these people were involved with Warhol during his Factory days in the 1960's, and the end even manages to look a little 'Night Of The Living Dead' at times. And dare I say that I might possibly be able to pick out some images and some storyline that may have inspired John Carpenter to write 'Halloween' a few years down the road? In all, it is definitely well-written, and worth watching for the holidays, to get your fill of Christmas horror.SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT -----7/10.

If you like those Gothic style movies that take place in old houses full of creepy sounds and secret mysteries, then this is the film for you.Old man Butler (Philip Bruns) is burned to death, and years later his house is being sold by his grandson (James Patterson). This was Patterson's last film as he dies at the age of 40 two years before it was released.As news of the sale is announced, a patient escapes from a local mental hospital, and the town is given the chance to buy it. Why do they want it Does it have something to do with the escaped patient.Naturally, there are lots of deaths, and lots of secrets. Trying to figure out who is doing the killing will give you nightmares.Grab the popcorn and your favorite partner and give it a whirl.