PopHorror Let's Get Scared
What’s Christmas without presents, candy canes and a little vigilante justice served in a Santa suit?
From writer/director Mike P. Nelson comes Silent Night, Deadly Night, a reimagining of Charles Sellier’s controversial classic from 1984 [our review]. After witnessing his parents’ brutal murder at the hands of a man dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve, Billy (Rohan Campbell, Halloween Ends 2022) grows up to deliver an annual spree of holiday violence…all with the help of a mysterious voice in his head named Charlie.
Donning a Santa costume himself, he embarks on a blood-soaked quest for retribution against the wrongdoers of the world. However, this quest collides with love, as Pam (Ruby Modine, Shameless 2016) challenges him to confront his darkness, all while battling inner demons of her own (she may have almost bitten a kid’s nose back in middle school).
Ahead of the film’s release in theaters on Dec. 12, PopHorror caught up with Modine and Nelson to discuss Pam’s contrasting personalities (and how fun it was to bring that to life), the unique bond between Billy and Charlie, and what sets this version apart from its predecessor.
PopHorror: Ruby, I’d love to start with you. Pam has such extreme emotional range. She’s super sweet one moment and then the next second, she’s basically feral. What was the most fun part about tapping into those two very different personalities? And did you collaborate at all with Mike on those more unhinged moments?
Ruby Modine: Oh, yes! There was so much collaboration not only between Mike and I, but with Rohan as well. It was really fun going in between the both of them. And I mean, we all have a little bit of Pam inside of us, right? We all have a little bit of feral and peace, this and that. But I just love that she loves so ferociously and she’s willing to protect the people that she loves more than anything. That’s what I really love about her. And in regards to collaborating with Mike, it was either, “Maybe take it back a bit,” or, “No, go really fucking big in this take.” So I had so much fun playing with all of it.
PopHorror: I feel like most of us wish we could bite someone’s nose off some days!
Ruby Modine: Oh, yeah! Or march across the skating rink and beat up a bully.
PopHorror: Exactly! Mike — I really enjoyed the relationship between Billy and Charlie, the voice in his head. What inspired that dynamic? At times, it’s almost like his buddy. While watching it, I never thought, “Oh, this guy’s crazy, he’s hearing voices.” It just felt natural.
Mike P. Nelson: That was something that was important from the very first rendition of the draft. That was the story. The story was Billy and Charlie. That’s what came first. For me, I loved sort of not explaining it, letting it happen and letting it kind of be a mystery. What’s going on? Who’s he talking to? It’s been so fun getting those reactions from people because I’m like, “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to be asking.” Because I promise you, if you hang in there, it’ll pay off. And you’re right — there is something more there. There is actually a relationship. I had not really seen a movie where you had a character with a voice in his head and there was a true relationship, and a caring one at that. That, to me, was really special.
That was something that was really fun to play with. It was really fun on set because it was usually me off camera saying Charlie’s lines because I knew sort of how I wanted Charlie to act, so I was giving Rohan a lot of stuff. And he, of course, came and fought right back and it was great. Then playing with Mark Acheson [Alone in the Dark 2005], who came in and was Charlie, he had a blast when we watched the final cut of the movie together and he could understand Billy’s psychosis and arc. He could play with that and really see when he needed to be tender and when he needed to be business.
PopHorror: Obviously, many people are familiar with the original Silent Night, Deadly Night from 1984. For anyone who watches this reimagining of it, what do you hope stands out?
Ruby Modine: It’s such a unique take on the original film because of Mike.
Mike P. Nelson: That’s exactly it. I wanted it to feel like its own thing. We do callbacks and I wanted to make it feel like a Silent Night, Deadly Night, but at the same time, I needed it to feel like a fresh movie. I needed it to feel like its own thing, so that was really important. And I wanted to make a Christmas horror movie that is about people dealing with their demons and there is some dark subject matter, but it’s also fun and you can’t help but love following these people. I find that to be something that I miss in a lot of Christmas horror — everybody’s so God dang dysfunctional that I have a hard time connecting with anybody. But I wanted to do something in which you could have people with this dysfunction, with a voice in their head telling them to kill people, yet you’re like, “I love them and I want to be with them.” That, to me, is part of Christmas. You want to be with people, you want to enjoy people, you want to be lovey and cozy and warm. And so there needed to be that aspect to the story amidst all the carnage.
Thanks for speaking with us, Ruby and Mike! Silent Night, Deadly Night is in theaters Dec. 12.
