‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Reboot In the Works For 2022 Release. And Roy Wood Jr. gave a compelling breakdown of who hates who around the world. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. After two weeks in theaters, TriStar pulled the plug on Night's release. Coca-Cola, known for its family friendly image, was under fire from family groups for investing in such unwholesome fare as adult-themed TV shows, and, you guessed it, Silent Night Deadly Night. Sitemap | The controversial film that had family values watchdogs in a frenzy in the ’80s, Silent Night, Deadly Night, is getting a reboot from the studio behind Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Protesters picketed theaters while singing Christmas carols. Dr. Fauci Tells Stephen Colbert He Can’t Go Clubbing Yet. The more plausible explanation is that Tri-Star (and likely its corporate ownership, which also included Coca-Cola) decided the picture wasn’t worth the trouble. Share. The distributor did acquiesce to protests by pulling the TV spots after the first week — but vice-president of Marketing Steve Randall told the New York Times, “We never planned to run the ads past the weekend, at least not until we saw how the picture did” — but pushed back against the commercial’s backlash, with Tri-Star VP David Rosenfeld sneering, “They didn’t complain about the commercials for Friday the 13th, which depicts 13 murders in the space of a minute.”, That the two best-known film critics in the country hated the movie — Gene Siskel deemed it, alongside the notorious I Spit on Your Grave, as “one of the two most contestable films I’ve ever seen” — was unsurprising. ), and partly the screams of parents, teachers, and politicians horrified at the exploitation of the iconic holiday figure in service of a cheapjack slasher movie, Silent Night, Deadly Night‘s media frenzy was the talk of late 1984’s movie … Copy link. But thanks to hype and controversy Silent Night, Deadly Night garnered cult status which ultimately helped it become a popular rental on VHS. Like the sitcom-superhero show itself, Schaeffer’s work on. "Deadly Night wasn't the first killer-Santa film — that credit goes to 1972's Tales From the Crypt starring Joan Collins," says author Jeffrey Miller, who's writing a book about Christmas horror films. Silent Night Deadly Night premiered the same opening weekend as a Nightmare on Elm Street and outgrossed the film with the weekend box office. All rights reserved. Go. Directed by Justin Beahm. Shopping. With Perry Botkin Jr., Michael Hickey, Scott Schneid, Michael Spence. Info. The official line, per Variety, “is that the picture has been a box office disappointment,” but that hardly scans; its opening weekend gross was more than enough to cover its production budget, and its eighth place opening was two spots ahead of another new horror film, a little something titled A Nightmare on Elm Street. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. But the public outcry was too much for TriStar. Tap to unmute. AdChoices That film is set for a release in the fall of 2021 and if all goes well with the sale for the rebooted Silent Night, Deadly Night, the movie should be ready to be unwrapped in 2022. Menu. Los Angeles, California ⎯ March 2, 2021 – Orwo Studios and Black Hanger Studios (JEEPERS CREEPERS: REBORN) announced today that they have acquired the remake rights to the seminal slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night. Silent Night, Deadly Night wasn’t even the only Christmas horror movie of 1984; that December would see the U.S. and U.K. bows of the British Santa slasher Don’t Open ‘Till Christmas. Log in or link your magazine subscription, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, French Actress Dons Donkey Costume, Strips Nude in César Awards Demonstration, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Reportedly Split, Ending Two-Year Engagement. Sure, it dropped big in week two, but that’s hardly unique: the Jon Cryer comedy No Small Affair, which opened the same week, dropped 43 percent in week two. So why did none of those movies cause the uproar Silent Night, Deadly Night did? The controversial film that had family values watchdogs in a frenzy in the ’80s, Silent Night, Deadly Night, is getting a reboot from the studio behind Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Already a subscriber? ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Reboot In the Works For 2022 Release. 80s horror classic, Silent Night, Deadly Night has a remake in the works. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. Horror fans had previously been gifted Silent Night, Bloody Night and the anthology film Tales From the Crypt (both 1972), Christmas Evil and To All a Goodnight (1980), The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982), and most notably, Bob Clark’s 1974 Canadian film Black Christmas, which many have pinpointed as an unacknowledged inspiration for Halloween. Season 13 has found its footing again with a satisfying spin on a dependable challenge and some high-stakes shake-ups. We are working through some things.”, The Future Is Ours to See, Now That Kaley Cuoco Is Set to Play Doris Day. Maya Sharma Is More of a Passion Pit Than a Vampire Weekend. 10:30 AM PST 12/14/2019 Up Next. © 2021 Vox Media, LLC. Silent Night, Deadly Night was acquired for distribution by TriStar Pictures in 1984, and was released theatrically on November 9, 1984. The controversial '84 slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night is getting a reboot from the studio behind Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. The Controversy Begins. The parties finally made a deal, ironically enough, the week before Christmas of 1984; the new distributor, Aquarius Film Releasing, reissued the film to theaters (including out west) in May of 1985, with ads playing down Santa and playing up the controversy. We caught up with the comedian on Instagram Live today. The Silent Night Deadly Night controversy continued even after it was pulled. Before being pulled from theaters, it grossed over $2.4 million in its first 10 days of release. Slasher films were traditionally poorly reviewed (which rarely impacted the box office anyway), and Silent Night was no exception; Variety, one of the few outlets to bother reviewing it at all, deemed it “a nasty bit of business” that was “quite (unintentionally) hilarious.” But the duo didn’t just review Silent Night on their syndicated At the Movies program — they devoted an “X-Ray,” their in-depth commentary segment, to the movie, in which Siskel not only attacked the ads (“the showing of Santa with an axe on free TV in commercials is sick, and sleazy, and mean-spirited”) but called out the makers of the movie by name. Who Should (and Will) Win at the 2021 Grammy Awards? “Tri-Star Pictures acknowledged some doubt as to whether Silent Night, Deadly Night … will reach the west coast,” Variety reported on November 21, following a second weekend in which grosses dropped 45 percent. A wake for the forward-thinking pop producer, featuring family, friends, collaborators, and followers. Yielding to protesters, the Bronx theater pulled the film after its first week, while two chains in Montana announced that they would not show the film when it moved west (it initially opened only in Midwest and Northeast markets). The problem was that someone in the marketing department at TriStar Pictures (which acquired the low-budget film from independent producer Ira Barmak) scheduled those TV spots on weekend, daytime hours — most prominently, during a Saturday afternoon Green Bay Packers football game. When Silent Night, Deadly Night hit home video in 1986, it (predictably) finally found its audience — one that took not only to the film’s tawdry approach and unapologetic brutality, but the “forbidden fruit” air it had acquired over the previous two years. ICONIC HORROR FILM SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT SLATED FOR REBOOT Feature film will be coming down the chimney in 2022. "But it took naughty to new levels of not nice. Tri-Star abandoned Silent Night before it even made it to the west coast, and spent weeks fighting producer Ira Barmak’s efforts to buy back domestic distribution rights to the picture. FACEBOOK The film was re-released a year later with a brand new marketing strategy, one that held back on the violent visuals and instead wore the controversy … It is worth remembering that SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was awarded an 'R' rating by the MPAA – the body that had cracked down on violence in slasher movies since the controversy over FRIDAY THE 13TH. The $1 million production had been doing decent, if not exceptional, business. “Now try and survive Christmas.” The marketing was admirable in its transparency. The Boston Globe yanked the film’s newspaper ads, which featured the ax-wielding arm of a Santa on his way down the chimney. The studio's first release was the Oscar-nominated The Natural, starring Robert Redford. TriStar Pictures acquired Silent Night, Deadly Night from indie film producer Ira Barmak ( The ABC Afternoon Playbreak TV series) and targeted a November, 1984 release. Just in time for the holidays! by Horror. Black Christmas, the holiday horror film out Dec. 13, appears headed for a smoother release than its genre predecessor Silent Night, Deadly Night received in 1984. However, the film received harsh criticism from the public, who believed it to be an attack on Christmas. On opening weekend, Silent Night, Deadly Night was in eighth place with a $1.4 million gross; the second weekend it made $782,600. Documentary on the cult Christmas horror classic Silent Night, Deadly Night. (One irony is that seven years earlier, Sellier created NBC's family-friendly The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.). “You people have nothing to be proud of, even if you made a few bucks off of all the negative publicity,” he announced, looking squarely into the camera. Haberler. Despite its controversial start, Deadly Night managed to generate four sequels and one remake, but none of them "slayed" the way the first one did. Tilda Swinton wears gorgeous outfits and acts out in the Spanish director’s adaptation of the Jean Cocteau play. The story concerns a young man named Billy, who suffers from posttraumatic stress The controversial '84 slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night is getting a reboot from the studio behind Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Protests at theaters showing the film occurred throughout the nation. Terms of Use | | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Corinne Masiero protested pandemic closures during Friday’s ceremony. Concerned parents were outraged by the idea of a killer Santa Claus and the subsequent marketing materials the film produced; it remains unclear if those vocal detractors ever took the time to view the film in question. But Siskel also took pains to name the film’s high-profile distributor, twice: “Tri-Star Pictures, co-owned by Columbia Pictures, CBS, and Home Box Office. But its heat had cooled. The controversial '84 slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night is getting a reboot from the studio behind Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Black Christmas, the holiday horror film out Dec. 13, appears headed for a smoother release than its genre predecessor Silent Night, Deadly Night received in 1984. In a limited series for Warner Bros. Television. By admin On Mar 2, 2021. Bill Higgins EMAIL ME. Now that PGA, DGA, and BAFTA have weighed in, who are we picking? TWITTER Orwo Studios and Black Hanger Studios will be working with the original film’s producers Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead of Wonderwheel Entertainment to hopefully bring the project to screens in 2022 according … But it was hard to do that when Gene Siskel was on television, talking about your “blood money.”. In response to the uproar, New York TV station WPIX moved the commercials to late-night slots, while stations in Albany and Boston pulled them altogether. “Protests flooded Milwaukee radio and TV stations, most from a group calling itself Citizens Against Movie Madness, led by two local mothers.” The group organized an opening-day protest at the city’s Grand Theater; similar protests greeted the picture’s debut that week at the Interboro Quad Theater in the Bronx and the RKO Kingsway Theater in Coney Island. EXCLUSIVE: Orwo Studios and Black Hanger Studios (Jeepers Creepers: Reborn) have acquired remake rights to controversial 1984 slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night, which Orwo is beginning sales … It wasn’t even the first Yuletide slasher movie. Here’s a not-so-controversial statement: Silent Night, Deadly Night is not very good. Share. “Your profits truly are blood money.”, Even those name-checks might not have changed Silent Night’s fate — after all, these were obscure exploitation movie-makers, not movers and shakers. Shame on you.”. All rights reserved. (Another slasher film that opened the same weekend was A Nightmare on Elm Street, which went on to become a billion-dollar franchise.) And it wasn’t that Silent Night, Deadly Night broke some sacred taboo. On its opening weekend, the film finished eighth, grossing $1,432,800. Don’t let this hidden Netflix action gem slip through the cracks this weekend. ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Reboot In the Works For 2022 Release. Director Charles Sellier "rings the slay bells with workmanlike competence," it wrote. But it’s often been said that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and that adage was borne out by the opening weekend numbers: in less than 400 theaters, Silent Night, Deadly Night grossed a respectable $1.4 million. 0. “You’ve made it through Halloween,” growled the narrator of the theatrical trailer and TV spot for the 1984 slasher picture Silent Night, Deadly Night. Film critic Gene Siskel read the names of the filmmakers on air and added, "Shame on you! It outgrossed Wes Craven's landmark slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street, which opened the same day (albeit in 235 fewer theaters). Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 1984 American slasher film directed by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter. In addition to receiving negative reviews, it was pulled from theaters a week after its release. The film was released theatrically by TriStar Pictures on November 9, 1984, opening in 398 theaters in the North East and Midwest United States. They carried signs with messages like “Deck the halls with holly, not bodies,” and “Santa’s not a hit man.” Denise Giordano, who organized the Brooklyn protest, told the New York Daily News, “The movie violates everything I believe in; it’s taking the spirit out of Christmas.” Bayport, Long Island, resident Dennis Colasunno told the paper he saw the TV commercial with his three young children, and “it scared the hell out of my kids — this commercial has ruined Christmas for my children.”. ", The Hollywood Reporter wrote that ABC affiliate KETV in Omaha was "besieged by complaints" over the film's primetime advertising. | California Privacy Rights Suddenly, the company’s public pose shifted. Korku filmleri. Today, Silent Night, Deadly Night is best known for the controversy it caused upon its release. Unsurprisingly, Tri-Star announced that it would continue the film’s nationwide distribution, and would not alter its print ads. It is not as if Santa was killed teens with a flick-knife attached to a giant phallus wrapped in tinsel, but the fact that Santa was perceived (albeit wrongly) to be the villain at all was too much to bear for … Most of the objections toward the film were based solely on the marketing campaign, which featured a man in a Santa suit going down a chimney with a bloody axe. That background is necessary to point out, because it's clear that the majority of people who protested the release of Silent Night, Deadly Night back in 1984 hadn't actually seen the film, or were even particularly familiar with its plot. “The response was quick,” Variety reported during the film’s November 1984 opening weekend. Back then, something about a serial killer Santa Claus touched a nerve with the public. This may have also been the reason why Fangoria Films decided to re-release the original film in 2013, which led to the film finally appearing on pay cable channels in 2014. Silent Night, Deadly Night wasn’t even the only Christmas horror movie of 1984; that December would see the U.S. and U.K. bows of the British Santa slasher Don’t Open ‘Till Christmas. It spawned four sequels over five years, most released directly to video, and in 2012, a quasi-remake, titled simply Silent Night, was released to theaters. The hoopla Deadly Night attracted didn't help its reputation for making classy films. “Negative pick-up” deals like this one had allowed respectable studios to reap the financial benefits of disreputable slasher movies for years; Universal acquired the Halloween franchise, Fox picked up Visiting Hours, and the Friday the 13th series, which Paramount acquired after a fierce bidding war with United Artists and Warner Brothers, was one of the studio’s primary profits sources of the 1980s — while keeping the product itself at arm’s length. When the remake, titled Silent Night (2012), was released in 2012, the reaction was the polar opposite of what it was in 1984, with people accepting the concept of a killer wearing a Santa Claus suit. The controversial film that had family values watchdogs in a frenzy in the ’80s, Silent Night, Deadly Night, is getting a reboot from the studio behind . ", THR was one of the few outlets that had anything good to say about what it called "a blood-splattered Christmas present from TriStar Pictures." Since the overwhelming financial success of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, its “special occasion + knife-wielding killer” formula had been eagerly applied to numerous holidays and festivities: New Year’s Evil and Prom Night (1980); My Bloody Valentine, Final Exam, Bloody Birthday, Happy Birthday to Me, Hell Night, Graduation Day, and Home Sweet Home (1981); Tricks or Treats and Honeymoon Horror (1982); and, most of all, the Friday the 13th series, which began in 1980 with installments added, on an almost yearly basis, throughout the decade. Only the first two films were released theatrically, and the loose remake was given a limited theatrical release. That film’s reception would’ve shocked both the 1984 version’s makers and its protesters: it came and went, with nary a peep, in about a week. This story first appeared in the Dec. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Wednesday, March 3, 2021 Search Search. Partly a combination of the widespread rumor that Santa Claus himself was doing the murdering in the movie (I wonder who started that profitable little white lie? Deadline reports that Orwo Studios and Black Hangar Studios have acquired the rights to … To promote the film, TriStar cut a trailer and launched a small screen ad campaign. Unclear who will get the city of Miami in the breakup. The film was released by TriStar Pictures on November 9, 1984, where it received substantial controversy over its promotional material and content, which featured a killer Santa Claus. It appears Christmas has come early this year, as it was announced today that Orwo Studios and Black Hangar Studios UK, the production team behind the fourth installment in the Jeepers Creepers franchise (Jeepers Creeper: Reborn), have acquired the remake rights to the holiday slasher film ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night.’ To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. At its East Coast premiere at the Interboro Quad Theater in The Bronx, New York City, over 10… ... ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Reboot In the Works For 2022 Release. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Didn’t Break Up, They Just Had a Bad Friday, “All the reports are inaccurate. Silent Night, Deadly Night - TV Spot #1. You can’t hit the clubs with the late-night host until we get our threat level lower. Oscar Futures: Our Last, Best Guess at the Nominations. | EU Privacy Preferences. When Silent Night, Deadly Night arrived in 1984, it faced immediate backlash for its killer Santa idea, and the flick was pulled from theaters a week after release. Privacy Policy | You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. Watch later. One year into shutdown, voters are casting ballots for shows they can barely remember — with no awards ceremony in sight. A Theater Critic Reviews a Year Without Theater, “Little did I know that night that I’d go into Manhattan only three times in the next 365 days.”, Will Forte Returns to Drama With Peacock’s Heartrending, Eddie Murphy Saying ‘Everything Is Better’ Won Late Night This Week. “The decision on whether to open on the west coast or not will depend on whether we feel it’s commercially viable,” Rosenfeld told the trade publication, and days later, they made the call, withdrawing the film from release after only two weeks. The answer, it seems, is the aforementioned TV spot, which juxtaposes images of holiday cheer and the beloved opening couplets of Clement Clarke Moore’s “Twas the Night Before Christmas” with the sight of a man in a Santa suit breaking down a door with an ax, pulling a gun, and making people scream: The problem wasn’t that the ad was inaccurate — it is, in fact, quite true to the lurid nature of this scuzzy slasher, in which 8-year-old Billy witnesses the roadside murder of his parents by a deranged killer in a Santa suit, only to snap himself ten years later when his department-store job requires him to dress up as jolly ol’ Saint Nick.