Sunday, April 27, 2008

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)


Director: Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
Writer: Paul Caimi (story), Michael Hickey (screenplay)

Thirteen years ago, Billy witnessed his parents' brutal murdered at the hands madman dressed as Santa Claus. Now it's Christmas at the toy store where he works and they need someone to dress as the jolliest man in the world. Santa has more than lumps of coal in mind for anyone on his naughty list.

Unlike my sisters, Christmas is not my favorite holiday. I only look forward to it as a means to spend time with my family, but other than that, I could care less. Silent Night, Dead Night is my kind of slasher movie because it upends all that we hold dear about that holiday. It comes as no great surprise that the film met with outrage when it was first released. This is a seriously disturbed flick, but it also works on a kind of bent logic.

When he's eight, Billy’s parents take him and his baby brother to visit their supposedly comatose grandfather in a nursing home. Once Billy's parents leave him along with grandpa, gramps has some twisted news for Billy about Santa Claus. Grandpa warns Billy that Santa only brings presents to children who haven't done anything bad ALL year and punishes naughty children. One little slip-up and you're toast. Across town, a man dressed as Santa robs a convenience store and kills the clerk. He then feigns a breakdown to hold up Billy's folks. When they try to escape, Santa shoots at the car, killing the father. Billy jumps out of the car to hide in a ditch as Santa pulls mom out of the car, presumably to rape her. When she fights back, Billy witnesses Santa slash his mother's throat.

Billy and his baby brother Ricky are sent to an orphanage run by nuns. Every Christmas the boy falls into a funk that produces morbid drawings and anxiety around Christmas images, especially Santa Claus. When he accidentally sees a teenage couple having sex and Mother Superior's punishment, he is scarred further. Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick) is the only person who understands the trauma he has endured.

When he's 18 and obviously been pumping iron in the nun's gym, Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) takes a job as a stock clerk at Ira's Toys. There he meets the attractive Pamela (Toni Nero) and the wiseass Andy (Randy Strumpf). When Christmas rolls around, the man hired by the store to play Santa suffers a broken ankle and a replacement is needed. Of course it's Billy.

At the Chrsitmas party Billy, still in the Santa costume, sees Pamela go off the stockroom with Andy and follows. When he sees Andy attempt to rape Pamela, Billy flashes back to his mother's murder and that when the killing starts. First Andy with a string of lights, then anyone unlucky enough to get in Santa's way. Axes, bow and arrow, a mounted deer's head, anything he can use.
Like any great 80s slasher flick, the kills are the main draw. "How are the kids going to get it this time?" is what I wondered every time I saw another installment of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, or Halloween. And the body count is impressive here; inventive deaths and a few fun twists. I wasn't surprised about the movie's backlash. I mean, it's a guy dressed as Santa, an icon of peace and generosity, destroying just about everyone in his path. But you can't take it too seriously. It's a movie after all; it's fiction. The DVD release features comments from angry parents and critics, and they're great to read. Even during the slasher boom of the 80s, I assume Slight Night, Deadly Night (a.k.a. Slayride) got an "R"-rating. As strong as my feelings about the MPAA and rating system are, I wonder what kind of irresponsible parent would let their child watch this kind of movie sight unseen. But that's a whole other soapbox.

In closing, Silent Night, Deadly Night is a fun holiday romp for those who have the right sense of humor about it. Its ridiculousness (e.g. the deer antler death) trumps any serious damage it might inflict. It's slasher camp of the highest degree and worth checking out.

Romper Stomper (1992)


Director: Geoffrey Wright
Writer: Geoffrey Wright

I've always been touch-and-go with Russell Crowe. He was great in L.A. Confidential (1997) but I think we could have all done without A Beautiful Mind (2001). Then there's an early film he made while still in his native Australia: Romper Stomper. The film centers around Neo-Nazi white-supremicists in early 1990s Australia led by the brutal Hando (Russell Crowe). When his right-hand man Davey (Daniel Pollack) starts to question his role in the group, falls for Hando's girl Gabe (Jacquline McKenzie), and local Vietnamese youths launch a retaliation, the group's fragile existence is ruptured.

Crowe is a force to be reckoned with in Romper Stomper. The same ferocity that teems below the surface many of Crowe's performances is at full tilt here. He seethes with menace not just from the violence he's capable of, displayed in the opening scene, but also the charm he exudes when around his group. He's in total control of all those who associate with him and doles out paternalist punishment accordingly. What makes Hando such a terrifying character is his utter devotion to his ideology. His entire existence is connected to promoting his hate-filled agenda.

The film has connections to other white supremacist-themed films like American History X (1998) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) to lesser extent. My Beautiful Laundrette is as much a love story between Omar and Johnny as it is about the cultural rift between the immigrant Pakistani population and extreme right-wing Britons. In American History X, Derek changes his ways while in prison and wants to save his younger brother from a similar fate. Where Romper Stomper departs is the hopelessness of Hando. He cannot change nor will he.
The only hope for change is Davey. Pollack brings a brooding sensitivity to the otherwise bleak scenario. During the interracial fight set piece, the Vietnamese youths outnumbering the skinheads who retreat to their warehouse lair. It's there that Davey sees Hando for the jingoist psychopath he is, willing to take on all other Vietnamese kids by himself. What few skinheads remains of the group abandon the warehouse and hole up in another. Gabe and Davey leave the new hideout as the group begins to unravel. Once the police arrive, tipped off by Gabe, Hando retreats, leaving his follows to either arrest or death. He enlists Davey and Gabe’s help to escape, killing a gas station attendant in the process.

The film's conclusion is Hando's last shot at solidarity with Davey, demanding that they ditch Gabe. She in turns sets their stolen car on fire and admits to calling the police on Hando's group, prompting his full-blown wrath. Davey is forced to choose between his ideals (Hando) and a way out of that lifestyle (Gabe).

While it is obvious that the politics professed by Hando do not work, the film offers no viable solution to the cultural rift. That is where the strength and power of the film comes from, the desperation of the situation. While American History X has a tragic but hopeful ending, Romper Stomper is as nihilistic at the end as it was at the beginning.