A child witnesses his parents’ murder by a man in a Santa suit. Years later, as an adult, he dons a Santa costume himself and embarks on a violent quest for retribution against those responsible for the traumatic event from his childhood. A film by Mike P. Nelson, starring Rohan Campbell, Ruby Modine, David Lawrence Brown, David Tomlinson, and Mark Acheson.

On Christmas Eve, young Billy Chapman (Logan Sawyer) waits in the reception area of a retirement home with his mother Tara (Krystle Snow). He catches a janitor, Charlie (Mark Acheson), staring at her. Billy glances at his mother, then back. The janitor is now staring straight at him. Unnerved, Billy drops his gaze. When he looks up moments later, Charlie is gone.

Billy’s father Geoffrey (Erik Athavale) returns with a brown envelope, visibly nervous. Tara asks if he got it done, presumably referring to some important documents that need Billy’s grandfather’s (Darren Felbel) signature. Billy asks if he can visit his grandpa before they leave. Geoffrey agrees, and Billy heads down the hall to his grandfather’s room.

Billy’s grandpa tells him that good boys get good things, but naughty boys get punished. Santa is always watching. Suddenly, his grandpa starts coughing. It gets worse, more violent. He coughs up blood and dies.

As they drive home, Tara seems upset that Billy witnessed his grandfather’s death. She asks how many pills grandpa was on. Geoffrey can’t remember, but thinks grandpa must’ve had a bad reaction with his other meds. Billy sits quietly in the back, listening as his mother focuses on whether grandpa signed everything before dying.

At a red light, a car rear-ends them. Geoffrey gets out to exchange insurance information. The other driver pulls a shotgun and blasts Geoffrey in the face. The man steps out wearing a Santa suit. He shoots Tara next. Billy somehow survives.

Years later on December 20, adult Billy (Rohan Campbell) jolts awake in a motel room from his recurring nightmare of the night his parents were killed. A voice in his head urges him to hurry up and finish what he needs to do. This isn’t their room. He needs to get out. Billy grabs a wooden-bound book and takes it to the bathroom. He presses his finger into a dead body’s wound and smears the blood under the number 20 in the book.

Billy slips past a police officer and another man searching for the Christmas tree grower whose body is in the bathroom. He hops on a bus and eventually arrives in the town of Hackett. The voice in his head tries to convince him to look around, insisting that small towns have lots of secrets. Billy ignores it. At a local diner, Billy notices Pamela Sims (Ruby Modine), a young woman who works at a nearby gift shop called Ida’s Trinket Tree.

Billy decides to pursue Pamela even though the voice warns him it never ends well. Without the voice’s guidance, his first attempt to impress her fails miserably. Frustrated, Billy sees a help wanted sign in the shop window and applies for a stocker job. Beside it is a missing person flyer for a kid named Cody Ruminsky.

The shop owner, Dean Sims (David Lawrence Brown), hires Billy. He needs extra help during the holidays now that it’s just him and his daughter running the place. Billy learns that Pamela is Dean’s daughter. Dean also arranges for Billy to stay at Rebecca’s hotel. Rebecca (Marina Stephenson Kerr) mentions that she and Dean used to date before he met his wife Ida.

On December 21, Billy tenses when he sees George Vilmo (Tom Young), an older regular who can’t keep his hands off Pamela. The voice in Billy’s head marks him as the next target for tonight. Billy’s vision suddenly fills with flashes of violence and blood. That night, Billy slips into George’s home wearing a Santa costume and kills him with an axe. He smears George’s blood beneath the number 21 in the book.

A flashback reveals what happened the night Billy’s parents were murdered. His mother fought the man in the Santa suit and badly wounded him. The attacker was Charlie, the janitor from the retirement home. As Charlie bled out, he reached for young Billy. An unseen force drew the boy forward. When Billy grasped Charlie’s hand, the dying man’s spirit passed into him.

Charlie has inhabited Billy’s mind ever since. Billy gained a cursed gift: he can see people’s darkest secrets through Charlie’s perception. Charlie chooses the targets and instructs Billy how to kill them. Every year, Billy must claim 24 victims over the 24 days before Christmas, marking each date in his advent calendar with their blood. If Billy misses a kill on any day, an innocent person dies in that victim’s place.

Pamela’s ex-boyfriend Max Benedict (David Tomlinson) grows suspicious of Billy after Pamela refuses to give him a second chance. Now she and her father both seem charmed by the new hire. The next day, George’s daughter and grandson discover his body. Police also find George’s wife rolled up in a rug, hidden in a crawl space in the basement. According to the autopsy, George stabbed her to death.

Written and directed by American filmmaker Mike P. Nelson, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is a Christmas slasher following a ritualistic serial killer who possesses a supernatural power that lets him see his victims’ darkest secrets and judge them worthy of death. The plot is intriguing. Though the killer isn’t granted superhuman abilities like super strength or instant healing, he remains mortal and can be killed.

Rohan Campbell delivers a believable performance as Billy Chapman, a young man with a traumatic past haunted by his parents’ death. I love how the story unfolds, walking a thin line between delusional psychopath and genuine supernatural possession. Does Billy actually have a spirit companion inside him, or is he just insane? The film shows a flashback confirming what really happened, which removes the ambiguity. I would’ve preferred leaving that question open.

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SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT premiered at Fantastic Fest on 21 September 2025. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 12 December.