Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Silent Night Deadly Night, Silent Night Deadly Night (2025)

Silent Night, Deadly Night: Modine, Director on Holiday Slasher Remake

Silent Night, Deadly Night director Mike P. Nelson & star Ruby Modine spoke to us about remaking holiday slasher classic, legacy & more.

The original 1984 Christmas classic Silent Night, Deadly Night has not only become one of the best holiday horror films of all time with tons of quotable lines, but it's also spawned a franchise with four sequels, a 2012 loose remake from Anchor Bay Films in the shortened Silent Night, and now a remake from Cineverse courtesy of writer-director Mike P. Nelson (V/H/S/85). The film follows Billy Campbell (Rohan Campbell), a serial killer triggered by the murder of his parents, who goes on a spree every Christmas holiday season with a voice in his head (Mark Acheson) guiding him to his deserved "naughty" victims, who spread misery throughout the season, as he carries his duties while donning his Santa suit and trusty axe. In his travels, he meets Pamela "Pam" Sims (Ruby Modine), a store clerk with a chip on her shoulder. Nelson and Modine spoke to Bleeding Cool about remaking the film for a new generation, developing Billy-Pam's chemistry, and balancing the spirit of the franchise to attract old and new fans.

Silent Night, Deadly Night Director Mike Nelson and Star Ruby Modine on Billy Campbell's Bloody Holiday Journey

Mike, what intrigued you about the original Silent Night, Deadly Night and tackling this remake for a new generation, and what made Cineverse a perfect partner?

Nelson: wanted to dive into this. I wanted to make something that felt like a Silent Night, Deadly Night movie, but was its own. I wanted to reintroduce people to the world to my version of Billy Chapman. Without just redoing the original, I wanted to surprise people. I wanted to take them on a ride that made us stand up and cheer for Billy and let the entire movie be about how he got into this situation in the first place. That's through him meeting Pam, and from kill to kill. We learn a great deal about him through his connection with Pam, and that's how the whole story unfolds for me. That is the mystery, fun, and twist of it, that is where I hope that I can pull people into this new retelling.

In terms of Cineverse, they had the property. (EP) Brad Miska came to me and was like, "Do you have a take?" I said, "Give me a week." I came back to them with this zany idea, and everybody fell in love with it. Again, that's a testament to having great characters, a story with heart, and a great body count.

Ruby, what drew you to the project, and how familiar were you with the original and the franchise?

Modine: I actually wasn't familiar with it until after I read Mike's script, and obviously, I then entered into the world of Silent Night, Deadly Night, and was so satisfied and excited that I was watching the films with Mike's script in front of me, and to know that I would be a part of it is just legendary.

Mike, what made Rowan perfect to play Billy, pairing him up with Mike as the voice of Charlie?

Nelson: Well, I had a discussion with one of our executive producers, Steven Schneider, and he had done a project with Rowan, and we were trying to figure out how we were trying to crack the nut that is Billy on the script. Who is this guy? And Steven was like, "What do you think of Rowan Campbell?" I was like, "Oh my god, I love him in Halloween Ends. He was fantastic! You think he'd read it?" He goes, "I can text him right now to see if he'll do it." I was like, "All right!" He read the script, we had a call, that was that, and he was in. That was a cool moment.

Ruby, how did you like playing off that dynamic with him? Also, I enjoyed the bit of foreshadowing in here at the beginning among your characters, early in the film

Modine: Acting with Rowan was seamless, so to speak, because he's an amazing artist and to be able to collaborate with him and help build the characters together was really unique and quite fun, because if we weren't on set with Mike, we were running lines together, creating secrets, backgrounds, and backstories, so it was collaborative and made it really fun and easy to live in that world together.

Nelson: We had way too much fun. Let's just put it that way: "Way too much fun!" It felt like an illegal amount of fun.

Mike, with your incarnation, were there things that were too tempting to pull from the previous films in terms of Easter Eggs that you wanted you felt you could have included there, or was it more important that this stand on its own?

Nelson: There was a bit of importance, like I wanted to pull a little bit of DNA from the original, first and foremost. I have fun with that as a genre fan, as a fan of this type of movie. I also love seeing when something is remade, the little nods, winks, and little Easter eggs. That stuff is a lot of fun, but the most important thing is that I was making something original, something that would surprise people, and take them aback. Like, "I was not expecting this. Okay, let's see what happens now." Honestly, my main goal is to give something to the audience, a movie that they think they know the story, and it goes in a dramatically different direction, and that's where the fun is.

Silent Night, Deadly Night, which also stars David Lawrence Brown and David Tomlinson, is available in theaters on December 12th.

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