Controversial '80s holiday horror gets (another) Winnipeg reboot

For the second time in 15 years, a controversial 1984 horror film is getting a made-in-Manitoba reboot.

Casting is currently underway for Silent Night, Deadly Night, currently in pre-production from Cineverse, the company that produced the hard-core horror franchise Terrifier, with StudioCanal handling global sales outside North America under their new genre label Sixth Dimension. In Winnipeg, it will be produced under the auspices of new production company Bear Paw Studio, a partnership between local producer/filmmaker Jeremy Torrie and Erik Bernard.

The original film of the same title created a wave of mass consternation in the '80s with its advertising campaign, which depicted a demented axe-wielding Santa climbing down a chimney. At the time, the image of Santa Claus tended to be more sacrosanct in film. 

The reaction to the film was perhaps best exemplified by Gene Siskel. On an episode of Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, the Chicago critic pointedly named the film's distributors, writer and director to shame them.

Of course, the effort to tarnish the film made it more successful than it might have otherwise been. Upon its release, it out-grossed the more revered horror film from the same year, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. (Silent Night, Deadly Night has a major fan in no less than Quentin Tarantino, who called it "the only [holiday horror film] that truly bears a discussion.… I'm a big fan.")

The film was rebooted in 2012 with a shortened title — Silent Night. It was filmed mainly in Winnipeg and Selkirk and produced by Los Angeles-based Richard Saperstein's the Genre Company, in conjunction with local production company Buffalo Gal Pictures, under its in-house genre imprint Insidious Pictures.

That film altered the plot, focusing on a traumatized small town cop (Jaime King) and an unhinged police chief (Malcolm McDowell) attempting to track a psycho in a Santa suit during a seasonal festival in which half the town is wearing Santa costumes. (Winnipeg actor-stuntman Rick Skene played the killer in an unnerving Santa mask.)

The new reboot will be directed by genre up-and-comer Mike P. Nelson (V/H/S/85 and the 2021 reboot Wrong Turn) and will follow the original more closely — no surprise, since it is being produced by Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead, executive producers of the original film, said Torrie, who also highlights producer Jamie R. Thompson. 

"He was the one who put it all together," Torrie said.

"We had the director and the U.S. producers in town a couple weeks ago scouting, so we're forging ahead on that."

Scouting locations included Selkirk, Carman, Stonewall and Steinbach, Torrie said.

The plan for the film is that it will be turned around for a release in late 2025, just in time for the holiday season.

Torrie said he hopes Cineverse follows the release pattern for last year's Terrifier 3.

"They released it in 2,500 theatres and made $90 million US," Torrie said. "That would be huge for us."

Busy spring

It may prove to be a busy spring for film production in Winnipeg.

A previously announced film, purporting to tell the inside story of the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, is likely heading to Winnipeg in May, with an impressive cast that includes John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Mandy Patinkin (The Princess Bride) and Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding).

November 1963: The Killing of a President will be directed by Roland Joffe, who was twice nominated for Oscars, for his work on The Killing Fields (1985) and The Mission (1987).

November 1963's screenwriter is Nicholas Celozzi, the nephew of notorious Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. The story is based on the eyewitness account of Giancana's brother Joseph (Pepe) Giancana, who was with Sam during the two days preceding the 1963 assassination.

Later in 2025, Winnipeg may expect to see yet another blood-stained Santa with the planned sequel to Violent Night (2022), which starred David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the real St. Nick, obliged to return to his bloodthirsty ways when defending a wealthy family from a gang of murderous thieves.