Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Billy has not had a great life.  As a small child, he witnessed his parents murders by a man dressed up as Santa Claus.  Then he and little brother Ricky end up in an orphanage run by a cruel nun overlord, who thinks its a good idea to make Billy sit on Santa's lap.  Yes, nothing like facing your fears by being forcibly dragged to the source of your trauma.

Billy grows up to be a strapping young lad who can lift boxes and move heavy things from here to there.  So the kind, supportive, well meaning, but temporarily brain dead nun at the orphanage helps Billy get a job... at a toy store. Oh damn, that doesn't seem like the best idea.

While Billy was a model employee, the holiday season makes him ill at ease, what with Santa seeing kids in the front of the store. Luckily Billy spends most of his time in the stock room. Well at least he does until the temp playing Santa hurts himself and Billy gets drafted as the new Santa.  As is expected with Santa trauma, Billy eventually starts a-killing adults who he deems naughty.

When this movie came out, parents went crazy.  There were protests at theaters and I believe the film was pulled before it's run was up.  I actually had to walk through a line of protesters to get into the theater.  I can still remember people with protest signs shouting that I shouldn't go into the theater.  The local news even had a feature on the protest.

The acting isn't the greatest, but I still like this movie - except for the mothers death scene.   That really disturbed me when I first saw it and it still isn't something I want to see.

Can't wait to watch Part Two again, which I also saw at the theater.  At the time, I was ticked off that a lot of it was footage from the first movie.  But Rickys horrible, horrible acting won me over.