Minnesota Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ (2025), starring Rohan Campbell, Ruby Modine, David Lawrence Brown, David Tomlinson and Mark Acheson

January 13, 2026

by Carla Hay

Ruby Modine and Rohan Campbell in “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Photo courtesy of Cineverse)

“Silent Night, Deadly Night” (2025)

Directed by Mike P. Nelson

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Hackett, Minnesota, the horror film “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (a remake of the 1984 film of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After witnessing his parents getting murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus, a boy grows up to be the same type of murderer.

Culture Audience: “Silent Night, Deadly Night” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching formulaic slasher movies with sluggish pacing and boring characters.

Rohan Campbell in “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Photo courtesy of Cineverse)

The 1984 horror movie “Silent Night, Deadly Night” is so terrible, it’s become a campy classic, mainly because the movie seems to know that it’s trash. The same can’t be said for the disappointing 2025 remake of “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” which takes itself too seriously to be truly entertaining to watch. This overrated slasher remake thinks it’s smarter than it really is, in a dreadfully dull story about a serial killer dressed as Santa Claus. A supernatural spin to the story and a new ending don’t make the kills and the characters any less boring. The acting performances are so tedious and lackluster, it will make viewers cringe from that sinking feeling of watching a time-wasting movie instead of making viewers cringe with terror.

Written and directed by Mike P. Nelson, the 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” is one of several “Silent Night, Deadly Night” movies that haven’t been able to do much with the story except appeal to the lowest common demominator of slasher flicks. The 1984 “Silent Night, Deadly Night” movie (directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and written by Michael Hickey) was based on an unproduced screenplay titled “He Sees You When You’re Sleeping,” written by Paul Caimi. There have been several false reports that Caimi wrote a book titled “Slayride” that was adapted for 1984’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” movie. “Slayride” was actually the original title of Hickey’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” screenplay before it was made into a movie.

The 1984 “Silent Night, Deadly Night” film (which was despised by most critics) spawned several forgettable sequels. The 1984 film had an underlying message about the dangers of untreated mental illness and the damage caused when trying to deny chilhood trauma. The 2025 “Silent Night, Deadly Night” film just makes the story a stereotypical “evil spirit” horror flick. The 2025 “Silent Night, Deadly Night” also takes entirely too long before the troubled protagonist is shown on a killing spree, which doesn’t happen until nearly halfway through the movie.

The 1984 and 2025 “Silent Night, Deadly Night” movies both have the same concept of a boy who witnesses his parents getting murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus, and then the boy grows up to also become a killer dressed as Santa Claus. In both movies, his murder spree is triggered when he is forced to dress as Santa Claus at his retail store job, after the employee who normally wears the Santa costume is unavailable to do it. The 1984 movie told the story in chronological order, while the 2025 movie tells the story in non-chronological order, by having disjointed flashbacks.

The 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” begins in a similar manner to the 1984 version of the movie. A boy named Billy Chapman and his parents visit Billy’s paternal grandfather in a nursing facility. When the parents aren’t in the room, the grandfather warns the boy about Santa Claus being dangerous.

When the boy and his parents are going home in their car, the father (who’s driving) stops the car for a man who is dressed as Santa Claus. The costumed Santa Claus then slaughters the parents in front of the boy. Billy grows up fearing and hating Santa Claus.

In the 1984 movie, at the time of his parents’ murders, Billy is 5 years old in 1971, and he has a younger brother named Richard “Ricky” Chapman, who was a baby at the time of their parents’ murders. The 1984 movie also shows Billy and Ricky during their time in an orphanage in 1974, and then shows what Billy does in 1984, when Billy is 18, the age when he becomes a serial killer.

The Billy Chapman character in the 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” has no siblings, and there are no scenes of his childhood in an orphanage. It’s shown later in the movie that Billy had a foster mother (played by Kristen Sawatzky) after his biological parents were murdered. The movie begins by showing Billy at 8 years old (played by Logan Sawyer) with his biological parents Geoffrey Chapman (played by Erik Athavale) and Tara Chapman (played by Krystle Snow), as they all visit Geoffrey’s unnamed father (played by Darren Felbel) in a nursing home.

The family of three are driving home when they encounter the killer Santa Claus, whose real name is later revealed to be Charlie (played by Mark Acheson), who rear-ends the family’s car before shooting Geoffrey and Tara. In the 1984 movie, the killer Santa Claus got the father to stop the car by pretending to be a stranded motorist with car trouble. The 1984 movie showed 5=year-old Billy escaping into a nearby wooded area, which is why he wasn’t killed.

In the 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” the scenes with adult Billy (played Rohan Campbell), who is in his late 20s, take place between December 20 to December 24 in an unnamed year. Billy as an adult is first seen in a motel bedroom, as he wakes up from a nightmare where he relived the murders of his parents. His childhood is only shown as very quick flashbacks that include a few scenes of teenage Billy (played by Kowen Cadorath) with his foster mother. These short flashbacks are in contrast to the 1984 movie, which goes into detail about misfit Billy’s unhappy childhood in a strict orphanage operated by Catholic nuns.

Unlike the 1984 movie, the 2025 movie shows Billy always hearing the voice of the man who killed his parents. Charlie’s voice can be heard in annoying voiceover narration throughout the movie. The reason for Billy constantly hearing Charlie’s voice is explained in a “reveal” toward the end of the movie. The reason is not schizophrenia but the most obvious supernatural reason why Billy is acting like he is continuing Charlie’s legacy.

At the motel, Billy notices that a state trooper named Max (played by David Tomlinson) and another cop are in the motel’s parking and are looking for him, but they don’t see Billy. It’s soon revealed that Billy has already become a serial killer who is being hunted by police. Billy makes a fast escape and gets on a bus. He ends up in Hackett, Minnesota, where he quickly gets a job at a gift shop owned by a widower named Dean Sims (played by David Lawrence Brown), whose daughter Pamela (played by Ruby Modine) also works in the shop.

Billy got the gift shop job because he stalked Pamela (who’s about the same age as Billy), after seeing her on the bus to Hackett. Billy is completely smitten with her. Pamela knows that Billy is weird and a stalker type, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She half-jokingly warns Billy that her father says Pamela has “explosive personality disorder” because of her tendency to explode with anger.

Pamela isn’t kidding about having a nasty temper: She lands in jail for beating up a boy who bullied her pre-teen nephew at the children’s hockey practice. Billy sees this assault because Pamela invited Billy to go with her to watch this hockey practice. Because Billy is a secret serial killer, Pamela’s violence doesn’t really bother him. “Silent Night, Deadly Night” has a very tepid romance between Billy and Pamela, who do not have believable chemistry together. They are just two emotionally damaged people who are lonely and looking for companionship.

And what a coincidence: Pamela’s ex-boyfriend happens to be state trooper Max, who is at the jail where Pamela is held until she’s released on bail. Another coincidence: A woman named Delphine Anderson (played by Sharon Bajer) was at the hockey practice where Pamela assaulted a boy. Delphine seems to be a concerned citizen. But, of course, she shows up later and reveals a different side to herself.

The gift shop has a tradition of having a Santa Claus meet-and-greet event with local kids. George Vilmo (played by Tom Young) is the employee who usually dresses up as Santa Claus for this event. However, George becomes unavailable this year, so Billy is asked to substitute for George and dress up as Santa Claus. And you know what that means.

Much later, the movie quickly dumps in a backstory for why Billy became a serial killer when he was 17. This backstory should’ve been told much earlier in the film, which makes Billy a hollow mystery for too much of the story. In the 1984 movie, Billy becomes a product of his cruel upbringing and untreated mental illness. As bad as the movie is, the 1984 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” had something to say about systemic failures in child welfare.

The 2025 movie tries to give Billy a more “noble” purpose, by making him a vigilante with supernatural powers. By attempting to portray Billy as a more sympathetic villain, the 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” just dilutes how terrifying this killer is supposed to be to ordinary people who aren’t doing anything wrong. “Silent Night, Deadly Night” also misses many opportunities to incorporate more Santa Claus lore into the story.

The movie also makes the mistake of telegraphing who is going to get killed next because Billy literally envisions the words ordering him to murder whomever the next victim will be. The 2025 version of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” plods along with tedious repetition and no suspense. This movie, which hints at a sequel, is more like a lump of coal than an appealing gift for horror fans.

Cineverse released “Silent Night, Deadly Night” in U.S. cinemas on December 12, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on January 27, 2026. “Silent Night, Deadly Night will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on February 17, 2026.

Review: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,’ starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace and Skeet Ulrich

December 4, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”

Directed by Emma Tammi

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2002 (with a brief flashback to 1982), in the fictional an unnamed city in Minnesota, the horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (a sequel to 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and based on the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game franchise) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man and his 11-year-old sister are pulled back into the horror antics of killer animatronic robots from a defunct family entertainment restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

Culture Audience: “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” franchise, the movie’s headliners, and poorly made, repetitive horror movies that have no surprises.

David Andrew Calvillo, Mckenna Grace and Teo Briones in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (Photo by Ryan Green/Universal Pictures)

The lackluster and sloppily made horror flick “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” only manages to confirm two truths in movies: (1) Most sequels are inferior to the original. (2) Most video game adaptations are terrible. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is just a boring and more incoherent rehash of 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was one of the worst horror movies released by a major studio that year.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” was directed by Emma Tammi and written by Tami, Scott Cawthon (who created the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game series) and Seth Cuddeback. For “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” Tammi returns as director, but the screenplay was only written by Cawthon. This is clearly not a case where the creator of a video game can blame other screenwriters for making awful movie versions of the video game.

Is it necessary to see or know what happened in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie before seeing “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”? Yes. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has several references to spoiler information that was in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. The plot of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is already messy. Anyone who doesn’t know what happened in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie will be even more confused when watching “Five Nights at Freddy 2.”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Minnesota) begins by showing a killing that took place in 1982, at a family entertainment restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which is part of a chain of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza entertainment restaurants that are similar to the real-life Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain. (“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” was actually filmed in Louisiana.) Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza has human-sized animatronic figures of animals, including the company mascot: a bear named Freddy Fazbear.

A girl named Charlotte (played by Audrey Lynn Marie), who’s about 11 or 12 years old, is sitting cross-legged near a trap door in the middle of a stage. Charlotte’s best friend Vanessa (played by Miriam Spumpkin) tries to coax Charlotte away from the trap door and invites Charlotte to sit with Vanessa and her friends. Vanessa tells Charlotte that Charlotte shouldn’t think that Charlotte’s deceased mother is “down there,” as in underneath the trap door. Charlotte seems sad and oblivious to what Vanessa is saying.

Charlotte continues to sit by herself when she sees a boy, who’s about 7 or 8 years old (played Logan Horwitz), being lured outside by someone dressed as a yellow rabbit. Charlotte frantically tells several adults what she just witnessed, but they are dismissive of her. Charlotte decides to take matters into her own hands and try to find the boy herself. She sees the yellow rabbit figure in the restaurant’s kitchen, with his back turned while he is using the sink. The boy is unconscious on the floor.

As Charlotte is carrying the boy out of the kitchen, the Freddy figure sees her, chases after her, and then stabs her. Charlotte staggers wounded onto the stage while the rescued boy runs back to his mother. Charlotte falls into the trap door and is next seen when a human-sized marionette figure (whose face somewhat resembles Billy the Puppet from the “Saw” movies) emerges from the trap door and is carrying Charlotte’s dead body. All the people in the room just stare in silence. It looks as phony and unconvincing as it sounds. The Marionette monster becomes one of the serial killers in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” then fast-forwards 20 years later, to 2002. Vanessa has grown up to be a local police officer named Vanessa Shelly (played by Elizabeth Lail), who has recovered from the injuries that she received in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, which took place in the year 2000. As already revealed in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, Vanessa is the daughter of William Afton (played by Matthew Lillard), a serial killer of children in the 1980s. William would lure his victims from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza while he was dressed as a character named Yellow Rabbit. (It’s the same murderer who killed Charlotte.) William appears in a few hallucinations and in a brief dream sequence in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

In the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, the souls of William’s victims haunted the killer animatronic toys at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which shut down back in the early 1980s, when kids started disappearing from there. A financially struggling young man named Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson) took a job as a security guard at the shuttered and abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike’s parents are deceased, so he is the guardian of his younger sister Abby Schmidt (played by Piper Rubio), who was 9 years old in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. Mike and Abby discovered the secrets of the animatronic toys that came to life.

Abby grew emotionally attached to the animatronic toys that included Freddy (voiced by Kellen Goff), who makes his return in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.” “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2″ has also has these animatronic toys that go on a murderous rampage with Freddy and The Marionette: yellow chicken Chica (voiced by Megan Fox); red pirate fox Foxy (also voiced by Goff); and blue rabbit Bonnie (voiced by Matthew Patrick). In Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” Abby (who is now 11 years old) misses interacting with her animatronic “friends,” so she secretly attempts to revive them.

And what a coincidence: Abby (who is a student at East Lake Middle School) is learning robotics in her science class, which has a mean-spirited teacher named Mr. Berg (played by Wayne Knight), whose fate in the movie can easily be predicted. A lot of kids in the community want to go to a Fazfest event that is a morbid tribute to the animatronic toys from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mr. Berg has strictly forbidden his students from going to Fazfest, which is taking place at the same time as the East Lake Middle School science fair that Mr. Berg is requiring the students to attend. For the past three years, Mr. Berg has been the teacher of the class that wins the science fair’s competition, and he wants to win again this year.

Meanwhile, three teenagers who have a TV show called “Spectral Scoopers” (for paranormal investigations) have gone to the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location (which is still run-down and abandoned) to film what they find there. The three teenagers are Lisa (played by Mckenna Grace), Rob (played by David Andrew Calvillo) and Alex (played by Teo Briones), who seem to be the only people working on this low-budget show, which is mostly likely on a public-access channel. Alex is the camera operator and Lisa and Rob are the hosts. The three teens (who are mostly generic characters) are taken to this location by a creepy guy named Michael (played by Freddy Carter), who is obviously up to no good. Michael has a secret that is eventually revealed toward the end of the movie.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has a flimsy story with many plot holes, basically showing that the murderous animatronic toys are looking for new souls to inhabit them. Therefore, the movie is just a bunch of chase scenes with some people getting killed or having their souls stolen by the serial killer toys. The movie’s visual effects aren’t very impressive. And the scares are very limp, cliché and uninteresting.

Supporting characters in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” include Mike’s loyal friend Jeremiah (played by Theodus Crane) and engineer Henry Emily (played by Skeet Ulrich), whose daughter Charlotte was shown murdered in the beginning of the movie. All of the movie’s cast members give mediocre performances, with Rubio making the most effort to have a relatable character. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (which has a mid-credits scene that hints at an inevitable sequel) is the epitome of a lazy “cash grab” movie whose only creative accomplishment is making “Five Nights at Freddy” one of the most boring and most idiotic horror movie franchises of all time.

Universal Pictures will release “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” in U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025.