The Silent Night, Deadly Night remake is better than the original, but more nice than naughty

Like a lot of similar controversies, this one was likely guided more by perception and advertisements than the movie itself, which, removed from any moral panic involving the corruption of innocent children, is pretty bad on its own terms. It’s not especially scary, not especially funny, and not all that much fun without the transgressive charge of watching something banned. So it makes sense that a 2025 remake would tweak almost everything about the original while still paying homage to its illicit history. But the new Silent Night, Deadly Night winds up going too far toward moral redemption, even as it improves upon the original.