Original producers return for reboot of Christmas slasher being filmed in Winnipeg
Something sinister is going on beneath the quaint gabled roofs of Armstrong's Point.
In Winnipeg, a city currently bustling with movie-making activity, it's hardly unusual to see trucks filled with equipment parked on West Gate, especially since the stately older homes of the neighbourhood are frequently used as film locations.
But the movie being made is worth a startled raise of the eyebrows. Silent Night, Deadly Night is the second locally made reboot of a controversial slasher of the same name that drew protests in front of movie theatres when Tri-Star premièred it during the holiday season of 1984.
PRNewsfoto/Cineverse
Rohan Campbell takes over the role of a murderous Saint Nick in the latest version of Silent Night, Deadly Night, shooting in Winnipeg.
On this particular day in April, the location is a rambling century-old structure with cedar shakes painted a cheery light blue. It will be the new home for the film's designated maniac, Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell), a quietly deranged young man who gets murderous whenever he dons a Santa suit.
The name is the same as the original, but the character will arrive with a supernatural twist, it is rumoured, although none of the talent at the location is volunteering any spoilers.
The original film was reinvented only 13 years ago in 2012 as Silent Night, starring Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King and Donal Logue. That slasher, which jettisoned much of the original's plot, was produced by the Genre Company, in conjunction with local production company Buffalo Gal Pictures, under its in-house imprint, Insidious Pictures.
This new iteration is doubly noteworthy because this time the original film's producers, Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead, are resuming their producer duties four decades later after the property and the assets of its three sequels were essentially taken away from them, though Schneid and Whitehead were the ones who midwifed the original into existence alongside screenwriter Michael Hickey.
The pair vividly recall the controversy surrounding a maniac in a Santa suit.
'It was different times, you know? It was a conservative time in America,' says Whitehead.
'People started picketing the theatres when the movie came out,' recalls Schneid. 'They even formed a coalition called Mothers Against Movie Madness and they were picketing theatres with their little five-year-olds, holding signs that said 'Santa ain't no hit man' and 'Deck the hall with holly, not bodies.'
'It was the '80s, when R-rated slashers for teenagers were the rage. Halloween was the first one to come out and the first Friday the 13th and Tri-Star was looking for its teen horror franchise.'
It turned out the company bit off more candy cane than it could chew. The protests — which ranged from placard-carrying parents to mainstream film critic Gene Siskel publicly shaming the filmmakers — prompted the removal of the movie from theatres before it even made headway into wide release, although it was well on its way to hit status, earning US$4 million on a US$1-million budget.
Whitehead estimates it was bound for a US$25-million gross.
'Tri-Star was a newly formed studio at that time. They were the new kid on the block and they were funded by Coca-Cola, CBS and HBO, so they had big corporate interests behind them,' Schneid says.
The company behind the new SNDN property has no such queasiness: Cineverse is responsible for the ultra-gruesome Terrifier franchise, which follows the adventures of a silent but deadly psycho clown named Art.
The company is represented by younger executive producers who oversaw the making of Terrifier 3 : Brandon Hill and Brad Miska, whose production experience includes work on the wintry thriller Cult of Chucky (2017) in Winnipeg.
Though Silent Night is set in the winter, Miska is relieved it's not being shot in the cold.
'It was -20 C and I was like: I'm never coming back ever again, so when we heard we were gonna shoot this in the spring, I said, 'Oh, thank God. Thank God,'' Miska says.
Miska and Hall both saw the original during an annual Christmas showcase at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles programmed by Quentin Tarantino, an unabashed fan.
It was a past New Beverly screening that captured the attention of Schneid, who overcame some personal bitterness to see it.
'(Tarantino) has his own 30mm print of Silent Night and shows it every Christmas, so I wanted to see it with a friend of mine, and we saw people were lined up around the block to see it,' Schneid says.
SUPPLIED
The 1984 movie sparked protests at theatres.
That led Schneid on a course to discover who owned the rights to the film, a quest that ultimately led to this new version, which he feels will go towards remedying the mistake of the 2012 film.
'It had no relationship with the original,' Schneid says. 'Yeah, sorry, it was crapola.
'Can I say it one more time?' Schneid says, leaning into the microphone. 'Crapola!'
•
• •
From a local perspective, the film will feature plenty of homegrown talent, including special effects artist Doug Morrow, production designer Oscar Fenogolio, costume designer Laura DeLuca, stunt co-ordinator Kristen Sawatzky, casting director Jim Weber and line producer Tanya Brunel.
Local cast includes David Lawrence Brown ( Fargo ), Sharon Bajer ( Nobody ) and horror veteran Marina Stephenson Kerr ( Cult of Chucky ).
Two of the movers and shakers behind the film are veteran Winnipeg producer Jeremy Torrie and Erik Bernard, Torrie's partner in the newly minted company Bear Paw Studio.
Bernard is a recent transplant, having just moved here from Texas. Once a showrunner on the TV series Hoarders, he sees Winnipeg as a city of opportunity in the film business.
'I think that in the U.S. it has gotten a little bit harder to produce things …, and Jeremy has been doing this a long time, and I think that, like anything else, it comes down to teams,' he says.
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'I saw some opportunity with him and he saw some opportunity with me to kind of kind of forge a team on a foundational level so we can go out and compete in in this indie space.'
As for Torrie, he is excited to join Bernard in the Cineverse universe, especially given the company's past success with Terrifier 3.
'They released it in 2,500 theatres and made $90 million U.S. That would be huge for us,' Torrie says.
Cineverse plans to open Silent Night, Deadly Night in theatres by Dec. 12.
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