Silent Night, Deadly Night's Director Has Already Pitched A Sequel — Here's What It Could Include [Exclusive]

One of the endlessly fascinating things about horror is that even modest success can lead to a surprisingly enduring franchise. Case in point, the once controversial Christmas slasher "Silent Night, Deadly" got not one but four sequels, as well as a loose remake several years back. Now, Billy Chapman is back as director Mike P. Nelson ("Wrong Turn" 2021), and the folks at Cineverse have resurrected the series with a new, wild remake of the '80s cult favorite.

I recently had the good fortune of speaking with Nelson in honor of the release of his bold new take on "Silent Night, Deadly Night," which premiered earlier this year at Fantastic Fest. Like just about any slasher movie, without getting into spoilers, it leaves the door open for more. So, would Nelson return to make a sequel to his remake?

"I would absolutely come back [for a sequel]," Nelson told me. Again, without getting into spoiler territory, the director further explained that he's spoken with stars Rohan Campbell ("Halloween Ends") and Ruby Modine ("Happy Death Day 2U"), as well as the producers, about what that might look like. Here's what he had to say about it:

"I've already started playing around and getting into the head space of what that would look like. Let's just say there are some really fun and crazy ideas that we're tossing around right now. I actually lightly pitched to the producers just the other day, and I even threw some ideas out to Ruby and Rohan and they're totally into it. So yeah, we're going to put it out in the universe, and when it happens."

"The hope is to explore a little bit more lore, to see maybe a little bit more of what came before, and just show you some other really crazy things and just how much weirder we can get," Nelson concluded.

Admittedly, it's difficult to talk around what happens in the new "Silent Night, Deadly Night," but let's just say that Nelson didn't do the obvious thing with the material. Similarly, the potential sequel he sets up is far from obvious and would be, in a word, wild. Or, as he puts it, weird.

As for what it would take to get a sequel off the ground? Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting are also behind the "Terrifier" franchise, which operates on low-budget/high-return propositions. That worked out extremely well for "Terrifier 2" and "Terrifier 3," which was also a Christmastime slasher. With that in mind, odds are, this movie doesn't need to be a massive box office draw; it just needs to do enough business to show that a sequel is worth pursuing.

In the event that a sequel does happen, it could continue the tradition of wild sequels that already exists within this franchise. 1987's "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2" is a "so bad it's good" classic. While the other sequels are more of a mixed bag, depending on who you ask, it's a franchise that's never been afraid of taking a big swing. Should success follow this time around, Nelson seems more than ready to keep that torch lit.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" is in theaters now.