Billy Chapman (character)
Billy Chapman | |
---|---|
Silent Night, Deadly Night character | |
Created by | Paul Caimi Michael Hickey |
Portrayed by | Robert Brian Wilson Danny Wagner (age 8) Jonathan Best (age 5) |
In-universe information | |
Full name | William Chapman |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Toy store employee |
Family | Jim Chapman (father, deceased) Ellie Chapman (mother, deceased) Ricky Caldwell (brother, deceased) |
Relatives | Unnamed grandfather |
Nationality | American |
Billy Chapman is a fictional character in the
In the first film, Billy is first introduced at age five, when he witnesses his parents' murder on a country road on
The character was largely received by critics as offensive due to the violent acts he commits on Christmas, and the film was widely protested upon its theatrical release in 1984.[3]
Appearances
Films
In Silent Night, Deadly Night, Billy first appears at age five in 1971, driving with his parents and infant brother, Ricky, to visit his grandfather in a psychiatric care facility on Christmas Eve. On their way home, his parents stop on a desolate country road where a man in a Santa Claus suit has experienced a car breakdown. The man murders Billy's parents in front of him and beats his mother; Billy manages to hide in a ditch, and the killer flees the scene.
Billy and Ricky are placed in an orphanage run by the abusive and strict Mother Superior. Shunned by his peers, Billy finds companionship in the sympathetic Sister Margaret. At age eight, Billy witnesses two of the teenagers in the orphanage having sex; they are caught by Mother Superior, who punishes them severely. In 1984, at age eighteen, Billy leaves the orphanage and acquires a job at Ira's Toy Store. As the Christmas season arrives, however, Billy is troubled by hallucinations and posttraumatic stress related to his parents' murders. At the store's Christmas Eve party, while wearing a Santa Claus suit, he witnesses his male co-worker Andy attempting to harass his female co-worker/crush Pamela in the stock room; Billy snaps, and murders them both, Andy by strangling him with Christmas lights, and Pamela with a box cutter, then kills his boss and other coworker.
Billy then embarks on a killing spree. He stumbles upon a suburban house where a couple, Denise and Tommy, are having sex. He impales Denise on a pair of antlers on a taxidermy deer head, and throws Tommy through a window to the ground below, killing him. The commotion awakens Denise's little sister, who sees Billy, dressed as Santa, in the living room. He asks if she's been naughty or nice, and then gives her the box cutter he had used when he murdered Pamela. After this, Billy follows two teenagers into the woods where they are sledding, and decapitates one of them with an axe as they sled down a hillside and the other screams in terror.
The next morning,
In Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, Billy appears in flashback via footage from Silent Night, Deadly Night as Ricky recounts he and his brother's troubled lives.
Merchandise
In 2017, NECA and
Reception
In his review of Silent Night, Deadly Night, film critic Leonard Maltin admonished the character of Billy, writing: "what's next—the Easter Bunny as a child killer?"[5] Further backlash from the public over the "killer Santa" character fueled the film's publicity campaign, but did not lead to generally favorable reception.[6]
Chris E. Hayner of
See also
- List of horror film villains
- Billy Lenz
References
- ^ Grant, Stacey (December 12, 2015). "Why Silent Night, Deadly Night Is the Best Christmas Horror Movie You've Never Seen". MTV. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-476-60573-9.
- ^ Rockoff 2011, p. 156.
- ^ "Christmas Comes Early as NECA's 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' Figure Gets Standalone Release". 23 May 2018.
- ^ Maltin 2008, p. 1250.
- ^ Kersewelll, J.A. "Ho-Ho-HOMICIDE: The Silent Night, Deadly Night Controversy". Hysteria Lives!. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
- ^ "The 12 Best Slasher Movie Monsters Ever, Ranked".
- ^ "A Killer List: The Greatest Movie Slashers of All Time". 22 October 2018.
- ^ "What a 'Creep' – Most Socially Awkward Psychopaths in Horror!". 26 October 2017.
- ^ "The Best (& Worst) Movie Santas".
- ^ "Who is the Scariest Big-Screen Psycho Killer? Top 32 rages on with 'Halloween,' 'The Shining,' and more!". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20.
- ^ "The Top 10 Best & Worst Slasher Villains".
- ^ "10 Deeply Depressing Origin Stories of Horror Villains". 30 August 2018.
Works cited
- Maltin, Leonard (2008). Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide. Signet. ISBN 978-0-45122-468-2.
- Rockoff, Adam (2011). Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-78646-932-1.