Halloween Ends star Rohan Campbell has joined the upcoming reboot Silent Night, Deadly Night in the central role of Billy Chapman. The 27-year-old actor will play the killer Santa Claus in this re-imagining of a 1984 cult-classic, one of the movie’s production companies Bloody Disgusting announced on Monday. This is expected to be another controversial role for Campbell, who already rocked the horror genre by playing the divisive character Corey Cunningham in the latest installment of the Halloween franchise. Whether you liked where that movie went or not, Campbell is an intriguing choice to bring this slasher into the 21st century.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a slasher about a young man named Billy Chapman, who witnessed his parents being murdered on Christmas Eve as a child. The killer was dressed as Santa Claus, instilling a lifelong hatred of the holiday for Billy. He was then raised in an abusive orphanage, and as an adult all this untreated trauma piled up until he became a serial killer himself, dressing up as Santa to hunt down victims during the holiday season.
According to Bloody Disgusting, their reboot of this movie — co-produced with Cineverse — is a “reimagining” of the original story, but plot details have not been revealed yet. Campbell will play Billy Chapman, and the movie was written and directed by Mike P. Nelson — known for Wrong Turn and V/H/S/85. Original producers Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead are returning.
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Campbell drew a lot of groans from horror fans who did not like his part in the story of Halloween Ends. Though critics and commenters generally attributed this bad call to the writers, Campbell was the face of the character, so he became the face of the idea as well. However, Campbell already has plenty of other great performances to balance that out, including his performance as Ricky in The Monkey just this year.
Spoiler warning for Halloween Ends — Campbell’s character Corey was introduced in this latest movie as a young man who accidentally killed a young boy he was babysitting at the time. The death was ruled accidental, but three years later Corey is still a pariah within the community. Corey is haunted by his actions as the story goes on, and a confusing encounter with Michael Myers convinces Corey that he is destined to become a serial killer himself. He tries to take Myers’ mask to become his successor, and is seemingly killed offscreen. The implication is that the franchise will continue with a new character embodying evil in the same way.
Fans may not have loved that idea, just as many did not love Silent Night, Deadly Night back in 1984. As always, this is one of the inherent risks in rebooting a classic. We’ll be able to judge Campbell’s performance for ourselves when Silent Night, Deadly Night debuts this holiday season.
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