1984 Slasher Movie's Second Remake Just Broke A Rotten Tomatoes Record With Its Audience Score

2025's Silent Night, Deadly Night has broken a Rotten Tomatoes record. The new movie, which stars Halloween Ends' Rohan Campbell and Happy Death Day's Ruby Modine, is the second remake of the 1984 Christmas slasher movie of the same name.

It became a cult classic despite being pulled from theaters early amid protests of its depiction of a killer wearing a Santa Claus suit, spawning several sequels. All in all, there have been seven Silent Night, Deadly Night movies, though only the first two installments and the two remakes received theatrical distribution.

Now that the remake is in theaters, Rotten Tomatoes has aggregated enough verified user reviews to earn it an official Popcornmeter score. With more than 50 ticket buyers weighing in, 2025's Silent Night, Deadly Night has earned a Fresh audience score of 79%. This marks the best score ever for the holiday horror franchise.

The previous highest Popcornmeter score belonged to 1984's Silent Night, Deadly Night, which had 40%. This means that the 2025 remake has also earned the first Fresh audience score for the franchise, as a movie needs to earn 60% or more in order to not be considered Rotten.

Audience members' individual ratings are also overwhelmingly positive, with the majority giving the movie scores between 4 and 5 out of 5. It has drawn praise for paying homage to the original while still breaking new narrative ground. Echoing the sentiments of many fellow audience members, user Matthew S said that the project is "not just a brainless slasher" in a five-star review.

Previously, critics' Silent Night, Deadly Night reviews earned the 2025 remake the best Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise on the Tomatometer. Its 81% score was only the second Fresh rating for the series ever, behind the 2012 remake's 62%. Below, see a breakdown of the Tomatometer and Popcornmeter scores for the entire franchise.

Title

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

53%

40%

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

30%

27%

Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989)

N/A

11%

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990)

N/A

17%

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991)

N/A

23%

Silent Night (2012)

62%

33%

Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)

81%

79%

This enthusiasm for the killer Santa horror movie makes it the best-rated major new release of the weekend on the Popcornmeter. It has far surpassed the Popcornmeter score for the James L. Brooks dramedy Ella McCay (53%), which also debuted on December 12.

If this audience enthusiasm for the Silent Night, Deadly Night remake translates into commercial performance as the movie's theatrical run continues and transitions into its VOD and streaming run, it seems possible that it will take much fewer than 13 years for another installment in the slasher franchise to be greenlit.