In 1984, Robert Brian Wilson starred in Silent Night, Deadly Night, a horror film about a young man who goes on a killing spree while dresses as Santa Claus. The movie was met by outrage and resistance over its controversial subject matter. It struck a different chord with horror fans, becoming a cult favorite in the genre. While he was a guest at Creature Feature Weekend, Wilson talked to Scoop about the movie and what it means to meet fans.

Scoop: Are you having fun at the convention?
Robert Brian Wilson (RBW): Of course, yes, I love these horror conferences.

Scoop: What do you like about them?
RBW: The people. Horror fans are, I would say, the best fans on the planet. You know, there’s fans for all types of things that happen out there in the world, but horror fans are certainly the best. The most kind and the most passionate about what you guys get to see and you’re all lovely people.

Scoop: Are you a horror fan?
RBW: I am not. I wanted to lie, “Yeah, of course I am.” Not really. You know, I kind of grew up as a sports fan, I played all types of sports and Hollywood kind of found me. And the next thing I knew, I was doing Silent Night, Deadly Night. So I’ve become a fan. I’m just not probably as passionate as most of the folks in this hall.

Scoop: What’s your favorite kill in Silent Night, Deadly Night?
RBW: My favorite kill is when I was going through the store with the bow and arrow, and I was searching out my work associate. We were playing that game kind of like hide and seek, but it was me sneaking through the store to try and get to her. I finally found her and shot her with the bow and arrow. The whole experience of that was fun.

Scoop: Did the Santa suit help or hinder your performance?
RBW: Oh, it helps. Yeah, it helped because it allowed me to realize that, you know, it wasn’t me doing this. This was something that was put on Billy, my character. When that happened, it had its effect on Billy, simply because that was probably the darkest thing that could have happened, as far as what he’d been through as a child. To be tossed into a Santa suit was as traumatic as can be. So yeah, it wouldn’t have happened without the suit.

Scoop: I think that a lot of Billy’s emotion is expressed through his eyes. Is that something that you wanted to convey, or did you have another way that you wanted to portray his trauma before he starts to kill?
RBW: Well, that’s a great question. I would say from an actor’s standpoint a lot of actors have this bag of tricks that they can call on to fulfill the writers words. In my case, I didn’t have any training at that point. I was kind of a discovery actor. Long story short, I was just in Palm Springs on a spring break from college and a gentleman came up to me and asked me if I was an actor and I said no. He convinced not me, but my girlfriend to go and meet with him, see if he was legitimate and if there’s anything in it for me. Within a short period of time, there certainly was something in it, I found that was interesting. He put together a résumé and headshots and the next thing I know I was reading for this film. So I didn’t have a tremendous amount of training. So, what you saw on that film was me just doing my best to bring truth to the writer’s words. And so if there’s something in my eyes that you saw or that folks see when they watch the film, that said to you that there was trauma within, that’s just the beauty of what the camera picks up and what I had inside. Nothing special, no tricks up my sleeve.

Scoop: Silent Night, Deadly Night is a cult horror hit with a loyal fan base. What does it mean to you to meet those fans?
RBW: Oh, I think it’s incredible, because with the beginnings of this film – the controversy and that it got cancelled and basically put on a shelf and was only allowed in VCR and other formats other than the theater – to be out here now is beyond anything that I ever expected from the film. It’s just amazing that the film is where it is now and where it was in the first two weeks. So. Yeah, it’s amazing.

Scoop: Are you doing more conventions this summer?
RBW: I don’t have anything scheduled just yet, but typically because Christmas is, you know, in December we get them as the year goes on. So I’m hoping to do some more.

Scoop: Is there somewhere people can keep up with you to see what you’re doing?
RBW: Yeah. Anything that I do, I post on my Instagram, which is therealrobertbrianwilson, and Full Empire Promotions is my management team, Dominic Mancini, and he is the one that gets me booked at these events. That’s where you’ll see my up and coming events.

Scoop: One last quick question. Will we ever see you in the Santa suit again?
RBW: I would love it. But you know, they’re talking about doing the remake and I’ve been considered, I believe, for a role or two in the remake. I’ve yet to hear anything about what it would entail. If I were able to put on the Santa suit again that would be wonderful. But maybe just if I was a part of it and someone else was wearing the Santa suit, I could challenge them because I’m the original. [laughs]

Scoop: Thank you so much.
RBW: My pleasure, thank you.