Don't Believe the Hype

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A Major Disappointment

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Santa is an axe wielding mass murderer! In Silent Night he is anyway, a slick, excessively gory remake of an obscure 80's slasher called Silent Night, Deadly Night, which I've still yet to see. This new version is a heavy handed, knowingly silly affair, as a small town Sheriff's department races to find a heinous killer who dresses like the red guy and has been wantonly slaughtering townsfolk all morning. A timid deputy (Sin City's Jaime King) is the front runner to head him off at the pass, joined by the cantankerous, mouthy Sheriff, played by a hammy Malcolm McDowell with attitude to spare. The murders are so over the top it seems like the filmmakers wanted to outdo each and every slasher film out there, an impossible task, but they throw Paint at the wall furiously anyway. Electrocution by Christmas lights, high powered flamethrower, a souped up stun gun used to skewer an annoying 14 year old chick, but my favourite has to be the naked stripper fed through a giant wood chipper in a scene that would have Fargo covering it's eyes. That's the kind of flick it is, sleazed out to the max, tongue firmly in it's cheek and never too serious. Problem is, a few of the actors (I'm looking at you,priest dude) take it way too far into camp territory and ruin whole sequences with their wannabe satirical blathering. McDowell gets the tone right though, and is a right treat as the world's most sarcastic lawman. Donal Logue also fares well as a bad tempered grinch of a mall Santa who eventually tangles with the murderer in a fiery police station set piece. Maybe I was just tired, but when the origin of the killer is finally revealed, which I waited for the whole time, it seemed like kind of a confusing letdown, a bit less of a surprise than it should have been. Worth it for the kills and a couple entertaining performances, but ultimately not much.

For a Christmas slasher, SILENT NIGHT isn't up to scratch. I've not seen the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, but I have seen the likes of DON'T OPEN TILL Christmas and that memorable segment from TALES FROM THE CRYPT and both were much, much better. Director Steven C. Miller seems to vary broadly when it comes to the films he makes, for every trashy flick like UNDER THE BED he makes something superior like THE AGGRESSION SCALE. However, this is one of his worst.The story is about a killer Santa Claus who goes around bumping off various victims while a local sheriff department attempt to track him down. There's little more plot to it than that, although attempts to raise the whole 'whodunit' aspect of the film fall flat because you never care who's responsible. The deaths are gory but somehow feel fake and overblown; it may be that the victims are all random and rather despicable in themselves, so it all goes over your head a bit.Jaime King gives a tired performance as the protagonist of the piece and you get the sense that her heart wasn't really in it, and you can't really blame her for it. Malcolm McDowell is better, but is given little to work with other than play it gruff. The ending is as cheesy and over the top as you'd expect.

Jaime King leads the cast here in this re-imagining of Charles Sellier's controversial holiday slasher as a deputy in a small town where a man in a Santa suit is killing residents on Christmas Eve. To complicate matters, the town's annual Santa Claus costume contest is scheduled, and the bodies are piling up like snowfall.The original "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is and always has been an exceptional piece of slasher trash; I recently re-watched it and was surprised at how shoddily put together it was, yet it still maintains enough charm and moments of horrific wit to keep itself afloat. It's a bad film with good qualities, and what horror fan doesn't love a holiday slasher? That said, it's not surprising that someone eventually sought a remake of the material. This re-imagining is loosely cribbed from the original film, but spins an entirely different premise and takes the point-of-view of a police deputy seeking the villain as opposed to the childhood trauma psychology lesson that the first film explores with Billy and his ticking-time-bomb rampage. It's a more predictable spin for sure, but the script is well written enough to compensate for this. The film has a gritty quality and is uncompromisingly grim in terms of violence— perhaps more than the original — and edges into the territory of 21st century splatter, but it's dark and effective for it. Jaime King leads the cast as a tortured police deputy, with support from veteran Malcolm McDowell, and both are very solid in their roles here. Former model and now-actress King is surprisingly believable as a cop, and her chemistry with McDowell is enjoyable on screen. Overall, "Silent Night" is a great revision of the 1984 film that is surprisingly watchable and not nearly as bad as you may expect of a direct-to-video slasher remake. Solid performances and McDowell's presence elevate everything a notch or two, but at the end of the day, the real fun here is watching a mad Santa wreak bloody havoc on unsuspecting suburbia. In some ways it's as absurd as the original, but it's overall a better-executed film, and, if nothing else, is a worthwhile complementary entry into the Christmas horror sub-genre. 7/10.

This film is severely low brow, kind of dumb and we've totally seen everything it has to offer (albeit better). Yet - for some reason - I really enjoyed it.Think 'Scream,' but with a Santa going around bumping off the townsfolk in various grisly ways then you're half way there. No, it's not as good as Scream (or even any of its sequels), but, if you're looking for a violent slasher flick to pass the time (and not require too many brain cells for) then this one fits the bill.You don't really need to know much about the plot = Santa-killer. You can probably fill in the rest yourself. Maybe it also helps to watch it around Christmas time. Seeing Santa roast perfect strangers with a flamethrower makes a pleasant change from those awful, sickly-sweet John Lewis commercials currently infesting the screen.Some people have complained about the killing of a child in the film, so, if you're squeamish and find that sort of thing unwatchable, you might want to steer clear.Otherwise, sit back and watch Malcolm McDowell deliciously overact (don't complain - he's doing it on purpose - this is kind of tongue-in-cheek, after all!) and deck the halls with burned-up bodies!