My quest to watch some Christmas horror continues, I just Googled best Christmas Horrors and this one came up as a modern one that was worth a watch. I found a copy and thought why not? I mean a killer Santa is the staple of all Christmas horror isn’t it? This one has a really good cast and was better than I expected, it’s kind of a remake in that the maker acquired the name Silent Night, Deadly Night but it doesn’t stick the same plot and is only loosely based on it, so here’s my thoughts on Silent Night.
Director: Steven C. Miller
Writer: Jayson Rothwell (screenplay)
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King, Donal Logue
Silent Night starts like most slasher films do and should start with a couple of decent kills that show how mad the killer is. Sure it’s not great writing or awesome story telling but in a slasher I want some blood and guts and in the first scene Silent Night has a pretty good death scene and follows it up relatively quickly with another one.
We’re introduced to Jamie King’s character Aubrey Bradimore who is called in to work as a police deputy on Christmas Eve despite having lost someone close to her recently. We’re introduced to a few characters early on, the idiot unsympathetic deluded sheriff played by Malcolm McDowell, a receptionist at the police station who along with Aubrey are the only characters that aren’t annoying, we meet the mayor and his slutty daughter along with her loser boyfriend.
The bodies soon start racking up some in pretty gory and brutal kills from soft porn stars to whinging kids. The biggest problem they face is the town they live in runs a Santa parade and with a killer Santa on the loose it’s a convenient bit of story telling to have loads of them running around.
They finally arrest someone and despite Aubrey knowing it’s not him that’s the killer the sheriff won’t listen. A close encounter with dying eventually brings Aubrey round to realising she’s a great cop, she finds the evidence and see’s that the killer is leaving presents with the victims and some people he leaves alive. This leads Aubrey to something that will drive her on for revenge.
Everything leads to a final show down between the killer and Aubrey in what is a pretty exciting end to the film but it’s not over as we’re shown the origin of the killer at the very end of the film, which was a nice touch.
The Good
- There’s some cool deaths, nothing brand new or outstanding just some brutal and pretty gory kills.
- The fact that the people you want to see “get it” mostly do.
- Good cast leads to a reasonably solidly acted film apart from the blonde girl who is there simply for her looks.
- Origin story at the end was something I really liked because I was beginning to wonder what reasons the killer had.
- End battle was good fun.
- The killer utilised multiple weapons for his kills.
- The killers mask is pretty creepy.
The Bad
- I understand that Aubrey is on a journey but she’s very much a victim at the start of the film to the point of being annoying, letting men make sexual comments to her with no reply and generally being the victim.
- The blonde girls death scene although a pretty good death is a bit painful to watch due to her poor acting, it is however made up for with the last few seconds of the scene.
- There’s nothing really new for a slasher.
Apart from that there’s nowt really bad about this film, it’s not genre defining and doesn’t add anything new to the slasher genre. It is however a pretty brutal film with some gory deaths and a decent main killer. I’d consider this well worth watching at Christmas so go check it out!
Overall Rating – 7/10
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