To offer holiday theater goers a bloody experience this weekend, Anchor Bay Films will be releasing Steven C. Miller’s new film, Silent Night, to select theaters, a remake of the controversial Santa serial killing flick, Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Silent Night follows Deputy Sheriff Aubrey Bradimore (Jamie King) and Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell) as they go on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer dressed as Santa whose sole purpose is to kill naughty people in a small Midwestern town. Tracking the masked killer proves to be problematic though because the town is set to have their annual Santa Parade that night, allowing the killer to walk around unnoticed. Over the course of a day the body count rises and the stakes seemingly get higher for the amateur detectives.
This bloody feature starts off on the right foot with our evil Santa preparing to kill a young couple, but first he has to get his wardrobe situated, which is totally understandable. Once it’s on, we witness eyes popping out of some guys head as he is electrocuted in a chair wrapped with Christmas lights. It’s the perfect way to start the film as it gives you a true taste of the kind of fucked up things we’re going to see later, such as an ice pick to the eye, a flamethrower to everywhere and maybe even antlers through some hot girl’s torso. You just don’t know what you’re in for when Santa comes to town.
Overall, I was very happy with the effects and level of blood during each killing sequence. It wasn’t over the top yet it was still juicy, splatterific and crimson enough to make you cringe slightly. I know there was one scene where somebody was killed and instead of just yelling “ohhhhh!” I busted out with “HOOO! HO! HO!” because I was surprisingly taken aback and it just seemed like the perfect natural reaction. There is more than one of those moments and that’s why I really dug the movie, it’s truly gets you into the horror holiday spirit.
Though, not all is well with Silent Night as its biggest lump of coal is the story around Deputy Sheriff Aubrey Bradimore and the acting as a whole. Almost every horror movie has one and this is no exception, but Silent Night has the stupid female lead that just can’t seem to do anything right but when everyone else is dead they finally have the courage to step up. It’s a horror cliché that pisses me off and Silent Night embraces it fully to the frustration of this viewer. Jamie King’s character just couldn’t do much right except analyze a scene, and once the overly confident Sheriff Cooper came into the picture she would go do something else and botch it. It honestly makes me question how her father in the film convinced her she was a good cop. Her poor acting, along with everybody else’s, didn’t help either. As for McDowell’s character, he was a giant dick of a Chief and though determined to find the killer he wasn’t nearly as qualified as he thought, making it annoyingly frustrating when both cops were in the same room together.
My other caveat, though small, was for the amount of blood that gets on our killer. This guy either manages to clean up very quickly or has a ton of Santa costumes that he uses throughout the day which allows no one to suspect him of anything. There is one scene where he is drenched in blood as if he massacred a class of kids and then a few hours later in the day he’s mostly clean again. I don’t care too much but it m
ight bother those who are picky. I won’t even mention the naked girl that runs for her life and goes completely unnoticed (cue laughter).
Though mostly brutal, Silent Night does have its comical moments, mostly when Serial Santa decides to spare someone’s life, it’s always in some twisted but funny fashion. That’s all I have for that.
Even though Malcolm McDowell was in the film, I was expecting this to be pretty low grade trash with not much flair to it but instead I was surprisingly wrong (not about the acting) and got to see some pretty badass and well executed death sequences by this straight up evil Santa. If you’re looking for some bloody holiday cheer and the idea of Santa carrying a flamethrower intrigues you then you should make Silent Night this year’s holiday horror flick.
The disc:
The DVD doesn’t contain much, only two bonus features. The first is a collection of five deleted scenes totaling about five minutes and the second is a six minute behind the scenes featurette showcasing the making of a variety of scenes throughout the picture. It’s a very basic release but at least it has extras.
Movie Rating: Santa doesn’t mess around for one second in this crazy fun holiday horror (6.9/10)
DVD Rating: 3/10
Silent Night will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on December 4th from Anchor Bay Films
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