Silent Night (2012) Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King, Donal Logue, Rick Skene Movie Review

Silent Night (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Silent Night (2012)

The Santa Suit Slayer

Christmas Eve and the residents of a small New England town are going about their business, putting the final touches to not only their preparations for Christmas Day but also the Christmas Eve parade. But there is trouble afoot as someone dressed as Santa is killing the naughty residents one by one leading inexperienced officer Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King) and Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell) on a man hunt for the slasher Santa. Trouble is with the Christmas Eve parade going on the town is filled with people dressed as Santa.

Two things I like are Christmas movies and slasher movies which would make you think that watching the Christmas slasher movie "Silent Night" would be a double delight. The trouble for me is that the two are separate entities as I am traditional and on one hand you have horror the other you have season joy and the two don't cross over. As such the best thing to do with "Silent Night" is approach it purely as a slasher movie and one which tries to capture the low budget feel of the horror movies of the 70s and 80s but with a touch more in your face violence. Think the original "Halloween" but where the mask is a Santa one.

What does that mean? Well we watch as a psycho dressed as Santa with a creepy mask walking around and not just killing people he slaughters them with a variety of tools be it a sickle swung up between someone's legs or a drill. And no one who has been mean or naughty is safe from the psycho Santa as children and naked women are all in danger from his sack of weapons. Sounds daft I know but it is highly effective especially as director Steven C. Miller goes for that low budget feel of older horror movies, eschewing modern CGI in favour of lashings of fake blood and creative camera work. That might not work for some modern audiences who like their horror CGI enhanced but the old school techniques made me smile.

What this all boils down to is that "Silent Night" is a decent modern take on a 70s slasher movie which uses many of the tricks of those movies in preference to CGI tricks when it comes to the gore. But whilst enjoyable "Silent Night" isn't a great movie just one which intentionally wants to make you smile with the horror of not only someone ending up in a wood chipper but the whole killer dressed in a Santa suit set up.

Tags: Christmas Movies


LATEST REVIEWS