Silent Night (2012)

I remember when I was a teenager and I heard they were doing a slasher film with a killer Santa Claus. 20/20 and everyone was up in arms about this concept and Silent Night, Deadly Night's hype was born. And to any horror fan or movie nut in general, when people complain and try to ban a film, those are the ones you have to go see first. The sad news is most of us did get to see this film when it hit home video a year later we did not think it was warranted of what the uproar was about. Now that being said, if Silent Night which is directed by Steven C. Miller would have been the film coming out at that time, I would have seen what the uproar was about. While this is a very loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night make no mistake about it, this film is a million times better than any other Christmas slasher film I have seen so far. In a small quiet town in Wisconsin, Santa Claus seems to be coming to town a day early and seems to know who has been naughty and nice. This film has some of the weirdest yet amusing one liners I ever heard, like one I felt could describe this film to a tee. "Once you see it, you can't unsee it". This film is a gore hound's dream, and there is no lack of killing, death scenes and fun ways to kill someone. I mean, the film starts off with an electric chair made out of Christmas lights.

Malcolm McDowell plays the town sheriff and you talk about someone who is having a ball in his role, Malcolm uses so many dopey and silly one liners that you will find yourself just waiting for what gem he will say next. When he keeps on describing a situation as putting toppings on a hamburger, you just sit there and think this is dark comedy fun. Jaime King plays the deputy who we learn is going thru a crisis of her own, this is her first Christmas single and she is spent trying to piece the puzzle together and stop the evil Claus. Jaime I was ready to write off after she followed up Sin City, with so many bad films till she got a second life with Mother's Day. And now this, she may have found her calling with these horror remakes.

The funny thing about this movie is that Steven with his wide range of characters touched on everything a small town could never ask for. Also, this film breaks a lot of taboos, and this viewer blesses them for doing so. A foul mouthed little girl gets killed in one of the more fun scenes of the film and when the mother of the girl talks to the police she claims that she did not wish for this to happen she just was hoping for some kind of break or something. Then, you have the perverted priest, who is also another scene stealer especially when in this town; every woman looks either like she stepped out of a modeling agency or off the pages of Playboy. Did anyone else ever notice that in this town, there is no lack of beautiful women and guys who are either drug users, dealers, clueless, perverts or drunks? I think Steven made this film hoping for backlash, he wanted to give fans a fun horror film that had guts and did not care if it offended anyone. This film is what people expect when they see a slasher film and looks like all involved were having a blast with this film, and it shows when you watch it. This film gives so much fun, I mean I can go on and on about scenes that really shined in this film. When people think about Christmas films, they think of those films that your family or girlfriend drag you to with that feel good message and romance, thank god Steven made the cure for that with this film that is geared towards the horror fan. This film

Fmovies: This movie is a loose remake of the 1984 slasher Silent Night,Deadly Night. The story takes in a small town being preyed on a killer dressed as Santa Claus. In my opinion this one of the best slasher movie that I have seen in a while, it had good character development, great kills and a good twist of who the killer is. For me the best performance in the movie is Jamie King because she goes through a lot of emotions in the movie and she was strong which made me cheer for her in the finale when she kicks some major butt. The directer Steven C. Miller has done a very good job with the dark tone of the movie which I really enjoyed. For me the original is still the best but this one really does live up to it. Highly recommended for Slasher fans.

Let me get this out of the way. I had not seen the original "Silent Night, Deadly Night" until last week. I am a huge horror fan and this one kind of slipped under my radar. The original is by itself pretty bad. The acting is bad and any shades of a good horror movie are lost in the mess of bad acting and nonsensical plot. This movie attempt to rectify the problems with the original by establishing a much simpler storyline. The kills are there for sure. The practical effects are for the most part pretty good. It's a welcome sign to see a horror film that attempts to take full advantage of the advances in practicals. There are some cool callbacks to the original and its sequel while at the same time the film separates itself from the original series. The major issue with the film is that it's just not very exciting. Kills happen, and they are cool, but there is just no tension built. Even though the storyline has been slimmed down compared to the original, it feels like they missed a lot of opportunities to develop some three-dimensional characters. Everyone is just kind of there. Malcolm McDowell is the weakest part of the movie. I'm not sure when he decided to start playing every character the same, but his crazy old man routine is getting stale. Jamie King is mostly okay. We really don't much of a back story on her character and her eventual transformation is kind of out of left field. Donal Logue is probably the best thing in the movie, but his character is also just another throw in. It's a weird movie because it looks professional enough to be a wide release movie, but the holes in the film are just too wide to overcome. All and all it's a fine rental if you have 90 minutes to waste, but it certainly doesn't break any new ground. The original is certainly not hallowed ground. It's the kind of movie that just begs to be remade. I'm fine with what we ended up with. This isn't The Exorcist, The Thing, or Halloween so I'm not going to go off the deep end over a classic being remade.

Silent Night fmovies. I was initially lured in by the somewhat odd cover for this movie; having a strange-looking Santa there with a flamethrower. If that is not an eye-catcher, then I don't know what it.

Having seen the movie now, I somewhat sit here and wonder where the horror in the movie vanished off to, because this movie was anything but scary. And if anything, then the older movies in the same genre, such as "Silent Night, Deadly Night" or "Black Christmas" were actually more entertaining than this 2012 movie.

The story in "Silent Night" is about a mysterious and masked person dressed up as Santa Claws who goes on a killing spree in a small town during the Christmas holidays. And it is up to the local police force to bring an end to the murderous rampage.

Story-wise, it wasn't the most interesting of movies, as it was all something that basically had been seen before in other movies. That being said, I am not saying that it is all bad, because the movie does manage to entertain from the very start and up to the end. Sure, there were some questionable moments and goofy parts to the movie, but all in all, it did manage to entertain. However, this movie is not likely going to become a Christmas classic such as "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" is, nor is it the type of movie that you will most likely ever watch again after having seen it once.

If you enjoy horror movies, then "Silent Night" is not the best of choices, but there are far worse movies available.

I have seen a lot of Steven C. Miller flicks and I liked them although they mostly got bad reviews. Automaton Transfusion (2006) and Cry Of The Banshee (2011) are a few examples.

Silent Night is another horror made by Steven and again some will hate it. The reason is simple, it's a throwback to the slasher era. That means a few things, a lot of blah blah and a few nasty killings. And that's exactly what this film delivering. Don't think that you will see a flashy horror like made nowadays with excellent CGI effects, no this is really a old school slasher and one with a season theme.

Malcolm McDowell is in it and he really plays the pain in the *ss copper. That adds something toward this flick. And it's really one for the boys because it do has gratuitous nudity for a few minutes with a girl running around with bare breasts. The first killing I saw i thought ooo nooo CGI blood but later on it becomes rougher and even a bit gory.

It doesn't add anything to the genre but it's a great slasher for the older geeks to see, I'm sure you are going to pick up the other Santa slashers.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Now here's a surprising little horror gem; Silent Night remakes the controversial cult classic horror film Silent Night, Deadly Night. The original 1984 film quite possibly faced more controversy and public backlash than any other horror film at the time, with the exception of maybe Cannibal Holocaust. Silent Night cuts down on the depravity and the sickening mean-spirit of the original. It's a rather enjoyably gory romp with a concept that, for me, will never get old.

The story is simple; in a sleepy suburban town, a tall man, baring a mask and a Santa suit begins committing several bloody homicides on Christmas Eve. Dispatched on the case is officer Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King), who is constantly irritated by her needy, petulant, but also hilarious boss played by horror icon Malcolm McDowell. As she attempts to spend the holidays collectively, after losing her husband just a year prior around this same time, she finds it difficult when she is hunting down a crazed, sadistic killer whose footprints seem to be right under her's.

I grew up with twisted little genre exercises like this. As a kid, I feasted on films boasting outrageous killers and twisted setups. One of them was Santa's Slay, which, to this day, holds up as a complete film with scares, characters, quirkiness, and delightful black comedy, all while boasting one of the most entertaining horror figures of the 2000's. Going into this expecting a modest crossover between the original film and Santa's Slay, I was alarmed to find out that the film offers little humor, instead amping up the intensity and the bleakness of a horror film, all while maintaining its true nature.

One of the most notable sequences involves a nude model escaping a low-rent apartment after both photographers were killed and is left nearly helpless as she wanders throughout the back allies of the area. She runs into a crowded area with an active woodchipper and, while we see where this is going, we anticipate in an unsettling way what will happen and when it comes, we are thrilled and stunned how the film won't cop out and pull punches. It shows us just what we want and doesn't pull the typical "quick cut" move we've become so accustomed to.

Silent Night features quite possibly some of the goriest, most entertaining kills of the year, only topping it could be the gruesome lunacy of Marcus Dunstan's The Collection. To see this year's wide-releases such as The Apparition, The Devil Inside, House at the End of the Street, and Paranormal Activity 4 desperately try to to rustle up genre-scares and fail is a pathetic blow to the integrity and the capabilities of the entire horror genre. This is one of the first horror films of the year that I was proud to have sought out. It stays faithful to its genre and its cast and its crew seem to have had a lot of fun keeping it from straying into idiocy.

NOTE: Silent Night closes with a terrific revisionist anthem of one of the most iconic Christmas songs. It's fittingly called Silent Night, Deadly Night, and properly closes this quick , spontaneously enjoyable little film.

Starring: Jaime King. Malcolm McDowell, Donal Logue, Ellen Wong, and Brendan Fehr. Directed by: Steven C. Miller.