Up first is Silent Night. This newly released slasher pic is a re-imagining of the classic controversial slasher known as Silent Night, Deadly Night. I have been anticipating this release for some time now, reading about it on many blogs and horror sites since its inception. I can say that its defiantly not better than the original, most if not all remakes never stand up, but its has a lot of very good qualities.
Basically, The story goes like this. I old mill town is gearing up for the holiday parade on Christmas Eve, when a sadistic killer suddenly starts picking off its inhabitants after they receive a lump of coal in the mail. The story is completely by the books, formulaic, and stale. Nothing new has been brought to the table in Silent Night, however, it didn't take away from the experience of watching it. The film boasts come nice kills, only one being memorable though. I will not spoil the good kill but I will say that it involves a half naked chick and a wood chipper.The Acting is ok. Jamie King and Donal Logue are the only actors to positively right home about. Jamie does a good job with the role of Aubry, the towns deputy. She's good at what she does, and after sitting trough countless episodes of CW's Hart Of Dixie its refreshing to not see Jamie as the spoiled Lemon Brealand. Her performance too, is formulaic, as strong leading lady, however she is seem hardened from the beginning rather than making that transition over time. That was a nice change of pace for me. Donal Logue's small part was great, A cynical traveling Santa, with witty comebacks and a quick tongue. Malcolm McDowell is also in the film as the towns sheriff. I was in utter confusion with his role. It felt like the director literally told him to say whatever came to his mind..."Dont put Avocado on the burger!".......WHAT! I didn't know if they were trying to make him funny or make the sheriff out to be incompetent. It was hard to watch his scenes.
As I mentioned earlier the killers were nice, and the special effects we good too. Lots of blood and limbs being removed. Burnings, Stabbings, Electrocutions, Shootings, Impaling, and Meat Grinding run a muck in this slasher flick. They all look good, and should defiantly bring out the gore hound in all of us. The kills make the ride worth riding. The killer looks good, a typical Santa suit with a very creepy Santa mask...That mask looks so ominous. Silent Night's killer gets points for the mask.
I felt the setting was not indicative of a Midwestern town, The Midwest usually gets snow on or around Christmas Eve. At some points during the day shoots, it felt like the movie wasn't even in the winter time. A snow-laden setting would have honed in on the holiday feel. Night time shots helped equal out the off handed day shoots since you couldn't see much. The post production blueish filter tried to help give it the cold feeling but as I said earlier. It would have been nice seeing some fluffy white snow all over the place.
I had some issues with the ending, but that seems to be happening a lot recently. It is not a bad ending, but I thought it was kind of mediocre. Other than that I enjoyed the movie. Slasher fans like myself will more than likely love it, and most casual horror fans will think its ok. To the average, the movie is ultimately forgettable, thought hardcore fans of the genre should remember it at this point only time will tell. GLP gives Silent Night 3 out of 5 stabs for good kills and gore, and a strong female lead. If you want to know more about the film you can stalk the movies Facebook page. If you want to watch the film you can do so on demand thru Vudu or Amazon On-Demand or on Blu-Ray and DVD. View the trailer below.
GLP Rating:
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