While nowhere near as extensive as Christmas or Halloween-related horror, New Year's Eve and NY's Day do, in fact, have a decent amount of horror-oriented flicks devoted to them, though you might have to dig a bit to find some of them, admittedly. In fact, some of them I haven't seen myself, but I hope to rectify that in the years to come.
In the meantime, for those of you who aren't big on going out and don't want to spend your New Year's Eve with Seacrest and the like, here's a quick run-through of the films I have seen and the others I came across in my search.
Please note that I will be covering a few NYE-themed horror movies much more extensively later this week, so I didn't include those. (You can probably figure out which ones by their omission.)
Let's start with the ones I have seen. One of the most obvious entries is the amusingly bad New Year's Evil, which admittedly has the coolest NYE-horror title of them all- plus a rockin' theme song by the obscure New Wave/Metal band Shadow to boot, which you can listen to here. I like the movie a lot and will almost certainly cover it next year, but for now, it remains one of the best known of the NYE-themed horror flicks out there, for better or worse.
It revolves around the host of a punk rock/new wave-themed TV show, known as "Blaze" (Roz Kelly, aka "Pinky," the Fonz' girlfriend, from the TV show Happy Days), who finds herself targeted by an unknown killer who says he will kill a "naughty" girl with the passing of each New Year in a given time zone, culminating in the murder of Blaze herself for the fourth and final celebration.
Needless to say, the killer is as good as their word, leading Blaze to panic for her life, as her team scrambles to keep her safe and the cops try their best to thwart the killer before he can kill again. It's typical slasher movie shenanigans, but it's a fun enough flick, and worth seeing at least once. I don't watch it every year, but I do tend to watch it every few years or so, so it's fun enough for me to re-visit now and again, for whatever that's worth.
One film that was new to me this year was Sadik 2, a somewhat obscure French film that takes place in the run-up to the New Year, as a group of friends that were all raised in a Foster Home together meet up for their annual NYE celebration in an isolated house in the French countryside.
One of them is a massive horror fan, so, as with many post-Scream horror flicks, it is gleefully self-referential and meta throughout, so if you don't like that sort of thing, you will probably find it annoying AF. (In fact, said fan sports a Ghostface mask for an extended period of time, which the filmmakers had to blur out for copyright issues, though they state at the beginning it was because the mask was "just too scary" to show, lol.)
BTW, as with films like Surf II and Thankskilling 3, there is no preceding entry, so don't bother looking for a first Sadik. Instead, it's a reference to a faux film within the film that the rabid horror fan claims is the real deal, which is to say a "snuff" film. Perhaps needless to say, the title is a tip-off to what ends up happening, the end result of which is like a combination of a holiday-themed slasher flick, Scream and another somewhat obscure-but-fantastic French film, Man Bites Dog.
While the first forty-five minutes is action-free, points to the film for allowing us to get to know the characters before starting to bump them off. Whether or not you care for that approach will vary from viewer to viewer, as will your apprehension towards subtitles or foreign films in general.
If you can get past those things, though, it's a fun little movie with lots of in-jokes for horror fans and some solid gore effects, one of which is reminiscent of the old slasher Maniac and/or Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. And dig that horror fan's VHS collection! I, for one, would welcome a Sadik 3, and given that this one only clocks in around 75 minutes, it's not a huge commitment, even for you subtitle-phobes.
A lesser entry is the more straight-forward slasher-esque thriller, The Eve, which, like Sadik 2, is one that takes a while to get going, but doesn't have half the pay-off- or sense of humor- of that film. Don't get me wrong, as with the last film, the extended opening section does allow one time to get to know the four main characters, but you may not want to, given all the time they spend squabbling.
The plot is pretty similar to the last film, too, only instead of a group of people raised in a Community Home, it's a group of old college friends that have since grown apart who decide to get together again, in hopes of mending some fences. Two of them used to date- it didn't end well- and the other invested in a property with the same guy, which ended up getting seized via eminent domain, taking away his life's savings in the process.
As you can imagine, when the guy responsible for both ends up dead- which happens off-screen- it doesn't take long for fingers to start pointing, even at the newbie, a girl the guy who lost his money invited without giving anyone a heads-up first about, which also didn't go over well. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that said girl was caught kissing the dead guy shortly before he disappeared- and mind, you, that was a guy she literally just met hours before.
The end result is okay, but the movie moves really slow, which may turn off some viewers, even at only a 85 minute running time, a fair bit of which is devoted to the ever-popular slow-crawl credits. Still, the movie isn't that bad, and it was partially financed via Indiegogo, and I do my best to try and support indie filmmakers, so I won't bash it too much.
It did win some awards at a NYC film festival (Chain NYC), and the cast isn't half-bad- particularly Miranda Noelle Wilson, who plays the troubled Lacey and won Best Actress at said film festival- so there's that. But if you're a hardcore horror and/or slasher movie fan, keep in mind it isn't very gory and is really more of a twisted thriller, so maybe stick with Sadik 2 if you fall into either of those categories.
I'm not sure if it counts, but if you can dig up a copy of the short-lived TV anthology show Fear Itself on DVD, from horror maven Mick Garris, the entry entitled "New Year's Day" is a lot of fun. (*Writer's edit: The episode is available on YouTube, as of this writing, along with the series itself, in its entirety. Click here to watch it!)
It stars the should-have-been-a-bigger-star Briana Evigan, perhaps best-known for the horror remakes of Sorority Row and Mother's Day, who plays a girl who wakes up, Walking Dead-premiere style, with all hell having broken loose while she was out cold after New Year's Eve festivities and no idea of what's going on.
As she begins to put together the pieces, she quickly realizes that something has gone horribly awry, as there is blood all over her roommate's bedroom, and her next-door neighbor is acting decidedly oddly, bashing her head into the door and walls. She calls a friend, who tells her to get there asap, and the rest of the episode follows her on her journey there, as she continues to run into more of these oddly acting people and fights for her life.
Are they zombies? Psycho killers? Was there a chemical leak that is causing most everyone to act crazy? Find out for yourself, and though I've seen similar twists before, I still dug this variation, which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, of the Saw series and Repo! The Genetic Opera fame, and also features an early turn from the late Cory Montieth (Glee), made all the more haunting by a certain aspect of the ending.
The rest of the series is worth checking out, too, with early, pre-fame appearances from the likes of Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Moss, plus turns by Eric Roberts and Brandon Routh and episodes directed by such horror luminaries as John Landis and Stuart Gordon. It's hit and miss, like most anthologies, but the good ones are really good.
Well, that about wraps it up for the ones I've seen, but here are some others I haven't that I may try to catch in the future. According to IMDB.com, the following horror movies are also set on NYE/NYD:
Antisocial (have this one and the sequel, haven't watched either yet), Alien Blood, Area 407, Blackwood Evil, Circle of Eight, Countdown, The Exhibitionists, The Fifth Cord, Ghostkeeper, Intensive Care, Kristen, Life Blood (have this one, haven't watched it yet), Lost Signal (ditto), The Mansion, Mark of the Beast, Midnighters, The Millennium Bug, Minutes to Midnight, Mumbai 125 KM, Mystery of the Wax Museum, The Night of the Virgin, Resolution, Sickness House, The Signal (2007- also have this one- not to be confused with the more recent movie of the same name), Steel Trap, Still, Taboo, Talisman and Transamerican Killer, aka Switch Killer.
Well, that about does it! Have a happy- and safe- New Year's Eve and Day, and be sure and join me Wednesday and Friday for a couple more New Year's horror flicks that I love. See you then, and thanks, as always for reading!
Well, another Christmas is in the books, and Lord knows, 2018 couldn't end fast enough for most of us. But before I covered a few New Year's Eve-themed goodies, I wanted to take a quick look back at the Christmas horror I watched over the last few weeks.
Of course, a lot of the last month was spent covering the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise, and the end results were decidedly mixed. I'm not sure if it's because the following for the series is minimal compared to the followings for my previous franchise review subjects, The Omen and Halloween, or if everyone simply was too busy with the holidays to do much reading online- perhaps a bit of both, TBH- but the numbers for the former positively paled in comparison to those of the latter two series.
Whatever the case, the most-read reviews in the series were, respectively, the original- as it should be, no doubt- followed by my introduction to the series and SNDN 5, which were tied for second. After that, there's a bit of a drop off, but suffice it to say, the numbers for my reviews for SNDN Parts 2, 3, 4 and the remake, Silent Night, were all so close, it's practically a four-way tie.
That basically indicates to me that those who read one, basically read them all, which is good, with the numbers only spiking significantly for the intro and the original, which makes sense. So, my final assessment is that you guys do overall seem to dig my franchise reviews, but a lot does depend on the franchise.
As such, I will likely tackle the biggies moving forward, the next time I do another one. I'm thinking Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, Evil Dead and maybe the Child's Play/Chucky movies and Phantasm series. I'm not sure which I'll do next, but if you have an opinion, let me know in the comments below, or via social media.
In the meantime, here's a quick look at some of the stuff I watched over the holidays!
First up, there's Alien Raiders. Of the movies I'm about to review, it has the most significant cast, especially if you're an avid TV watcher like I am. It's also the one where Christmas plays the least significant part, I might add, which, on the plus side, means it lends itself better to watching any time of the year.
The plot is basically John Carpenter's version of The Thing set in a grocery store. At first, it comes on like a heist movie, with a group of heavily armed men and one woman descending upon a grocery store right as its about to close, presumably to rob it. However, as it goes on, that's clearly not the case, as they start shooting some people, seemingly at random.
As the film goes on, we find there's a method to their madness, as it becomes clear that they are looking for specific people that are likely carrying an infection of some kind. (The title hints as to what the origin of the disease may be.) In time, we realize that one of them has the ability to detect said infection, but things go sideways when that person is killed.
Shortly thereafter, the cops arrive and a stand-off ensues, with the group only making one demand: the release of a prisoner elsewhere in the state. The reason being that she can also detect the infected, but, of course, the longer they stay trapped there, the higher the risk that one of them is themselves infected.
In the meantime, they run some elaborate tests to try and determine who is infected and who isn't, a la the blood test in The Thing. As you might guess, trouble ensues, both from the testing, and from hostages going rogue and trying to escape. (Shades of The Mist as well.)
Alien Raiders is a nifty throwback to the sorts of movies that were all over cable and home video in the 80's and 90's, but it was actually released in 2008. Only certain tech used in the film gives away the more modern trappings, though- otherwise, it could practically pass as one of those films, and I mean that as a compliment.
The solid cast includes a lot of TV vets, including Carlos Bernard (24) as the team leader; Matthew St. Patrick (Six Feet Under, Sons of Anarchy) as the cop in charge of hostage negotiations; Rockmond Dunbar (Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break) as a hot-headed member of the siege team; Courtney Ford (Dexter, True Blood, Supernatural) in her first big role as the scientist of the team; and Jeffrey Licon (Joan of Arcadia, The Brothers Garcia) as the young hero grocery worker that tries his best to keep the peace and keep anyone from getting killed.
The film is co-produced by Daniel Myrick, of The Blair Witch Project fame, and was the debut feature for Ben Rock, who was a classmate of Myrick's and served as the production designer on that film. Rock was the one who created the infamous "stick man" figure and was the writer and director of the mockumentaries The Burkittsville 7 and Shadow of the Blair Witch, which many thought were better than the proper films in the series- myself included. He also wrote the Curse of the Blair Witch mock-doc as well, another good one.
Alien Raiders is well-worth checking out, and clocks in at a taut 85 minutes, a fair amount of which is devoted to the ever-popular slow-crawl credits, but honestly, it's no longer than it needs to be. It just tells the story at hand and gets in and out, faring better in its quest than the hapless team does in theirs, at least.
A solid contender for a double feature with Raiders is the tongue-in-cheek Massacre on Aisle 12, which, like that film, is what is typically called a "bottle" flick- or a movie that takes place in one location. It's a clever way for low-budget filmmakers to cut down on costs by minimizing location shooting to one primary locale, often adopted by horror filmmakers.
In this case, the film takes place in a hardware store, right around Christmas, though the Xmas trappings, as with Raiders, is limited to a few casual decorations, and, in this case, an appearance by a man dressed as Santa, complete with his dubious helper, a scantily-clad "elf" that is later not surprisingly revealed to be a stripper. I'm not sure when hardware stores started having in-store Santas, but whatever.
Fun fact: the girl in question, Amber Jean, isn't just a real-life dancer and model- she's an executive producer on the film! Talk about putting those dollar bills to good use, lol. That probably explains why she doesn't get naked, though- sorry, guys. (Don't worry- someone else does- no fool she, that Amber. Note also her prominent placement on the movie poster.)
The plot revolves around a group of workers at the store who discover a dead guy holding a bag of cash stashed in a trunk in the stock room and who immediately want to split up the money and make a break for it. One of the workers wants to call the cops, but he is outvoted, and in no time, everyone starts to turn on one another, as tends to be the case in movies like this. (See also A Simple Plan.)
The end result is akin to something like Murder Party, which is to say, a black comedy of errors, where people start ending up dead, many of them accidentally, as everyone frantically tries to fend for themselves. It also functions as a bit of a spoof of movies like Die-Hard, with in-joke nods to everything from Lethal Weapon to Ghostbusters.
Not unlike Clerks, the idea for the film sprung from the real-life experiences of co-writer A.J. Via, who worked in a similar type store and based many of the characters on people he worked with. The film was directed by William McCullough (also an actor- he was in Logan Lucky and on TV's The Gifted) and Jim Klock (another actor-turned-director- he was on TV's Scream Queens and True Detective- and the co-founder of Code 3 Films, which co-produced the film).
It's ultra low-budget, and the cast is made up of basically unknowns, though Chad Ridgely, who all but steals the movie as the maniacal Jack, has a small role in the next Quentin Tarantino movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In addition, I just adored the snarky Goth-chick type, Melissa Saint-Amand, who also had a recurring role on Netflix's Ozark this past season.
All in all, it's a fun little movie, and if the end results seem a bit like a glorified student film, that doesn't make it any less entertaining in the moment, though, for that reason, it won't be for everyone. It is clever the way the film keeps you guessing as to who will be left standing, though the film tips its hand on that, to a certain degree, in the opening scene.
A rogue Santa (played by one of the directors, BTW) and his stripper elf notwithstanding, this isn't a very Christmas-friendly movie, either, so let's get to the ones that are. First up, there's the trashy-but-fun All Through the House, which sets its tone early on with some gratuitous nudity and a guy having his ween chopped off- and neither for the last time. (The killer has quite the collection of the latter by the film's end!)
Perhaps needless to say, you'll know if you're in or you're out within that first sequence. That said, if you like a good slasher, least of all a Xmas-themed one, then you should like this, more or less. The killer dresses as Santa, albeit an especially creepy one (see poster), and there is a small fortune spent on decorations, especially inside and outside the house where most of the action takes place.
The plot revolves around a young woman, Rachel (Ashley Mary Nunes), who comes home for the holidays and begrudgingly agrees to help her neighbor, Mrs. Garrett (Melynda Kiring) decorate for the holidays, in part out of guilt for the fact that her daughter, a childhood friend, went missing when Rachel was a kid, never to be found, and Garrett has been a recluse ever since.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned killer Santa is roaming the streets in the neighborhood, killing "naughty" women and castrating the men, for unknown reasons. One amusing bit has him invading the home of what turns out to be two lesbians. Denied his "keepsake," he takes a handy vibrator instead! Hey, any port in a storm, I guess.
While clearly low-budget, the film looks pretty decent, and makes good use of its colorful surroundings, with cinematographer Ryan J. Anderson often lighting things like a long-lost Dario Argento film from the 70's, which is to say, with lots of primary colors. The director is Todd Nunes, aka the leading lady's brother, so it's obvious how she got THAT job. (Nunes also did the honors on Here Comes Santa, an obvious dry run for this movie.)
That said, sister Ashley is good in the role, especially later on, when the plot takes some tricky turns. The two have worked together on previous projects, notably Scary Larry, and are currently working on a remake of the oddball cult film Don't Look in the Basement, entitled Death Ward 13, co-starring former Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein (not his real name, I'm guessing, lol) as the main villain.
Another low-budget film on the trashy side is Slay Belles, which is very Troma-esque and silly, but fun. It revolves around a group of "urban explorers," which is something I'm actually fascinated by. Basically, the girls seek out abandoned theme parks and tourist traps and surreptitiously film a web show there on the down-low.
I first became aware of such things when I happened upon one of these videos shot by real-life urban explorer Adam "The Woo" of the former Disney water park River Country, which I loved as a kid. Oddly, for reasons too elaborate to get into here (click here for more), it wasn't just shut down, it was abandoned by Disney and simply left there. Watching the footage, it's almost as if someone Roanoke'd the whole place and everyone just vanished. It's all pretty creepy.
Another such locale is Santa's Village, aka Santa Land in the film, where some of the action here takes place. (For more on the real deal, click here.) It's also worth mentioning that Adam "The Woo" himself served as an adviser on the film and provided some archival footage he dug up when researching the lost theme park.
In this case, we have three "Adventure Girls" shooting some footage there for their web show when they run afoul of the notorious Krampus. Enter Santa Claus himself, played by Rocky Horror Picture Show's Barry Bostwick as a sort of old-school biker type, to help the girls survive and hopefully save Christmas in the process.
The girls are played by Kristina Klebe (Rob Zombie's Halloween) as Alexi, the reluctant one, newly invited to join the group; Susan Slaughter (an IRL "Ghost Hunter" and self-proclaimed witch, from Ghost Hunters International and the movie Ouija House) as Dahlia, a Jessica Nigri-like cosplayer type and the bad-ass of the group; and Hannah Wagner (aka former YouTuber Mistress Hannah Jinx or Miss Hannah Minx, a cosplayer-turned actress, also of the movie The Devil's Carnival) as sexy Sadie, the wild card of the group.
The girls are all fairly likable and have great chemistry- and yes, one of them gets naked (Slaughter), though the emphasis is more on gore than gratuitous nudity, so don't go in expecting a T&A fest, though the girls are certainly scantily-clad throughout. It plays more like a tame Russ Meyer flick with healthy dollops of Troma-style humor and gory deaths. The FX is surprisingly not bad, and the Krampus in particular looks pretty awesome.
I didn't expect much from a director who calls himself "Spooky" Dan Walker, but this flick, co-produced by Saw and Repo! The Genetic Opera director Darren Lynn Bousman, is actually a lot of fun and perfect party movie fodder for the right kind of crowd, i.e. the not overtly PC people. Even though the girls are wearing skimpy outfits, they are still well-drawn and have distinct personalities, and the actresses seem to be having a ball, which makes the flick all the more enjoyable.
And at just over on hour and some change- plus the return of the slow-crawl credits to pad things out to 75 minutes, it's a minor commitment, time-wise. Granted, some of the supporting cast is pretty bad, acting-wise (almost to be expected in a film like this) and some of the cinematography is a bit out of whack, lighting-wise, but overall, it's a fun little movie, with a cool twist at the end that allows for a sequel. Too bad about that oft-grating score, though. I like some EDM just fine, but a lot of what's in this movie is annoying AF.
Last but not necessarily least, we have Once Upon a Time at Christmas, a weird little British flick that revolves around a Mickey-and-Mallory-Knox-type couple that dub themselves Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and dress accordingly, and go around terrorizing a small town, blatantly mass murdering the denizens of the town with nearly each passing day in the run-up to Christmas.
Before long, a pattern emerges that helps the local law enforcement figure out what the two are up to, while a more personal connection leads our main heroine, Jennifer (Laurel Brady) to realize who the main killer is, and why he is bumping off people with links to her.
The mystery element is a good idea, but the movie admittedly fumbles the ball in the way it doles out information, making what's really going on, from the MO of the killers to the identity of the psycho Santa obvious to everyone but the characters themselves, which is too bad, as there's a good movie in here somewhere.
Not helping matters is the mostly wooden acting, though Simon Phillips (the White Collar Hooligan series), as the killer Santa, is actually understated and quite good, rising above the material he's been given in a worthwhile way that bodes well for his future as an actor. Meanwhile, the histrionic Sayla Vee (see what she did there?), as Mrs. Claus, seems to be aiming for Harley Quinn, but lands firmly at the feet of Sheri Moon Zombie, circa House of 1000 Corpses, and not in a good way.
The rest of the cast is mostly bland, which makes it tough to care about their fates. (Although redhead Susanna Mackay, seen above, is a looker and has some real verve.) Even crazier, the accents here are all over the place, from American to Canadian to British, making it tough to tell where the hell this is all supposed to take place. While its at least explained why the Santa character is British later on, no attempt is made to have everyone else talk in a uniform accent throughout and it's pretty distracting.
The cinematography isn't bad, though, and the film gets off some fairly impressive shots, particularly some overhead ones that help establish how isolated the town is from the outside world, a matter not helped by the increasing amount of snow around. The special effects, though, are bargain basement, and quite obviously stuck in via CGI in post-production, making them look blatantly fake, which isn't helped by the cast, who are often shown smiling and even breathing after their deaths!
I guess this must have done alright, rental-wise or whatever, because a sequel has already been commissioned for next year. That's not a spoiler, BTW, as the movie shows its hand even more obviously than the beginning of Massacre on Aisle 12, which at least has a few twists up its sleeve. Here, we can pretty much guess everything that's going to happen in the end, to a point. That's too bad, since, as I said, the film had promise. Maybe they'll get it right the next time.
Well, that about wraps up my look back at what I watched over the holidays so far. Of course, no Xmas horror fest would be complete without a few classics, so I did indeed watch the superlative Black Christmas- the original, accept no substitutes- and any number of animated Xmas delights, notably The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I hadn't seen in a few years.
I also watched a few cheesy Xmas comedies, like A Bad Moms Christmas and Office Christmas Party, which were both about what you'd expect, with the former slightly better than the latter, surprisingly enough, as I expected the exact reverse. I suppose both are worth watching once. But only once.
And my friends and longtime readers know I'm a sucker for Lacey Chabert, who is one of those actresses whose name is almost synonymous with the holiday at this point, thanks to the copious amount of films she's made that feature it, many for the notoriously Xmas-fixated Hallmark Channel.
This year, I went off-script and watched the meh-inducing Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, mainly because it also had Emma Stone in it, who I also adore, but, aside from all the female eye candy involved, it was just as cheesy as one would expect, if a step up from most Hallmark offerings, at least.
Beyond that, though, it was business as usual, with all the expected stuff: Rudolph, Charlie Brown, Emmett Otter (can't go wrong with Riverbottom Nightmare Band!), etc, plus a few holiday specials here and there, like the Gwen Stefani one, and God help me, the Pentatonix special, which was as cheesy as one would expect. (Hey, I was home for the holidays, so I had to wait until most everyone went to bed before breaking out the horror/cult stuff.)
I will be doing a special New Year's Eve-themed horror flick, likely on Monday, though I might do it a day early just to get it out of the way, even though I don't have anything major planned this NYE. I'll likely just veg out, drink and watch some of the musical specials until I get sick of it and throw in another NYE-themed horror movie.
Until then, thanks for reading, and be sure to join me on Monday for the festivities! 😃🎉
After the fifth installment of the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise in 1991, the series laid dormant for over two decades. However, in the 2000's, horror remakes became all the rage, with many of the slasher movies a lot of us grew up with getting upgrades for the new generation, even if the results could be mixed, to say the least.
A lot of the ones that garnered the most complaints from horror fans tended to be the ones that strayed the most from the blueprints of the original films, such as Prom Night (which used the titular setting and little else), When a Stranger Calls (which expanded the infamous opening sequence into its own film- not a bad idea in theory- but then flinched at going dark in the end) and April Fools' Day (takes the premise of pranks gone wrong with a group of rich young people, but not much else).
However, interestingly enough, it was possible to do one's own thing and still be a relatively entertaining horror movie- witness My Bloody Valentine, The Hills Have Eyes and another Christmas-themed horror flick remake, Black Christmas (aka Black Xmas). (I'll leave Rob Zombie's divisive Halloween movies alone for you to debate, quality-wise.) IMHO, Silent Night falls firmly into the latter category.
On the surface, it has little to do with the other movies in the franchise- but then, neither do the fourth and fifth installments. Instead, it takes the story back to its roots: a killer dressed like Santa Claus terrorizing a small town around Christmas time. That's all you need, really, though there is a reason for this killer's rampage, and it's a reasonably solid one, even if we literally only get most of it at the very end.
WARNING!- SPOILER ALERT! You might want to skip the next section if you haven't seen the film!
The film picks up with the killer already having kidnapped two "sinners"- a man and a woman- and in the process of preparing for the festivities to come, putting on the Santa outfit and fashioning his own distinct plastic mask, which is admittedly pretty creepy (see pics).
He then dispatches the two unlucky people, one in gloriously gory fashion on-screen, by way of electrocution by Christmas lights, which causes his eyes to blow out. The other happens off-screen, but we see the gory aftermath later on.
Shortly thereafter, a man turns up at the local police precinct to report his wife missing, which dovetails with one of the officers on the force likewise not turning up. This leads the station receptionist, Brenda (Ellen Wong, Scott Pilgrim, GLOW) to surmise the two have run off together, as there have been rumors to that end.
Because of this development, poor Deputy Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King, also of the My Bloody Valentine and Mother's Day remakes) has to report for duty on her day off- an especially egregious event, not only because it's Christmas Eve, but also the anniversary of her husband's untimely death, which still haunts her.
She begrudgingly agrees, and Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell, firmly in Dr. Loomis mode, circa Halloween II) has her check out an abandoned house, where neighbors have reported an awful smell. Lucky her, it turns out to be where the aforementioned murders occurred, and sure enough, it's the missing cop, Jordan (Brendan Fehr, TV's Roswell, CSI: Miami) and the missing wife (Ali Tartaryn, Curse and Cult of Chucky).
However, the woman's husband has an airtight alibi, so it's back to the drawing board for suspects. Meanwhile, the gory murders continue, ranging from a bratty teen (Laura Cartlidge) to a group of soft-core pornographers shooting nudie pics.
In the most spectacular of the deaths, the nude model, Maria (B-movie regular Cortney Palm, Sushi Girl, Zombeavers) flees for her life, topless, from the killer and runs to a nearby Christmas tree farm, where she first has her leg chopped off by the killer, and is then unceremoniously dumped into a wood chipper, Fargo-style, alive and kicking, along with said leg for good measure.
It's pretty awesome, but Palm is admittedly easy on the eyes, so it's a shame to see her go. But you know how it is in these movies- sinners get "punished." And we all know that getting nekkid in slasher films means you're almost certainly going to end up deader than a door-nail, so there you go.
As the day continues, the suspects begin to pile up: there's grumpy Santa Jim (Donal Logue, TV's Sons of Anarchy, Gotham), who is from out-of-town and has an iffy record; creepy local preacher, Reverend Madeley (The Good Life, Wild Cherry), who drools over every hot girl in sight, including Deputy Bradimore; and Stein Karsson (Mike O'Brien, The Lost Angel, New in Town), aka "Mr. Snow," a drug dealer with connections to the nudie pic crew. Perhaps needless to say, it's none of the above.
Indeed, all of the above end up dead- the first two by the killer Santa himself (though Jim might have been okay if he'd kept his mouth shut, given that the killer let him out of his jail cell), and the latter by Aubrey, who tracks him down to the same motel as the photogs and shoots him before he can shoot her.
However, she also notices that Karsson received a "gift" of a lump of coal, which matches the packaging of the ones given to both the porn peeps... and her own father, a retired cop (John B. Lowe, The Butterfly Effect, The Haunting in Connecticut). Aubrey rushes to her house, only to find her father disemboweled, although her mother is okay.
She remembers that there was a similar gift at the precinct as well and rushes there, where the Santa has already killed the Sheriff- with a flamethrower, no less! - and beaten Jim to death, and poor Brenda is cowering in a closet, awaiting her doom. Aubrey and the killer duke it out, with Aubrey eventually getting hold of the flamethrower and "killing" him with it, as she and Brenda escape the flaming building.
But, as we later discover, the killer is alive and well, albeit badly burned, and we see him leaving town, his mission basically accomplished. Via flashbacks, we finally see his motives: it turns out that, when he was a child, Ronald Jones, Jr. (stunt man Rick Skene, who plays both father in flashbacks and son in present day) witnessed the death of his father at the hands of Aubrey's young father- hence his also being killed, in spite of being "innocent"- after he caught his wife cheating and killed her and her lover with the aforementioned flamethrower.
As such, the poor kid went crazy and, as an adult, plotted these subsequent murders, disguising himself as Santa Claus to hide in plain sight, and dispatching anyone he saw as "sinners" who needed to be "punished." Rumor has it he has done this in other towns, so it seems likely he will continue his reign of terror elsewhere, his goal achieved in this particular town.
END OF MAJOR SPOILERS
Silent Night is a fun, gritty little slasher with dark leanings and a non-nonsense approach to its subject matter. Though not without a sense of black humor- particularly in regards to the Sheriff character and Jim, the belligerent Santa- by and large, the film is grim and gory and definitely not for the faint of heart. The killings are often brutal and the sort of thing that would have easily landed this movie an "X" rating back in the day.
These are different times, though, and you might be shocked at how much director Steven C. Miller (Escape Plan 2: Hades, Marauders) gets away with here. The FX is fantastic and sometimes even cringe-inducing (i.e. the wood-chipper scene, see above gif) and the cinematography, by Joseph White (Repo! The Genetic Opera, Mother's Day), is nothing short of spectacular, with excellent use of holiday-appropriate primary colors.
The score, by Kevin Reipl, is also the best since the original. (You can listen to it in full here.) Factor in a surprisingly great cast- arguably the best in the entire franchise, in fact- and a decent script by Jayson Rothwell (Malice in Wonderland, Polar) and you have a pretty solid little slasher.
I also liked the way the movie pays homage to the original films, with tongue-in-cheek references like the reprise of the "Grandfather" scene, the infamous antler death (with the hottie here represented by looker Courtney Jane-White of Lost Girl and Todd and the Book of Pure Evil fame) and even a nod to everyone's favorite meme-inducer, "Garbage Day!" and the scene with the kid and killer Santa.
Although the film plays less like a remake than a slasher with a similar plot, the fact that it at least acknowledges its origins is appreciated, and more importantly, it delivers the goods in a nice, neat, gory package. Ninety-odd minutes and we're out, just like a good slasher should be. Only in some ways, this is better, because of the level of talent involved.
Don't get me wrong, the first two movies in the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise will always be among my go-to Christmas horror favorites, and there's no imitating that quintessential 80's vibe of the original, try though some might, but this is one of the rare "remakes" that both honors the source material and does its own thing without pissing off fans- or this one, anyway.
If you prefer your slashers on the modern side, then you'll love this, especially if you have no real attachment to the original. In fact, you might be surprised how competent it all is, given the excellent cast and decent scripting, directing and acting throughout, to say nothing of the colorful palette of the visuals, which are almost worth the price of admission alone.
By all means, check this one out!
Well, that about does it for the SNDN franchise. I'll be back after Christmas with a final look back by the numbers, as I did with my previous reviews of The Omen and Halloween, and I may still do a brief wrap-up of the other Christmas-themed horror movies I watched, just for the hell of it. (I tried to get to it yesterday, but the computer was misbehaving yet again.)
After that, look for a few New Year's-themed horror flick reviews before we get back to normal for a while. Until then, have a merry Christmas- or whatever you're celebrating, if you celebrate at all- and keep an eye on those local Santas... you never know what they might get up to! 🎅😈🔪💀
