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! 🎅😈🔪💀
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