Silent Night Review: Christmas in July Blogathon 2017

Kicking off this year’s Christmas in July blogathon is non-other than Darren from Movie Reviews 101. Darren is primarily a horror movie fan but reviews all sorts of movies on his site, as well as running the bi-weekly Opinion Battle segment. He is also a co-host of the Talking Stars podcast (which I was a guest on recently, which you can checkout the here).  If you don’t already follow him, definitely go and do so. Now, let’s check out Darren’s review of the Christmas horror film, Silent Night.

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Director: Steven C Miller
Writer: Jayson Rothwell (Screenplay)
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King, Donal Logue, Rick Skene, Ellen Wong
Plot: The police force of a remote Midwestern town search for a killer Santa Claus who is picking off citizens on Christmas Eve.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Solid Horror Remake

Story: Silent Night starts in this small town where deputy Aubrey Bradimore (King) is forced to work Christmas Eve by Sherriff Cooper (McDowell), the town is overrun by Santa’s but we learn early on that one of them is killing he residents.

As the bodies start to build up Aubrey and Cooper must track down this serial killer Santa that has a past to the town that has caused the vengeful nature of the killer Santa.

Thoughts on Silent Night

Characters/Performance – Deputy Bradimore is expecting Christmas off but that changes when she is forced into work, her day gets worse when a serial killer Santa starts killing people and she must face her worries to take down this killer. Sheriff Cooper is the heartless boss of the cops, he expects them to be good at his jobs and will stay loyal to them when they are in danger. The killer Santa is menacing through the film with his increased size making him a threat to anybody who gets in his way.

Performance wise, Malcolm McDowell is always a good for a horror film and he is solid throughout the film. Jaime King continues her run in horror remakes and is solid through the film too. The rest of the cast are fine but most only have the odd scene.

Story – The original Silent Night Deadly Night is something of a cult classic now and these are the type of horrors you don’t mind getting a remake happen. This time we don’t get enough of the backstory to why the Santa has gone on the rampage, we also don’t have the best written characters as they all come of plain and the kills are all created to try and push some boundaries in the slasher kill list. The strong point is that this all happens over one day.

Comedy/Horror/Mystery – Certain parts of the film will give you a laugh, this does include some of the kills too, the horror side is all slasher and a joy for the fans but does lack any suspense. The mystery comes into this one as we want to know why he is killing people.
Settings – The small town setting does make for a good choice because the cops all know the victims and understand the trauma the families would be going through.

Special Effects – Looking at the effects the practical kills are good throughout but a couple of shots look very awkward CGI.
Final Thoughts – This is one for all the slasher horror fans to enjoy, I can’t see a mainstream audience wanting to see this film. most of the kills are not Christmas related which you feel is part of the ongoing joke of this style of film too.

Overall: Drunk Slashing Enjoyment.

Rating

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Keeping with the horror theme, Darren is inviting horror actress Katharine Isabelle to our holiday party.

Great choice, Darren! Come back later today for the next entry of the blogathon from Rob of MovieRob fame.

Until next time, cheers!