NateWatchesCoolMovies Santa is an axe wielding mass murderer! In Silent Night he is anyway, a slick, excessively gory remake of an obscure 80's slasher called Silent Night, Deadly Night, which I've still yet to see. This new version is a heavy handed, knowingly silly affair, as a small town Sheriff's department races to find a heinous killer who dresses like the red guy and has been wantonly slaughtering townsfolk all morning. A timid deputy (Sin City's Jaime King) is the front runner to head him off at the pass, joined by the cantankerous, mouthy Sheriff, played by a hammy Malcolm McDowell with attitude to spare. The murders are so over the top it seems like the filmmakers wanted to outdo each and every slasher film out there, an impossible task, but they throw Paint at the wall furiously anyway. Electrocution by Christmas lights, high powered flamethrower, a souped up stun gun used to skewer an annoying 14 year old chick, but my favourite has to be the naked stripper fed through a giant wood chipper in a scene that would have Fargo covering it's eyes. That's the kind of flick it is, sleazed out to the max, tongue firmly in it's cheek and never too serious. Problem is, a few of the actors (I'm looking at you,priest dude) take it way too far into camp territory and ruin whole sequences with their wannabe satirical blathering. McDowell gets the tone right though, and is a right treat as the world's most sarcastic lawman. Donal Logue also fares well as a bad tempered grinch of a mall Santa who eventually tangles with the murderer in a fiery police station set piece. Maybe I was just tired, but when the origin of the killer is finally revealed, which I waited for the whole time, it seemed like kind of a confusing letdown, a bit less of a surprise than it should have been. Worth it for the kills and a couple entertaining performances, but ultimately not much.

Bezenby A nutter dressed as Santa Claus is roaming around some sleepy town in America wasting people who have been naughty (starting with an adulterer and her lover), and it's up to deputy whats-her-name and grumpy police chief Malcolm McDowell to sort him out.I was getting fed up with slasher movies since they, at their worst, are just the same things you've seen over and over again (see Bunnyman massacre, Mask Maker etc). Silent Night IS the same sort of thing you've seen before, but it's really well made, contains actual tension, and is a beautiful film to look at. Of course, there are plenty of undesirable folk for our killer Claus to perforate, from the bratty kid to the pervy priest to the pornographers, and you've got plenty of gore to go with it too (including a head split in two with an axe and someone getting fed into a woodchipper feet first). I'm no worshipper of Malcolm McDowell but here he's pretty funny as the ignorant police chief who won't listen to his deputy. "Don't put avacado on the burger" indeed.Just shows that a good slasher film can be made if people can be arsed.

bowmanblue This film is severely low brow, kind of dumb and we've totally seen everything it has to offer (albeit better). Yet - for some reason - I really enjoyed it.Think 'Scream,' but with a Santa going around bumping off the townsfolk in various grisly ways then you're half way there. No, it's not as good as Scream (or even any of its sequels), but, if you're looking for a violent slasher flick to pass the time (and not require too many brain cells for) then this one fits the bill.You don't really need to know much about the plot = Santa-killer. You can probably fill in the rest yourself. Maybe it also helps to watch it around Christmas time. Seeing Santa roast perfect strangers with a flamethrower makes a pleasant change from those awful, sickly-sweet John Lewis commercials currently infesting the screen.Some people have complained about the killing of a child in the film, so, if you're squeamish and find that sort of thing unwatchable, you might want to steer clear.Otherwise, sit back and watch Malcolm McDowell deliciously overact (don't complain - he's doing it on purpose - this is kind of tongue-in-cheek, after all!) and deck the halls with burned-up bodies!

Coventry Call it a silly tradition, but I like to watch at least one holiday-themed horror movie each year around Christmas. After all, we can't all watch "Home Alone" or "Miracle on 34th Street" for the four hundred twentieth time, can we? This year I found in my stocking "Silent Night"; a totally insignificant but pleasantly deranged and entertaining Christmas horror comedy stuffed like a turkey with season's beatings! Partially a remake of the infamous (but overrated) cult slasher "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and partially inspired by the tragic real-life Covina massacre (husband kills ex-wife and former in-laws with a homemade flamethrower), "Silent Night" is primarily tongue-in-cheek with over-the-top acting performances and grotesquely gore killings. In the sleepy little town of Cryer, Wisconsin, Deputy Sheriff Aubrey reluctantly prepares herself to work a shift on Christmas Eve, while the rest of the town – including her beloved dad – attends the annual holiday parade and 'Santa Claus of the year' election. However, for Aubrey and her colleagues it will become a night full of ho-ho-horror, since a maniacal killer dressed as Santa came to town and leaves a nasty trail of mutilated corpses behind. The big bad Santa seemingly just targets sinners and scumbags, but the town of Cryer is full of them and Santa isn't finicky! I don't quite understand why the makers insist on labeling this a remake of "Silent Night, Bloody Night". Okay, so the film recycles the idea of a killer that suffered a severe childhood trauma during the Christmas period, but the original draws a detailed portrait of the culprit, whereas the remake barely just mentions the traumatic experiences as a footnote. Some of the death sequences are re-used as well, like the notorious deer-antlers impalement, but you could also call that a homage. "Silent Night" is a traditional slasher in the vein of the 80's classics, meaning there's a tremendously high body count and some gratuitous nudity; yet also a complete absence of suspense, logic or character depth. The most regrettable change since the 80's is that all the gore is computer generated and thus a lot less shocking or repulsive. Nonetheless does "Silent Night" feature a few sick highlights, like the chipping of topless model and an axe head-split. Director Steven C. Miller (his "Scream of the Banshee" was putrid) gathered quite an impressive cast for such a silly flick, even though they all have a history of appearing in B-movies. Malcolm McDowall clearly had a fun time as the grumpy old Sheriff who considers himself to be a gifted FBI-detective and Donal Logue appears as a cynical Santa who inevitably becomes the prime suspect. Jaime King ("My Bloody Valentine", "Mother's Day") is a likable female heroine, while the lovely Courtney-Jane Smith and Cortney Palm provide the film with a bit of ravishing bare flesh. In terms of holiday-horror, it certainly was a lot more enjoyable than the "Black Christmas" remake or any of the actual "Silent Night, Bloody Night" sequels, for that matter.