Title: Silent Night
Directed by: Steven C. Miller
Starring: Jaime King, Malcolm McDowell, Ellen Wong, Brendan Fehr and Donal Logue
Running time: 94 minutes, Rated R, Available on DVD
Special Features: Behind the scenes, Deleted scenes
A killer in a Santa Claus suit chooses Christmas Eve to start killing off some unsavory members of a small mid-western town.
Electrocution by Christmas lights resulting in exploding eyeballs. A bratty little girl getting some well deserved permanent time out with a cattle-prod, a naked chick in a wood chipper; these and more await your viewing pleasure in the new holiday classic Silent Night. It’s a retelling of the 80′s slasher flick, Silent Night Deadly Night.
Jamie King plays a town deputy who is having trouble believing she is tough enough to handle this job and the tough as nails Sheriff (Malcolm McDowell) are both on the case to catch the killer Santa on the same day there is a Santa parade going through town. They start to piece together that all the offed residents are truly naughty or have done something to merit a lump of coal in their stocking. Donal Logue plays a painfully cynical Santa who offers some comedy among the gore.
Silent Night isn’t chock full of gratuitous blood and guts, however the actual worthwhile creative deaths were done within the first 10 minutes of the film. The rest of the carnage was kind of rehashed from the original film and a little predictable and boring. If you’ve never seen the original, but are still a horror movie fan, you’ll pretty much figure out who the killer is and are just along for the ride until someone has the brains or balls to thwart him. I wasn’t really impressed, but it’s an adequate updated remake.
Reviewed by: JM Willis
Total Rating: C
