Silent Night (2012) Review

Christmas 2013 is just days away, so we thought it would be a perfect time to share our review of Steven C. Miller’s Holiday Opus, Silent Night, once again.

Yell! Magazine’s review of Silent Night (2012): It’s campy. There’s no way around it. When you make Santa Claus a serial killer, there’s always going to be an element of campiness in your film. And Silent Night (2012) has cheese in spades. However, director Steven C. Miller took it seriously, at least the gore and the killing. Actually, he took the balance of corny and gore seriously.

I’ve been looking forward to Silent Night for quite some time now, and I have to say that I was not disappointed. The film delivers everything that it should, when it should. However, despite reading countless descriptions, watching trailers and teaser scenes, I still wasn’t sure what to expect. So, when the Silent Night (2012) Blu-ray arrived (which looks fantastic, by the way) for my reviewing pleasure, my ecstatic and trembling hands plopped it in the platter and I sat down to enjoy it in some capacity.

I got more than I expected. I got a visceral experience and, well, some transparent meaning, that is, I got some of the seven deadly sins. Silent Night’s Santa goes after those who have been naughty, from lust to greed to pride, and then it kinda just petered out.

While serial-killer Santa is the driving character behind Silent Night, it’s Jaime King’s Deputy Aubrey Bradimore’s journey that captivates us and gives us someone to root for. It’s amazing how King could play her part so straight in the face of Malcolm McDowell’s genius delivery of his one liners. But, if you want to find some substance in Silent Night, take a look at Bradimore’s idyllic existence (save for the recent death of her husband) and how it shifts.

The focus on Bradimore is an obvious deviation from the original film, Silent Night, Deadly Night, which spends three-quarters of its runtime dealing with the origin story. However, fans of the original will enjoy at least three of the homages the new film pays to it. Miller ended Silent Night in a way that… ah, you don’t want to hear that.

The Verdict:[rating:4.5]

As hard as it is to believe, Silent Night successfully manages to make a believable serial-killer out of Santa. It also delivers cheesy camp and serious gore with a passable plot. It’s a slasher movie, through and through, and it definitely should be seen.

Rock Hard \m/