Too much of everything

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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.

Getting Malcolm McDowell for your horror movie is always a nice treat. And he seems to be willing to help (young) filmmakers out, like in this case. This fun little slasher, is not profound, but it does not need to be. You just want to pop in the movie, drink the beverage of your choice and have a bowl of whatever in front of you, to cheer on the events unfolding on screen.Christmas has been used in other movies to go dark and evil, so that's not new (even Santa has been bad quite a few times in the past), but the level of violence reached here has to be in the top 3 at least. There are some innovative ways Santa is disposing of "evil" persons and it's kind a fun to watch this low budget movie, even when it struggles at times. Fun, because we know it's a movie.

Jaime King leads the cast here in this re-imagining of Charles Sellier's controversial holiday slasher as a deputy in a small town where a man in a Santa suit is killing residents on Christmas Eve. To complicate matters, the town's annual Santa Claus costume contest is scheduled, and the bodies are piling up like snowfall.The original "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is and always has been an exceptional piece of slasher trash; I recently re-watched it and was surprised at how shoddily put together it was, yet it still maintains enough charm and moments of horrific wit to keep itself afloat. It's a bad film with good qualities, and what horror fan doesn't love a holiday slasher? That said, it's not surprising that someone eventually sought a remake of the material. This re-imagining is loosely cribbed from the original film, but spins an entirely different premise and takes the point-of-view of a police deputy seeking the villain as opposed to the childhood trauma psychology lesson that the first film explores with Billy and his ticking-time-bomb rampage. It's a more predictable spin for sure, but the script is well written enough to compensate for this. The film has a gritty quality and is uncompromisingly grim in terms of violence— perhaps more than the original — and edges into the territory of 21st century splatter, but it's dark and effective for it. Jaime King leads the cast as a tortured police deputy, with support from veteran Malcolm McDowell, and both are very solid in their roles here. Former model and now-actress King is surprisingly believable as a cop, and her chemistry with McDowell is enjoyable on screen. Overall, "Silent Night" is a great revision of the 1984 film that is surprisingly watchable and not nearly as bad as you may expect of a direct-to-video slasher remake. Solid performances and McDowell's presence elevate everything a notch or two, but at the end of the day, the real fun here is watching a mad Santa wreak bloody havoc on unsuspecting suburbia. In some ways it's as absurd as the original, but it's overall a better-executed film, and, if nothing else, is a worthwhile complementary entry into the Christmas horror sub-genre. 7/10.

Director Steven C. Minor's "Silent Night" qualifies as an above-average horror chiller. This grisly, R-rated, 94-minute, cinematic massacre makes the grade on the basis of its fidelity to the standard-issue slasher movie formula with a valiant but vulnerable, pistol-packing heroine, a high body count, and several sadistically staged slaughter scenes. A gruesome guy in traditional Santa Claus garb goes around slaying apparently unsuspecting but not altogether wholesome citizens in a variety of ways. Our villain electrocutes a sex addict; shocks as well as skewers a foul-mouthed brat of a little girl; eviscerates three people; hacks up more with an ax; mulches a naked woman in a shredder; garrotes the town mayor, and charbroils the police chief with a flame-thrower. The image of Santa Claus armed with a flame-thrower alone makes "Silent Night" an unforgettable sizzler. Indeed, this murderous maniac amounts to a model but not quite iconic monster in the classical mold of "Nightmare on Elm Street's" Freddy Kruger, "Halloween's" Michael Myers, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's" Leatherface of," or Jason of "Friday the 13th" infamy. Nevertheless, Santa Claus looks creepy enough with his plastic mask to send a shiver down your spine. He murders in cold blood without a qualm and derives delight in doling out his deadly deeds. "Malice in Wonderland" scenarist Jayson Rothwell and Minor stock their movie with interesting, off-beat characters uttering clever dialogue. For example, they have a cynical Santa Claus, a mom with a heart ailment, a leering minister, and a cop who likes to swing his night-stick. Minor displays more than enough style in orchestrating the gritty action. In the words of one Santa Claus imposter, "Silent Night" "ain't all candy canes and pretty lights." Squeamish viewers should shun this blood-soaked saga of death and dismemberment, while gorehounds will gush with glee at all this wanton mayhem. "Silent Night" gets off to a gripping start with our Santa Claus imposter electrocuting a deputy sheriff with a string of colored Christmas lights. The ill-fated deputy complains that he didn't know the woman with whom he had sex was Santa's wife. The cuckolded Mr. Claus fries him to death. As it turns out, the cop realizes before he dies that his killer isn't a jealous husband but a sick f-word.Cue the open credits and then cut to Deputy Sheriff Aubrey Bradimore (Jamie King of "Sin City") awakening to a phone call from her boss, Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell), who orders her to cinch on her gunbelt and come into work. It seems that the promiscuous policeman who died in the first scene had taken over her shift but since he disappeared Cooper requires Aubrey's presence. During these first few minutes we also learn that the remote Midwestern hamlet of Cryer is withering from economic hardship. Aubrey is reluctant to pull her shift. Meanwhile, a bratty little girl demands that her mother take her to the shopping mall. She goes so far as to knock the bottle of heart medicine out of her mom's mitts to get her attention. Not long afterward, the doorbell rings, and the little hellion finds herself confronting a towering Santa Claus. Without warning, jolly ole' St. Nick stuns her with a cattle prod so that she foams at the mouth and then runs her through with a pike.Sheriff's Department dispatcher Brenda (Ellen Wong) sends Aubrey out to an abandoned house where Aubrey discovers the body of Deputy Sheriff Jordan and heaves up. Sheriff Cooper is pretty obnoxious as lawmen go and reprimands her for not waiting for him. Few characters emerge from this tale of terror in one piece. If you like horror movies that will raise your hackles, you'll savor this stocking stuffer of sadism.