Movie Review: Silent Night (2012)

This is a very loose remake, which at first was pretty refreshing, but eventually, when the movie wanted to throw in a bunch of nods to the original movie and its first sequel, became a problem. At least for me. Recreating the scene with the catatonic grandfather, the antlers scene (with less nudity), and even a “garbage day” line all within about a half hour of each other was incredibly distracting for me. And it wouldn’t have been as distracting if the rest of the movie was more of a true remake.

But really we’ve got a different story here, different characters — all that.

This movie suffers a bit from uninspired casting, and I don’t mean Malcolm McDowell. He’s wonderful, and is the only person here who’s really perfect for his role.

The problem is the lead actress, Jaime King. She plays basically the exact same role in My Bloody Valentine 3D, which came out a few years earlier, and that really just makes this movie feel quite generic. It feels like a lot of other slasher throwbacks that came out around this time.

But at the end of the day, it’s a movie about a killer going around with a Santa suit.

There’s amusement to be had on the strength of that premise alone, but not much else.

Rating: 4/10