Silent Night (2012 film)
Silent Night is a 2012 American slasher film directed by Steven C. Miller and starring Jaime King, Malcolm McDowell, Donal Logue, Brendan Fehr, and Ellen Wong. It is a loose remake of Charles E. Sellier Jr.'s 1984 film Silent Night, Deadly Night and the sixth installment in the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise. The film was given a limited theatrical release on November 20, 2012 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 6, 2012.
Plot
A mysterious man dresses in a Santa Claus suit, complete with a mask. Once dressed, "Santa" captures and kills Jordan, a police officer in the small town of Cryer, Wisconsin. Jordan is sleeping with the married Alana Roach and is electrocuted with Christmas lights in his home. The following day, Christmas Eve, the Sheriff of Cryer, Sheriff Cooper, calls Deputy Aubrey Bradimore in on her day off when Jordan doesn't arrive at work. Aubrey is a new addition to the police force and is still reeling from the unexpected death of her husband John. She doesn't think she's a good officer as she is trying to live up to her father, who is a retired cop. Aubrey was going to spend the holiday with her parents but instead goes out to check on Jordan, finding his mangled body and Roach torn apart later in the day. Sheriff Cooper decides not to tell Mayor Revie until the case is solved.Meanwhile, the masked Santa killer goes on a murder spree, killing those who have done something he considers 'naughty.' His next victim is a bratty teenage girl who he kills with a taser, then he makes his way to the local motel, murdering two of three people during a softcore porn shoot. One woman manages to escape and tries to hide inside a Christmas Tree farm, but the killer chops off one of her legs and throws her feet-first into a woodchipper. Sheriff Cooper calls in Deputy Stanley Giles and goes out to find the killer himself, but comes back empty-handed. Aubrey starts to suspect Santa Jim Epstein, a local drunken Santa portrayer, drug dealer Stein Karsson, and the perverted Reverend Madely.
Aubrey attempts to interrogate Karsson, but he flees. Aubrey gives chase, but is nearly killed and only saved by Cooper. That evening, during the town's annual Christmas parade, Aubrey searches for the killer but is unable to identify him among a crowd of men dressed in Santa Claus suits, though she arrests Jim when he flees from her. The killer Santa continues on his spree, murdering Mayor Revie, his porn star daughter Tiffani, and her boyfriend Dennis. The killer then arrives at the church and kills Reverend Madely for stealing donation money. Aubrey goes to Karsson's motel room to arrest him, and is forced to kill him when he draws a gun.
Aubrey notices a gift box that contains a piece of coal, and recalls that both the station and her father had received the same gift. Aubrey arrives at her parents's home, only to find her father dead and her mother hiding in the closet. Meanwhile, the killer attacks the station, killing Cooper, Giles, and Jim. Aubrey, along with the station secretary Brenda, are cornered by the killer inside the police station, where the killer tries to burn down the place with a homemade flamethrower. Aubrey is able to overpower the killer Santa and sets him on fire, but in the end he manages to escape.
It is later revealed that the killer Santa is Ronald Jones Jr., owner of a local chimney cleaning and repair service, and he survived the flamethrower attack. During the hunt for the killer, Aubrey learns from another Santa portrayer that Ronald Sr. had crashed his ex-wife's Christmas party many years ago, burning her alive with the homemade flamethrower. Aubrey's father was the police officer that responded to the situation and gunned him down, only to find out that Ronald Jr. was in his father's truck watching the entire time. The tragedy caused Ronald Jr. to go insane and seek revenge, dressing as Santa so he would not get caught during Cryer's Christmas festivities.
Cast
Based on a True Story
The 2012 adaptation of Silent Night is based on a real event known as the Covina Massacre. On Christmas Eve in 2008, a 45-year-old man named Bruce Jeffrey Pardo killed nine people by gunshot wounds or in arson fire at a holiday party. Pardo wore a Santa suit during the massacre, as does the main antagonist in Silent Night.Release
Distributed by Anchor Bay, the film was released in theaters for a limited run in select U.S. cities on November 30, 2012, showing in 11 theaters. It grossed $14,567 in the United States. Internationally, the film grossed $100,065, making for a worldwide gross of $114,633. It was and then on DVD and Blu-ray, on December 4.Reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 64% based on 11 reviews, with a rating average of 5.8/10. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score based on reviews from mainstream critics, awarded the film an average score of 53 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".The Los Angeles Times wrote that "The movie's intended audience will likely be satisfied by its parade of gory mayhem, cheap thrills and groan-worthy dark humor. Everyone else: You're on your own" while The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "cinematic lump of coal" and a "formulaic effort". Variety felt that the film was "a singularly glum and dumb enterprise" and concluded "apart from some modestly inventive carnage and an undeniably humorous hambone turn by Malcolm McDowell, there's really nothing here to make genre fans dash through the snow".
Silent Night was met with mostly positive reception from several horror film sites, such as Slasher Studios and Oh, The Horror!. Bloody Disgusting gave a score of three and a half out of five, writing "While Silent Night does not add anything new to the subgenre, it delivers the ho ho horror with its spectacular kills and tongue-in-cheek humor. This is a fun film that is bound to spread some holiday cheer in the hearts' of slasher fans" and Fearnet stated "this straightforward and scrappy little remake is somehow more entertaining than half of what passes for "wide release" horror movies these days. Toss in some fine cinematography, some cool musical touches, and just enough "in jokes" to keep the hardcore horror fans happy, Silent Night certainly isn't great, but it is consistently fun, and that's more than enough—especially for a horror remake". Christopher Safranski of Dread Central stated Silent Night “is one case that I think breaks the standard rule” of originals being superior to remakes because “What makes the remake work is its ability to balance horror and comedy very well”.