Silent Night

LOVE this movie. Sick, twisted, and sadistic good time.

As a fairly loose remake of "Silent Night, Deadly Night," the 2012 "Silent Night" merely adopts a few elements from the original and largely tells its own story. What the films have in common is that a dude dressed as Santa kills a bunch of people. And there really are a lot of pretty naughty individuals in this small town, so Santa has his work cut out for him. The kills are brutal and plentiful, and the tongue-in-cheek humor of the original is largely dispensed with, except for a little black humor. As a result, this is a much colder film, which is reflected in the color grading, and I didn't particularly enjoy the visual identity. At least Jaime King is a reasonably likeable lead actress, and Malcolm McDowell is entertaining as usual. Ultimately, however, "Silent Night" suffers from the problem that many slashers have, namely that pretty much all the victims are such unsympathetic assholes that you simply can't sympathize with them. Personally, I definitely prefer slashers, where I care when characters die. That's why I can't really recommend this remake.