{"id":4991,"date":"2012-12-04T15:33:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T23:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=4991"},"modified":"2021-05-31T22:37:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T05:37:12","slug":"review-silentnight-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2012\/12\/review-silentnight-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent Night Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I suppose if you\u2019re going into Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> wanting to revisit the good old days of the 1980s slasher genre, it will probably meet your expectations. However, if you\u2019re looking even for a miniscule amount of logic \u2013answering a question posed by the main character \u2013 then the film will disappoint. I couldn\u2019t find much here to be entertaining.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSilent Night (2012)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Genre(s): <\/strong>Horror
\nAnchor Bay | R \u2013 94 min. \u2013 $29.99 | December 4, 2012<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Steven C. Miller
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Jayson Rothwell (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King, Donal Logue, Ellen Wong, Brendan Fehr<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>November 30, 2012<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Featurette, Deleted Scenes, DVD Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>20.2 GB
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cHe knows who\u2019s been naughty\u201d. Please note, this will be my biggest bone of contention…<\/p>\n

The slasher horror genre was huge in the 1980s especially since it was cheap to make, much like it is today, albeit slasher has turned into \u201ctorture porn\u201d in this early 21st<\/sup> century. Now, admittedly, I\u2019m not much of a fan of slasher movies preferring classic horror so watching Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> which is homage to the \u201880s slasher was not my cup of tea… or gallon of blood, take your pick.<\/p>\n

The story is set in a small Wisconsin town with a tiny police force which includes bumbling, self-important Sheriff Cooper (MALCOLM MCDOWELL), lazy Deputy Giles (ANDREW CECON), a slightly sassy dispatcher named Brenda (ELLEN WONG) and Officer Aubrey Bradimore (JAIME KING) who is our main character for this bloody journey.<\/p>\n

The violence and mayhem begins at the movie start where we find our killer Santa gearing up Batman Forever<\/em> style with a bound woman in one room and a Christmas light bound fellow (BRANDAN FEFR) in the basement. This is our Saw<\/em> moment as the guy begins to plead with Killer Santa that he didn\u2019t know the woman was married, etc., etc. but it doesn\u2019t matter as KS turns the Christmas lights into high gear blowing all kinds of bodily circuits, even blowing his mind out. It\u2019s a gruesome but eye-catching entrance for KS…<\/p>\n

As we meet others in town, including a creepy preacher, a placating mayor, his slutty daughter and a few others that certainly won\u2019t be the target of Killer Santa. Going on during the slaughters is, of course, a massive Santa contest where hundreds compete to be crowned… something or other. The only point is so our Killer Santa can roam the streets without being noticed.<\/p>\n

So, Killer Santa continues to strike seemingly at random first by killing a bratty teenage girl followed by a porn director, his assistant and the actress. As you can imagine, gallons upon gallons of blood is spilt with some gratuitous nudity thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n

With the blood and bodies piling up, the police finally get involved. Bradimore is on the scene from the beginning of the movie and discovers that the man in the basement is a fellow deputy who had not shown up to work that day. She continues the search upstairs and finds an even grislier discovery of the woman cut up. The cocky Sheriff arrives later and despite the knowledge of a serial killer being on the loose, as the porn crime scene was called in, he chooses not to bring in outside help and vows to stop the maniac killer himself. It should be noted that whenever the Sheriff is onscreen, a comedic twangy score plays over it.<\/p>\n

So, what is this Killer Santa\u2019s modus operandi? Well, Bradimore surmises he is going after bad people and asks, paraphrasing now, how he\u2019s able to determine who has been naughty. Good question deputy, unfortunately by film\u2019s end, it\u2019s never answered and completely ignored. In fact, it makes no bloody sense how Killer Santa knows what he does outside of one kill which I will leave out of this review since it plays into the killer\u2019s background.<\/p>\n

Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> was directed by Steven C. Miller, whose career has consisted of helming ho-hum to below average action-horror films, no doubt went in wanting to pay homage to the 1980s slasher subgenre and on that front, he succeeded. However, the times are different and although I appreciate what Miller attempted to do, I still cannot move past certain aspects to the story, more specifically the actions of the Killer Santa.<\/p>\n

For instance, as I mentioned before, the main character herself asks how he\u2019s able to determine the naughty one\u2019s to kill. On a couple of the slaughters, one could argue he simply observed (fair enough), but on others (such as the teenage brat), was he merely wandering by and heard the argument between the girl and her mother? It\u2019s never explained and if not for the question even being posed, I\u2019d let it go…<\/p>\n

With respect to the actors, they all deliver OK performances. Malcolm McDowell, similar to Samuel L. Jackson, is going into the twilight of his career merely playing himself with little distinction from one role to the next (this is more of a comedic twist on his Dr. Loomis role in the Halloween<\/em> remake); Jaime King serves well as the movie\u2019s protagonist, though the character laments she\u2019s not cut out for the job and right until the end, proves she indeed is not (example: her father tells her to follow her gut on who the Killer Santa is… and she\u2019s sorely wrong); and Donal Logue is mostly wasted as a poorly executed red herring. There\u2019s others here, but they\u2019re mostly food for Killer Santa.<\/p>\n

In the end, Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> certainly will satisfy the fake blood lust for fans of the slasher subgenre which has been mostly MIA for 20 years. Having not seen Silent Night, Deadly Night<\/em>, the film this is loosely based off of, I can\u2019t make comparisons but on its own, I wasn\u2019t that thrilled. Maybe I\u2019m tired that instead of a coherent story \u2013 with coherent motives for the killer \u2013 is replaced with buckets of blood. For me, it\u2019s not very clever and even less entertaining. If I wanted fake blood and an inane plot I would revisit any one of the Saw<\/em> sequels.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 1.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Silent Night<\/span><\/em><\/strong>: Behind the Scenes (6:15)<\/span><\/strong> is a basic EPK featurette offering behind the camera footage and little else (not even cast\/crew interviews).<\/p>\n

Deleted Scenes (5:02)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 These are some scenes excised from the final cut for one reason or another, though probably mostly due to pacing.<\/p>\n

A retail DVD Copy<\/span><\/strong> is also included.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> hatchets its way onto Blu-ray with a nice looking 1080p high-definition transfer and presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio. The picture pretty much looks similar to other Anchor Bay releases as it\u2019s fairly smooth with little to no grain or noise though the detail levels are still good and the faces rarely have that waxy texture.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AUDIO \u2013 4.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track comes to life with each slashing, killing and blood-curdling screams with good clarity through each speaker. Other elements such as normal dialogue and some action sequences also come across the other channels nicely enough as well. I wouldn\u2019t call this an outstanding lossless track but an effective one.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, I suppose if you\u2019re going into Silent Night<\/em><\/strong> wanting to revisit the good old days of the 1980s slasher genre, it will probably meet your expectations. However, if you\u2019re looking even for a miniscule amount of logic \u2013answering a question posed by the main character \u2013 then the film will disappoint. I couldn\u2019t find much here to be entertaining. The Blu-ray also doesn\u2019t have much to offer. The audio and video transfers are good but the features are lacking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>12\/04\/2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose if you\u2019re going into Silent Night wanting to revisit the good old days of the 1980s slasher genre, it will probably meet your expectations. However, if you\u2019re looking even for a miniscule amount of logic \u2013answering a question posed by the main character \u2013 then the film will disappoint. I couldn\u2019t find much … Continue reading “Silent Night Blu-ray Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1335,1396,1758,1171,1757],"class_list":["post-4991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-brendan-fehr","tag-donal-logue","tag-jaime-king","tag-malcolm-mcdowell","tag-silent-night"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4991"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26304,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions\/26304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}