Silent Night

I was doting on the shock factor that resulted from Silent Night, Deadly Night back in ’84 and how times have changed since then. Nowadays, movies like the Black Christmas remake and this newer film from 2012 have taken what was so controversial back then and amplified it to the nth degree. No longer does the sight of a wacko in a Santa Claus costume have as much impact and resonance as it once did. We now just kind of grin or roll our eyes at it.

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I was curious about where Silent Night (2012) would take the premise of Killer Santa. And, this thought crossed my mind while watching it. For horror fans (or more apt, maybe, slasher fans) the Killer Santa subgenre is the gift that keeps on giving all year. Yeah, I couldn’t resist. That said, I was wondering to myself just what this film had up its sleeve considering Black Christmas Remake did the nutjob in Santa suit routine somewhat also, and capitalized on the red-and-green visual aesthetic (regardless of how much I disliked the remake, it was a damn good looking movie) of the season.

 
It gets serious almost immediately as Jaime King (becoming a regular horror It girl) suits up for deputy duties at the behest of her boss, Sheriff Malcolm McDowell (the impression he casts is one of little regard for personal feelings and complete demand for coming in to work despite Christmas Eve being her day off; the deputy to replace her is missing). King lost her man the previous year on C-Eve so she is a bit down and the idea of working during such a trying emotional period isn’t exactly desirable.

 
The question I had going in would be does Silent Night do anything outside the box. Would it be business as usual? I mean, we already have past examples of killer Santas, chopping axes, and graphic violence. What has Silent Night standing out, calling attention to itself? Sure, the norm will be suitable and welcome for some who are undemanding, but does Silent Night become annual viewing or just a film that fades into a blur among other Christmas horrors?

Slasher films (particularly, the Friday the 13^th movies) have the tendency to toss out inconsequential characters to be killed for the hell of it. The porky with the banana in Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter, as example. A couple of jerks taking sleds from neighborhood kids they bully in Silent Night, Deadly Night. In Silent Night, a foul-mouthed, spoiled brat demanding her mom take her to the mall (not even allowing mommy to take her heart medication!!!), answers the front door, thinking the Santa is from the Salvation-Fucking-Army much to her disgust, receiving a cattle prod shock before the killer pulls a fireplace poker to finish the victim off! It has no real purpose other than to show that Santa will kill anybody, which includes a girl with a pushover mother and insatiably materialistic personality.

An early scene also shows a bunch of Old Saint Nicks out and about in town, proving that McDowell was right: they are in abundance and it could be a long night ahead of his police dept. And the annual parade with Santas further adds to the potential for a headache of a Christmas Eve. With a maniac dressed as Santa having a night on the town, McDowell, King, and his dept certainly have their hands full.

The mood is all over the place. It varies from dead serious to oddball. Like when King is in the Catholic Church and the priest is more than a little unsubtle about providing anything she needs. He understands all too clear how many have lost so much during the year. He implies rather loudly a sexual advance without necessarily speaking it explicitly. It is unsettling in how the priest tones this and looks at her. It is rather uncomfortable and creepy; the intention is there obviously. With the aforementioned girl getting shocked and stabbed right before King speaks with the mayor and goes to the church to dwell on her lost love, reaction to what is shown on screen could be rather jarring. I guess it is that attempt to build a cult film while maintaining these serious tones on occasion. King and her ongoing story will be the main point of seriousness while the film also veers off into weirdness from time to time...some films do this intentionally while others are piecemeal projects made with little regard for pace or tone. Some, like Silent Night, Deadly Night, are simply always oddball and willing to offend with a straight face.

There is a homage of sorts to Silent Night, Deadly Night. Sort of half-assed and forced where this old timer in a nursing home has been silent and lost within himself for years. His grandson comes to see him, seemingly with much angst, and raids his wallet on the lamp stand. Well, the man “awakens” momentarily to his grandson, telling him to avoid Santa (in so many words; “better run for your life” pops up in the warning). That’s pretty much it. That seems to be the whole point of the scene. Do these two characters have any other purpose in the film?

Well, this I can give the filmmakers: we get a nice cellphone-ringing-in-severed-hand gag. It is during King’s answering a call to investigate what turns out to be a crime scene. Finding Brandon Fehr in the basement with his brain roasted, King’s investigation doesn’t get any better as she discovered his lover, chopped into pieces upstairs. Yeah, rather grisly spectacle. This Santa Claus likes to go a bit overboard with his slaying.

Oh, Jesus. What a bloody mess.

Well, McDowell second guesses his decision to call King in for work considering they find a nasty crime scene. Meanwhile, Killer Santa crashes the party on a nudie photographer shooting footage in some poverty row hotel room, while the model (happily dispensing with her bra) flees into a bathroom. The photographer momentarily saves her from plastic bag suffocation, but he pays for that bit of heroism. Santa decided to use a scythe on the photographer (his crotch…yikes!!!) and the photographer’s assistant (she is impaled), but must endure a little pursue-and-approach thanks to the model landing in a garbage heap downstairs. Checking off a scene in my Horror Watch Bucket List: a naked gal fleeing into a Christmas tree farm. Not stopping there, the Santa lops off her leg, prepares the woodchipper, and hoists her up while she’s screaming out for help. Yeah, she’s mulch. This wasn’t fun. It was just disgusting. She’s begging while he’s pushing her into a woodchipper machine. This was definitely the film's darkest point in the film.

Spread some joy to the world.

No surprise the priest is a perv who uses honeys in teeny-weeny Santa outfits singing carols to earn some extra dollars. It’s repulsive and the Killer Claus is quietly (well, except for his breathing) waiting at a slight distance preparing for a bit of slaytime.

One thing about this film’s Killer Claus: he is a stone-cold psychopath who doesn’t play around or mince words. He doesn’t say anything, allowing his savagery to talk volumes. These victims represent the dark side of the season, with their behavior (mostly on the depravity side), getting them on his naughty list.

The priest’s purpose again sends me back to the brat that gets the shock of her death. He seems to be in this movie just to wind up with his fingers sliced off and multiple stab wounds in his stomach while swept up in a sermon ranting about Christmas misbehavior as Killer Claus (and an elderly lady, just two members of the congregation) becomes fed up. In that scene, the old lady is seriously freaking out (rightfully so), and Killer Claus approaches her with…the dollar bills pocketed by the priest from the carolers! Haha. That was rather cool. So his agenda from not killing her seems to say that Killer Claus targets those he considers worthy of serious damage.

This is a slasher film so there’s a back story. Some “dull” guy loses her girl to a more “exciting” guy. He’s pissed. He picks up a blow torch and shows no mercy to the naughty…including the wife that left him. This story is told by a rather creepy laid-off employee of a mill that closed, like many in town dressed as a Santa, to King. It sets up the basic “perhaps” identity and motive of the current Killer Claus. The storyteller turns out to be linked to victims found murdered (a cellphone number gives him away), so he’s a viable suspect (red herring, anyone?).

Don’t put avocado on the burger. Simple is always best.

Double S. Double screwed.

The bars will close, the whole town shuts down. He can run, but he can’t hide.

A crimefighter’s senses switch to something almost primeval.

He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, hiding in plain sight.

McDowell. He is so much fun that the film will be replayed annually just because of his casting. He is given dialogue that is priceless thanks to his delivery. Stuff like, “Karsson is here. I can smell it. I can smell his fear.” King rolls her eyes at him which only adds to how over-the-top his character and acting style can gloriously be. I thought, unlike many, that Zombie’s mockery of McDowell’s theatrical characters in Halloween II was hilarious. McDowell knows when to lay it on thick…when the role requires it. A couple years ago, a hit vampire flick with me, a discovery of October 2011, was Suck. It had McDowell as a vampire hunter, and he once again incorporated this kind of grand-standing theatricality where lines of dialogue and acting approach were heightened to a certain degree. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get parts requiring subtlety all that often, even though he does have this power to grab your attention without brandishing that haughty, arrogant, ‘love-the-sound-of-his-own-voice’ style we are so accustomed to. I was just watched CSI: Miami the other day and he had a recurring corrupt lawyer from LA who started practicing in Miami, becoming this sleazy nuisance that got under the skin of Horatio Cain.

Again, it was a part that allowed him to play up this style of performance he’s most comfortable. He appears, sends off a superiority and lecherous whiff that is odious, and the contempt that comes his way is palpable. In Silent Night, his sheriff is quick to point out that King “choked” when having the chance to apprehend a coke dealer that is “Public Enemy #1” according to McDowell. He is always quick, as a matter of fact, to point out anything King says that he conceives as a detriment to the ongoing investigation and arrest of their Wisconsin town’s serial killer.

I rate this slightly better than Black Christmas Remake because King is a good actress with a decent character fighting against grief and the disturbing aspects of law enforcement on a day where madness escalates and violence has a tendency to uptick. I think the ending is especially suspenseful, atmospheric, and exciting. The sheriff’s dept is on emergency lighting, with the sprinkler systems raining, as King squares off with the killer, motivated by the cold-blooded, needless murder of her father and rash of deaths committed by his hands. King, equipped with the blow torch he used on McDowell, lets off some steam and gets some vengeance for all that has happened to her town. Previously struck by fear and frozen in panic, she faced off with coke-dealing Karrson (a well cast Mike O’Brien) a second time more prepared to shoot (and does, in what is quite a showstopper), so there’s a bit more guts in her by the time King is confronting the killer inside the sheriff’s dept. It’s typical final girl stuff, though, and recognizable to anyone who has seen their fare share of slasher film. The back story does eventually explain to us why King’s father (a retired law enforcement officer in his own right) was also a target, and the closing moments where an older man reminisces back to when his father set his mother on fire then is shot and himself set aflame (this is just incredible) leaves that open-for-another-sequel finale. I can only imagine some will hope that sequel eventually comes. This film, however, didn’t exactly set the world on fire (pun intended), so I’m not sure a sequel will ever arrive. Something tells me, though, not to feel so certain.