For a Christmas slasher, SILENT NIGHT isn't up to scratch. I've not seen the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, but I have seen the likes of DON'T OPEN TILL Christmas and that memorable segment from TALES FROM THE CRYPT and both were much, much better. Director Steven C. Miller seems to vary broadly when it comes to the films he makes, for every trashy flick like UNDER THE BED he makes something superior like THE AGGRESSION SCALE. However, this is one of his worst.

The story is about a killer Santa Claus who goes around bumping off various victims while a local sheriff department attempt to track him down. There's little more plot to it than that, although attempts to raise the whole 'whodunit' aspect of the film fall flat because you never care who's responsible. The deaths are gory but somehow feel fake and overblown; it may be that the victims are all random and rather despicable in themselves, so it all goes over your head a bit.

Jaime King gives a tired performance as the protagonist of the piece and you get the sense that her heart wasn't really in it, and you can't really blame her for it. Malcolm McDowell is better, but is given little to work with other than play it gruff. The ending is as cheesy and over the top as you'd expect.

There is nothing like a holiday slasher film to put one in the proper mood for Christmas-ween. The film opens with a double homicide without showing us Santa's face. It then builds the character of Deputy Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King) who works for Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell) who doesn't want outside help with his homicide problem. While building Aubrey's character we are introduced to suspects such as the creepy priest, the bad Santa, and the talking catatonic Gramps.

The defining feature of a "Silent Night" film is the antler scene. I liked the original one far better. Likewise, the story was better developed in the original. In this remake, the characters are better developed, but lack good dialouge. It is certainly a viewable film and good addition to the collection. Ellen Wong plays a receptionist at the police department. She was Knives Chau, Scott Pilgrim's girlfriend.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Cortney Palm)

Getting Malcolm McDowell for your horror movie is always a nice treat. And he seems to be willing to help (young) filmmakers out, like in this case. This fun little slasher, is not profound, but it does not need to be. You just want to pop in the movie, drink the beverage of your choice and have a bowl of whatever in front of you, to cheer on the events unfolding on screen.

Christmas has been used in other movies to go dark and evil, so that's not new (even Santa has been bad quite a few times in the past),but the level of violence reached here has to be in the top 3 at least. There are some innovative ways Santa is disposing of "evil" persons and it's kind a fun to watch this low budget movie, even when it struggles at times. Fun, because we know it's a movie.