Everything seems to be getting remade these days, it’s as if a lot of studios have just run out of ideas or are afraid to take risks and the latest edition to this terrible trend is Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Surprisingly, this is the second remake of 1984’s cult classic of the same name, and you wonder why they bothered.
The plot, as it is, has a young man named Billy who is traumatised by the death of his parents, and he ends up every December killing 24 people in the build-up to Christmas.
Nothing original in this poor remake, as the story goes through the motions of people getting killed by a man dressed as Santa, mainly with an axe. It’s not as if you have any sympathy for the one-dimensional characters; if you watch these films for the gory kills, even then, you may be disappointed.
The performances are ok, nothing special, but it’s the tedious nature of the story that lets the whole saga down. Some say this is the best Silent Night, Deadly Night film in the franchise, which is not saying much since the original was a mediocre, low-budget, and average slasher movie anyway.
If you’re into Christmas-based horror movies, then there are many which are better than this, which is tedious and unmemorable for many reasons.
It has a new Blu-ray release from Studio Canal (An odd time to release a Christmas film in March), and the transfer is good if nothing special. The audio does its job well, and the extras are slim with one featurette.
FILM – 5 PICTURE 7.5 AUDIO -8 EXTRAS -1
