Excellent but underrated film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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)

This is a loose remake of 80s cult movie Silent Night, Deadly Night, it is the same concept, but there is no backstory to the antagonist, and the real-life Covina massacre (involving a murderer dressed as Santa Claus) was used as inspiration, I was interested if it would be more brutal than the original. Basically in the small town of Cryer, Wisconsin, a mysterious man dressed in a Santa Claus suit, complete with mask, has kidnapped police officer Deputy Jordan (Brendan Fehr), he has been sleeping with a married woman, he is electrocuted to death with Christmas lights in his home. The following day, Christmas Eve, Deputy Aubrey Bradimore (Sin City's Jaime King) is called on her day off by the Sheriff of Cryer, Sheriff James Cooper (Malcolm McDowell), after Jordan has not arrived at work. Aubrey is new to the police force, she is still shaken from the unexpected death of her husband John, she wants to live up to her father, a retired police officer, but she does not think she is good enough. Aubrey was going to spend the holiday with her parents, but instead she goes to check up on Jordan, she is horrified to find his mangled body in the basement, and the hacked-up bits of his lover are found later. Meanwhile, the masked Santa killer is on a killing spree, murdering those who have done something he considers to be "naughty", the next victim is a bratty teenage girl, who is horrible and demanding to her mother, the girl is killed with a taser. Then the killer makes his way to the local motel, where a group of people are making a softcore porn movie, the topless actress manages to escape and hides in a Christmas tree farm, but the killer chops off one of her legs, and throws her feet-first into a woodchipper. Sheriff Cooper calls in other officers, he goes looking for the killer himself, he returns empty handed, while Aubrey suspects local drunken Santa portrayer Jim Epstein (Donal Logue), and the creepy Reverend Madely (Curtis Moore). That evening, during the town's annual Christmas parade, there a crowd of men dressed in Santa Claus suits, Aubrey is unable to identify the killer among them as she searches for him. The killer Santa continues his spree, the next to be killed are the corrupt Mayor Revie (Tom Anniko) and his porn star daughter Tiffany (Courtney-Jane White), then Reverend Madely is killed. At the police station, Aubrey and station secretary Brenda (Ellen Wong) are cornered by the killer, he tries to burn the place down with a homemade flamethrower, but Aubrey manages to overthrow the killer Santa, setting him on fire, but he manages to escape. Later is it revealed that the killer Santa is local chimney cleaning and repair service Ronald Jones Jr. (Rick Skene), he survived the flamethrower attack. Hunting the killer, Aubrey learns that years ago Richard Jones Sr. (also Skene) also portrayed Santa, crashed his ex-wife's Christmas party, and burned alive with a homemade flamethrower, Aubrey's father was the police officer that responded to the situation, and gunned the killer down. But it is found out that Richard Jr. was watching all this the entire time, the tragedy caused Richard Jr. to go insane and seek revenge, dressing as a Santa to avoid detection during the Christmas festivities, it is unclear if he will return to kill again. Also starring Andrew Cecon as Deputy Giles, Sleepy Hollow's Lisa Marie as Mrs. Morwood and Cruise Brown as Ronald Jones Jr. as a boy. The unhinged killer Santa looks much more demonic with the added mask, and the deaths are much more over the top and gory, as with the original, it is a routine slasher scary movie, but it is a much darker Christmas kill fest, a reasonable seasonal horror. Okay!

I re-watched this to get in the Christmas mood, and it was much better than I had remembered. It is a very loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, but creates a new story and is a breathe of fresh air in the 'killer Santa' genre. Killer Santa is a mystery and keeps you guessing til the very end. The film is very colorful and makes it feel like Christmas.Jaime King stars as Aubrey Bradimore, a deputy who has lost her husband earlier in the year. She's forced to come into work on Christmas Eve to find the sadistic Santa Claus killer. The death and gore effects were great. There are at least three scenes that pays tribute to the original 'Silent Night Deadly Night' I highly recommend SILENT NIGHT!!!

This film is severely low brow, kind of dumb and we've totally seen everything it has to offer (albeit better). Yet - for some reason - I really enjoyed it.Think 'Scream,' but with a Santa going around bumping off the townsfolk in various grisly ways then you're half way there. No, it's not as good as Scream (or even any of its sequels), but, if you're looking for a violent slasher flick to pass the time (and not require too many brain cells for) then this one fits the bill.You don't really need to know much about the plot = Santa-killer. You can probably fill in the rest yourself. Maybe it also helps to watch it around Christmas time. Seeing Santa roast perfect strangers with a flamethrower makes a pleasant change from those awful, sickly-sweet John Lewis commercials currently infesting the screen.Some people have complained about the killing of a child in the film, so, if you're squeamish and find that sort of thing unwatchable, you might want to steer clear.Otherwise, sit back and watch Malcolm McDowell deliciously overact (don't complain - he's doing it on purpose - this is kind of tongue-in-cheek, after all!) and deck the halls with burned-up bodies!