Silent Night (2012) Review 10 Years Later, Was it Really That Bad?

Since the holiday season has finally here, it is time to get out some movies that are more suited for watching at this time of year. Movies like “Home Alone,” “The Muppets’ A Christmas Carol,” “Scrooged,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Harry Potter,” and “Bad Santa,” amongst many more, are among the numerous that have the potential to get you in the mood for the holidays. But what about Silent Night (2012)?

The Christmas horror classic “Silent Night, Deadly Night” from 1984 holds a special place in the hearts of the vast majority of fans of the horror genre. In contrast, the film “Silent Night (2012),” which was released ten years ago, did not receive a particularly positive reception from fans of the horror genre in general. It is totally evident why horror aficionados would always regard the original with far greater respect than any remake, but the question that still has to be addressed is whether or not the remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night from Silent Night (2012) was in fact that horrible, so let’s find out.

Synopsis:

It’s Christmas Eve in a remake that is loosely based on the cult classic “Silent Night, Deadly Night.”, a murderer masquerading as Santa Claus has gone on the run. Deputy Aubrey Bradimore had made plans to spend Christmas Eve with her parents; but, when Deputy Jordan went missing in action (AWOL), Sheriff Cooper compelled Deputy Bradimore to fill in for him. Aubrey makes a visit to the church so that she may reflect about John, who she had to say goodbye to earlier in that year. But the tranquilly that she finally finds is shattered when a scary priest shows around. Before the procession, the other officers are searching the police station for any suspicious parcels they may have missed. After that, Aubrey is taken to a Santa who is spreading malicious rumours to children. Then, she is taken to an unkempt and deserted house, where she discovers that Jordan has been murdered; he was the bad Santa’s first victim. She reports it and then begins searching for the woman who was reported missing. Evil Santa doesn’t discriminate. He kills men, women and kids. Will Aubrey and her friends be able to find their Santa Claus in a town when there are so many of them?

The movie is a horrifying flashback to the days of the classic slasher thriller, complete with the old cliché, “He knows if you’ve been naughty.” The picture is both embarrassingly cheesy. When it comes to removing people from his naughty list, Santa Claus is completely heartless and shows no compassion whatsoever. Even while brutality and gore are commonplace, no two homicides are ever exactly the same. When Santa Claus goes after the people who are on his “naughty” list, he uses a broad variety of weapons, such as an axe, a dagger, a flame thrower, a lumber chipper, deer antlers, and even Christmas ornaments.

I remember being appalled by “Silent Night (2012)” and instantly yelling things like, “This is simply a rip off of the original.” When I first watched it, I despised it. When it comes down to my favourite Christmas movies, I have to admit that the original 1984 rendition of “Silent Night, Deadly Night” is one of my all-time favorites, but the 2012 remake, “Silent Night,” had long been discarded, and I thought I would never see it again. So randomly tonight I decided to watch the movie on Tubi. Since the film had been forgotten, Silent Night provided me with something Horror-Christmas related to watch. However, this time around, I did not immediately dismiss it as a rip-off of the original film. It’s true that it’s a rip-off of a legendary movie from the 1980s, but at its heart, it stands on its own, and at that point in time, it gave me something to watch that did not result in hours of scrolling through Netflix for something to turn on.

As a result of giving the movie a second chance and watching it again after a gap of 10 years, the following are my impressions of the film: The controversial horror cult classic Silent Night, Deadly Night was successfully adapted as the film Silent Night, which does a pretty excellent job of recreating the original’s atmosphere. It’s true that a lot of things have evolved, and there are a lot of things that might have been done differently for the better, but things are as they are. The first Santa killing mainstream horror film, which was released in 1984, was received with perhaps more controversy and condemnation from the general public than any other picture in the genre at the time. As a result, it is going to be fairly difficult to ever top the first horror film or make such a thing happen again.

It is a wonderfully fun and violent frolic with an idea that, in my opinion, will never become stale and will always be interesting. Silent Night (2012) is available to stream on Tubi right now if you too want to see the film again or maybe for the first time ever.

Founder and Lead Developer for Horror Facts independent horror magazine.

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