SILENT NIGHT

It is Christmas Eve in Cryer, Wisconsin, and preparations are underway for the traditional Santa Claus parade that will take place in the evening. But there is a problem: a psychopath dressed as Santa Claus and wearing a mask is reaping victims. The only motive driving the killer is to eliminate people who have behaved badly in some way during the year. Sheriff Cooper and his deputy, Aubrey Bradimore, are on the trail of the killer Santa Claus. With "Silent Night" by Steven C. Miller, we are in the realm of "remake-only-in-name". But first a bit of history. The year was 1984 and the unknown Charles E. Sellier Jr. directed "Silent Night, Deadly Night", also known in Italy as "Natale di sangue", a slasher film with a killer Santa Claus that owes much of its fame to the iconic figure of the assassin rather than the actual qualitative scope of the film. The fact is that "Silent Night, Deadly Night" had a moderate success, a wave of controversies, and a group of fans who made this film the forerunner of a saga, which in less than ten years reached five chapters, of which only the first three were dedicated to the psychopathic Santa Claus and one was even directed by Brian Yuzna. As if that were not enough, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" introduced the figure of the evil Santa Claus, which over the years has been reproduced in a considerable number of films, transforming one of the icons of Christmas and the positive figure par excellence into a reason to fear December 25. But as the recent tradition of American horror cinema dictates, even "Silent Night, Deadly Night", like most of the cult films of this genre, MUST have a remake/reboot and, having shortened the title to a simpler and more immediate "Silent Night", the 2012 version of the killer Santa Claus arrives punctually. But just as the title has been simplified, it has been decided to go for the simplification of any element in this remake, which is such only in name since it has really little or nothing to do with the 1984 film. The figure of the killer Santa Claus remains, the action is set on December 24, and the murder of the woman who is impaled on the decorative deer antlers is reprised (which there was the scream queen Linnea Quigley, here the blonde Courtney-Jane White)... for the rest, two completely different films. There is no longer the interesting point of view of the assassin with a traumatic past, but rather a thriller-slasher structure in which the protagonist is the canonical tormented policewoman who is hard to kill and the killer has a mysterious identity hidden behind a mask (and alas, the revelation of the identity and motive of the assassin will disappoint many). "Silent Night" has been very much about subtraction with a "basic" slasher structure in which for 95 minutes we see nothing but the succession of murders of strangers who arrive on the scene specifically to be slaughtered. There are no lack of original and very bloody deaths (notable is the long sequence with the pin-up Cortney Palm in topless who ends up shredded), which in the end is the primary thing that the slasher-fan asks of this film, but the "Friday the 13th" setting does not help a sterile and overly simplistic film to arouse emotions, resulting mostly repetitive and a bit boring. The director is the young Steven C. Miller, who came to international attention with the bad 2006 zombie-movie "Automaton Transfusion". In the cast, Malcolm McDowell stands out, now indispensable in horror genre B-movies, who here plays the role of Sheriff Cooper, and the excellent Jaime King, already seen in "San Valentino di sangue", "The Tripper" and "Sin City", who is the deputy. Definitely spot-on the look of the killer and really varied his arsenal, which ranges from the classic axe and the tempting scythe to the flamethrower. In short, "Silent Night" is the classic "little movie" for a carefree viewing that leaves time for what it is, a slasher similar to too many others that is remembered just for the Christmas setting and a couple of creative murders. Maybe this time it would have been better if they had adhered more closely to the subject of the original film. In DVD and Blu-ray Disc from Koch Media.