Silent Night

Wow, that was not at all what I was expecting. It's not comedy, it's not horror, it is the very darkest of British black comedy, which means not much comedy at all. However, go into it without those previous preconceptions, and you've got to say, it's a pretty good film.

Don't rely on it for Christmas cheer, but for enthralling watching, good acting and a mostly unexpected layout, you'll get more than you bargained for.

Happy Christmas everyone, well perhaps not everyone.......

I don't know how its been given a Horror and a Comedy status.

It's dark, sad, and not in the least funny or scary.

Don't watch on Christmas day as it may upset you.

Actually not bad! I guess another victim of bad marketing because I think people went to see it with the absolutely wrong expectations. Its not your typical Christmas flick but rather a very, very dark comedy with many truly dramatic aspects.

And its funny how up to date it is in a certain way. Truly surprising that this was written and directed pre covid because in many ways it mirrors our current society.

The characters are 95% really unlikeable, especially at the beginning. Yes the beginning is weird, but it kind of makes sense. And dont read too much about it in advance, that will help.

Keira Knightley was good but she has been better. I really liked Matthew Goode here, he was not as stiff as usually. Lucy Punch was great as well.

But the most outstanding performance comes once again from "JoJo Rabbit"s Roman Griffin Davis. He was SO good. Quirky and bad mouthed but also very dramatic in a convincing way. Wouldn't be surprised if he makes my line up once again.

Good soundtrack, very good writing and a decent direction round this up to a pleasant surprise that really deserves a way better reception than it got.

The last twenty minutes and the end are excellent but sadly to get to that point you have to endure pretty much endless boredom. The acting is ok but the characters are so unlikeable you barely care what happens to them by the time you get to the good bit. The kids are all awful people and the constant swearing is quite repulsive - it may have been a plot point but if it was it was far too heavy handed. It would have worked as a twenty minute episode of an anthology tv show but did not have enough substance to carry it for ninety minutes and the padding that was the building of the characters and their back stories just made it tiresome to watch. It's a shame - handled differently it could have been quite good.

I really enjoyed this movie, but it's NOT a comedy (though had many dark comedic moments), NOT a horror film, and NOT a Christmas movie. It's also not some clever COVID-19/anti-vax film as it was filmed in early 2020 and probably written in 2019. Also - and this is not a spoiler - if you're easily offended by children swearing as so many folks who rated it seem to be, this is not the right movie for you. There's plenty of profanity to go around, so if you're sensitive to that go ahead and pass. But there's plenty to laugh about, think about, and enjoy in this one if you ignore how it's marketed and just go with it.