Merry Christmas everyone! What better way to celebrate than with a slow-burn early 70s horror flick that looks like it was lifted from a VHS tape? One that has only tenuous ties to Christmas at best? Actually, it was a pretty darn good way to wile away the afternoon hours - Silent Night, Bloody Night is a pretty slow but ultimately entertaining little murder mystery, with a strong and legitimately disturbing climax/explanation (which I won't ruin - but will also make this kind of short).
Really, you could place this at any time of year and it would still be an effective chiller - you'd just have to lose the creepy choral versions of "Silent Night" and you'd be good to go. The story starts with a voiceover from Diane Adams (Mary Woronov), telling the tale of the old Butler house, which local-lore has pegged as cursed and/or haunted. It used to be owned by the wealthy Wilfred Butler, who was killed in 1950 by being "accidentally" burned to death. (This scene is actually pretty well done and sets a good tone for the film - a nice, long, quiet shot of the house, until a man bursts out of the door, screaming and engulfed in flames.) In his will, he passes the house down to his only surviving relative, his grandson Jeffrey. But the will states that the house is to be kept exactly as it is - "standing untouched as a reminder to the world of it's inhumanity and cruelty." Um... okay. As the film goes on, you start to learn a little more about why Mr. Butler would have felt that way, but it seems like a pretty harsh thing to say in your will.
Anyways, Jeffrey is in an unnamed bind and needs to get rid of the house ASAP. He sends his lawyer (who brings along his mistress) to meet with several of the town higher-ups (the mayor, the sheriff, the phone-operator, the town newspaper guy) to sell the house to the town at a big discount - the catch being he needs the cash the next day. The town elders promise to discuss the deal while the lawyer and his mistress spend the night in the old Butler house. Then, Someone With Black Gloves gets into the house and murders the lawyer and his mistress! And I say black gloves because that's the only real clue we get to the identity of the murderer.... and a lot of people in this movie have black gloves. Then, that same Someone starts to make some calls, requesting that the town elders show up at the house. Then Jeffrey mysteriously shows up, saying he needs to talk to his lawyer. He has black gloves too! Everybody is trying to call everyone, and no one can get a hold of anyone else. It's craziness! Eventually, after more or less breaking into her house, Jeffrey teams up with the sheriff's daughter Diane (Woronov), and they try to figure out just what in the H. is going on.
I dug the pacing of Silent Night, Bloody Night. I think it helped that I watched it on Christmas afternoon with nothing really to do and no place to be for a few hours... it just sort of ambles along and isn't really in a rush to get anywhere. Despite the fact that there are characters getting killed, none of the other characters *know* about it until late in the game. So really, there isn't much urgency to the proceedings - "the sheriff is missing" just isn't as intense as "OMG there is the sheriff's mutilated body," you know? The story just sort of slowly unfolds, just giving out little pieces of information a bit at a time. Honestly, I could see a lot of people thinking it's just kind of boring, but overall it worked for me. The pace also builds anticipation for the big reveal at the end - with a lot of moving parts in play, you know it either has to be really good or really bad. Luckily, for me it leaned towards the "really good" side of things. The climax is pretty disturbing - there isn't a lot of gore to speak of, but the concept of it is pretty rough. Although there is one (eye-related) scene that sticks out in my mind as being really gross - I'm still wincing just thinking about it.
And it's a pretty dark movie - there aren't any attempts at humor in it at all. Overall, Silent Night, Bloody Night is just a pretty dreary film - none of the sets are all that interesting or well-lit (it could just be Anytown, USA), there isn't a lot of energy in the way it's shot, and outside of a couple performances most of the characters are pretty subdued. But all that works in the film's favor - as long as you're on board with a more relaxed pace, it helps set a good mood.
But it's not just dark in that department, it's also dark in how it's shot. As in, a decent portion of the movie is shot outside and in the dark. I'm not sure if it was just the transfer or something with Amazon Instant, but some of the nighttime scenes were very difficult to make out. So that part of it was pretty distracting.
The cast was good across the board. I was excited to see Mary Woronov again, having seen her now in both Chopping Mall and Terror Vision. She seems to be one of those actresses that really has a cult following that I seemed to have missed until now. It's been nice getting to know her! She does well in the role, and it's certainly a more straightforward character than I've seen her play in the past. (She has referenced having a lot of "oddball" roles on her resume - here she's a pretty standard heroine.) Also, John Carradine is around as the town newspaper man - here he's a mute who only uses a ringing bell and hand gestures to communicate. It's certainly an interesting character (and honestly, better than if he had been able to speak), but it's funny that this is the second time I've seen him a film where the role could have conceivably been rewritten so he wouldn't have to work as hard/long. (Vampire Men of the Lost Planet being the first.) At any rate, it's always a treat to see him.
The first scene where the killer gets the lawyer and his mistress is pretty messy (lots and lots of dark colored blood), but other than that the scenes of violence are nothing too memorable. Silent Night, Bloody Night almost plays like a slasher-lite - you've got a lot of first person stalking, the creepy voice, the overall mystery - but it doesn't revel enough in the violence to really get too far into slasher territory. It definitely qualifies as a horror film, but it's probably more of a mystery than anything.
Overall, it was a perfect movie to watch on a quiet Christmas afternoon. It fit the mood perfectly - the laid back pacing worked well for me, and it's not super disturbing to the point where you kind of feel bad watching it on Christmas. And since I will forever equate Christmas with drinking, it would have been a little tricky to watch later at night, as one could easily be lulled to sleep by the pace and inability to see much of the night scenes - it's an enjoyable movie, but it's certainly not a lively one. After being disappointed by my Christmas Eve pick, I'm glad I got a good Christmas horror movie in this year. Even though it really isn't about Christmas, but whatever.
I would recommend this film.
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