Silent Night, Deadly Night. Every Christmas, he dons a Santa Claus costume and kills one person a day to avenge the death of his parents and grandfather who were brutally murdered by a man who also wore a Santa Claus costume. Writer/director Mike P. Nelson has made a wildly entertaining, suspenseful and gory horror thriller. He knows how to hook the audience with a prologue that sets the tone while providing the audience with a taste of the bloodshed to come. There are many, perhaps too many, flashbacks to Billy's traumatic childhood when he witnessed the man in the Santa Claus costume killing his parents and grandfather---it's clear from the beginning that those painful memories haunt him and serves as the catalyst of him becoming a serial killer. Meanwhile, Is he schizophrenic? That's up to the audience to interpret, but it would be fair to discern that because he hears the voice of the killer in his head that tells him who to kill.
Fortunately, Silent Night, Deadly Night doesn't just bombard the audience with blood and guts. It doesn't hold back on showing the grisly kills, but there's more to the film than just shock value and horror; it's also somewhat of a character study, and there's romance between Billy and Pam who has more to her than meets the eye which makes their relationship more interesting. It also benefits from solid performances by Rohan Campbell and Ruby Modine who manage to breathe life into their roles. Fortunately, Silent Night, Deadly Night never becomes clunky, dull or tedious, so it's an above average B-movie that holds a candle to the 1984 original. At a running time of 1 hour and 37 minutes, it opens nationwide via Cineverse.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Zach (Jeremy Irvine), a wealthy businessman, takes his wife, Emmy (Hera Hilmar), on a hot air balloon ride for their honeymoon in Turbulence. Julia (Olga Kurylenko), a woman he met at the hotel bar the night before and may or may not have slept with, end up one of the passengers and blackmails him. Kelsey Grammer plays the hot air balloon's operator. Oh, and Zach and Emmy's marriage has been on the rocks lately so he hopes that the honeymoon can save their marriage. Director Claudio Fäh and screenwriter Andy Mayson have made an increasingly preposterous, clunky and uninspired thriller. that's as silly and dull as Flight Risk from earlier this year. It's mildly effective as a psychological thriller when the audience isn't clear about whether or not Zach cheated on Emmy with Julia, but when the big reveal arrives with nothing left to interpretation, the suspense wanes. What follows is a plot with no surprises, underwritten characters, no depth, very little logic, no palpable thrills, a rushed ending and barely any imagination to compensate for the lack of logic. It's just as dull and silly as Flight Risk from earlier this year. At a running time of 1 hour and 31minutes, Turbulence< opens at Cinema Village via Vertical.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
