#256 -- 13 Days of Creemas Day 10: Silent Night, Zombie Night (2009)

Rating: 3 / 5

Director: Sean Cain

A Christmas themed horror movie, if done in the right way, can be absolutely fabulous, for the simple fact that Christmas and horror are not two things that are supposed to be together. Christmas and zombies should never be together either. Who would want to fight off hordes of the undead when they're supposed to be unwrapping awesome gifts? So, here I thought I was in for some good holiday/zombie fun. But I was disappointed when I realized that this one, like Christmas Season Massacre, took place in California. Ugh. I think Californians should be banned from making Christmas movies, period. Just because there is no possible way for me to feel Christmasy while watching it. This one plays out just like any other zombie movie, and there are hardly any references to Christmas at all. Oh, they tell us that it's Christmas time. We see some decorations, and there's even a fat zombie dressed as Santa (but he was killed way too soon, if you ask me). But other than that, it might as well have been the middle of July for all we knew. Besides that, though, it really wasn't a bad movie. 

I was disappointed in the holiday aspect of the movie, but the zombie parts were actually pretty good. A week or so before Christmas, the outbreak began. The story follows two cops, and the wife of one of them. They're trapped in an apartment, trying desperately to keep from being eaten. We do eventually meet a couple other survivors, but they don't last long enough for us to care. One of them happened to be Felissa Rose, who was Angela in Sleepaway Camp. Another was Lew Temple, who you might recognize as one of the wimpy prisoners in this season of The Walking Dead. Speaking of TWD, Frank, the main character here, realizes that there's a way to mask his human scent and make his way through the zombies undetected. But it's nothing so cool as spreading zombie gore all over himself, as Rick and Glenn did. Instead, he sprays himself with some sort of deer lure or something, which honestly is just stupid. 

The Good

For a low budget movie, it was made pretty well. The effects were good, and the actors did a good job in their roles. The zombies were all great, and they stole the show if I'm to be honest with you. They were very menacing and crazy, so I give props to them.

Just like any good zombie movie, it was full of love, loss, and betrayal. I always enjoy the movies that focus not only on the apocalypse, but what the situation does to its characters. We saw a husband and a wife almost fall apart, best friends lose respect for each other, and that friendship fall apart. There was a lot of distrust going on, but there was also a lot of teamwork and people helping each other out. 

The Bad

They had an interesting idea for this one. There were two different kind of zombies: the fast ones, and the slow, sluggish ones. This is an idea I've been waiting to see on the screen, since zombies should be portrayed   in a way that shows the different stages of decomposition. But they failed to expand on the idea, so it just kind of floated there with no meaning, which was severely disappointing. 

The ending was far too abrupt, and it left the only character we're really able to care about dead. There wasn't really any resolution. The zombies weren't destroyed, we didn't see a mental or emotional resolution really; no gaining strength after everyone else dies. Nothing. It just ended. It was like they couldn't figure out where else to go with the movie, so they gave us an ending that left everything to be desired. I see this so often, and I really wish people would just end their stories already. It's not a real story if it doesn't have an ending. 

It was just like all the rest. There really wasn't anything to set it apart from the five billion other zombie movies out there. And once you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. Every once in a while, you'll come across something that's different, but you have to really dig for it. This is not one of those. It had a chance with the different kind of zombies idea, but they let that fall dead with their characters. 

Last Thoughts

There was as much good in the movie as there was bad, which I'm not sure is a good thing. But like I said, it's not that bad of a movie. I've definitely seen worse. The most disappointing,

though, was the lack of Christmas. It claims to be a Christmas movie, it hints at it in the title, but we didn't get to see any of it. Overall, though, it's not bad for what it is. It's an okay addition to my Creepmas watch list.