Film Review: SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT (2009)

 SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT (2009) USA 1hr 23mins

Director: Sean Cain

"I hate to break it to you but I don't think Santa is coming this year." - Frank Talbot

"That's what we do now right? ... take care of each other" - Jeffrey Hannigan

A week before Christmas the zombie apocalypse has struck Los Angeles. Frank Talbot (Jack Forcinito) and his partner Nash Jackson (Andy Hopper) have worked together on the force for years. They're like family but things have gone awry as marital issues are causing Frank strife and it doesn't help that Nash has a thing for Franks wife, Sarah (Nadine Stenovitch). Frank is aware of this but before he can do anything about it an undead uprising starts to tear the city apart. Nash is injured early on and Frank takes him back to his apartment where they find Sarah. The three of them barricade themselves in as the undead close in but supplies are running low. When he can Frank heads out amongst the hordes where he notices two kinds of zombie. There are the slow, stupid type that will walk into things right in front of them but become deadly if you find yourself cornered or out numbered and then there are the faster more intelligent type that will follow and ambush you. To escape some of the latter zombies he busts into a neighbours house and finds Jeffrey Hannigan (Lew Temple) and his poorly son hiding in the attic. Will these guys survive long enough to be rescued or will the zombies get to them and ruin Christmas before they get a chance???

SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT does not mess about and gets straight into full on zombie action from scene one but this could be its only saving grace. My biggest issue with it are the main characters. Frank really is an arsehole, Nash maybe resilient but he is a total wet lettuce and Sarah is lacking in personality for them to be fighting over her. There are a fair few other dodgy scenes and characters but you will notice at least one familiar face as it has a small role for Felissa Rose. Annoyingly it has one too many insincere and awkward conversations concerning the love triangle going on between the three main characters that you really don't care about. Saying that though I did learn that director Sean Cain is a huge fan of the Universal monster movies and named the main characters Talbot after the family in THE WOLF MAN (1941) plus there are other character name references. For example Felissa Rose's character Elsa Lansing is apparently based on actress Elsa Lanchester who starred in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) I'm not sure how true that is as I didn't get that particular reference at the time but it's an interesting piece of trivia none the less. The Christmas element is a bit of an afterthought. It’s more of an excuse for some sentimentality, gaudy Christmas lights and the obligatory zombie Santa the whole Christmas thing is not really entertained. Two things that did jump out at me about SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT were, the fact that it really doesn't take itself seriously (which is something I really enjoy in a movie). There is a scene really early on that is hilarious and obviously lifted straight out of RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) when Frank is driving a wounded Nash back to his apartment and it is actually quite cleverly done. The second thing is, despite its low budget the zombies are pretty decent. They've gone all out in terms of make up and practical FX when it comes to the zombies as all of them have a ton of prosthetics, contact lenses and fake blood. There are also some great rubbery severed limbs and exploding heads. They do make some weird noises mind you. In one scene a zombie gets his fingers chopped off and he makes a noise like a wounded kitten, plus some the intelligent ones will run away from you to start off with. When the living characters are not trying to have meaningful conversations,  the zombies are very plentiful and entertaining. 

So in conclusion, if you can put up with the obnoxious characters and often dodgy acting then you will find SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT quite fun I'm sure. It is an almost instantly forgettable zombie B movie that you wanna wash down with a few beers but it is not the most awful thing you will see. As I say it has a couple of things going for it and the ending is suitably bleak but I am going to give SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT the lowest score on BRAIN BITES so far of 2 brains out of 5 but don't let that put you off, it is only my opinion after all. It is still worth the hour and a half of your time plus being that it's really not that festive you don't have to save it for Christmas!

SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT is available on DVD and Blu Ray. I got myself the German release Blu Ray for under five pounds through Amazon.