The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Killing Them Softly' Looking To Take A 'Collection,' Hopefully It Won't Be A 'Silent Night'

By Emma Bernstein
|
November 30, 2012 3:48 PM
|
4 Comments

News

Even the heartwarming and familial atmosphere of Thanksgiving can't last forever. Or longer than a few days, it seems. Last weekend's prevalent buoyancy - marked by an animated fairy world, a triumphant teenage army, and CG zoo animals - is eschewed this week in favor of violent real world problems. Enter hitmen, war criminals, mass murderers, vengeful robots, inescapable vanity, failed careers, and a sadistic Santa Claus (just to keep things seasonal). What blood-spattered rage-fest will you be attending? Tell us in the comments below!

By Drew Taylor
|
November 29, 2012 8:55 PM
|
3 Comments

Reviews

The "holiday horror" subgenre is a weird one indeed, requiring a fine tonal balancing act that involves wedding jolly Christmas cheer with bloody visceral scares. There's something about the phony brightness holidays that brings out some really fucked-up shit, and it's a well that many films have attempted, among them the sardonic "Christmas Evil" (one of John Waters' favorite films); the inky "Black Christmas," directed by Bob Clark (who also did "A Christmas Story"); and an episode of "Tales from the Crypt" that Robert Zemeckis directed about an escaped lunatic dressed like Santa Claus. (The less said about the Bill Goldberg-starring "Santa's Slay," the better.) One of the more straightforward holiday horror entries was 1984's "Silent Night, Deadly Night," an easily forgettable slasher film wrapped in Christmas lights and tinsel. Well, that film has been given the remake treatment, re-titled "Silent Night," and shoved into theaters and home video (a perfect stocking stuffer!) just in time for the yuletide spirit to melt your skull with a homemade flamethrower. Ho ho no.

By Benjamin Wright
|
April 5, 2012 3:49 PM
|
0 Comments

News

“PUNISH!” and “GARBAGE DAY!” are probably all expressions that fans of the “Silent Night, Deadly Night” films are used to hearing, as they are some of the key moments of gory absurdity in this increasingly convoluted and ridiculous series of slasher films. For those who don’t regularly attend midnight screenings at their local repertory theatre, the series started with the release of the controversial first film in 1984, which chronicled a disturbed individual who once saw his parents massacred by a man in a Santa suit on Christmas and is set off on a mad killing spree many years later as he unleashes bloodshed and many repressed memories of that evil bearded man. It has spawned four equally ridiculous sequels that featured survivors or various other individuals following in his footsteps. Well, like most horror properties with even a miniscule cult following, “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” is coming back with a fresh new coat of blood red paint.