Silent Night (2023) – Review 🎄🌲

🎄 “John Woo said ‘what if Home Alone grew up, joined a biker gang, and stopped talking?’” 🎄

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

No, nothing related to the classic horror slasher Silent Night.

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⚠️ Warning Before We Begin ⚠️

This movie is extremely violent. Like… absurdly violent.
Gunshots, gore, blood sprays, the works.
And the whole “silent protagonist” angle also means every sound effect hits like a brick to the skull.
If that’s not your vibe, bail out now.

🎄 A Quick Rant About the Title “Silent Night” Because… WHAT?

Okay, let me just get this off my chest real quick because this has been driving me insane.

How — and I mean HOW — did Silent Night (2021) and Silent Night (2023) get away with using the exact same title as one of the most iconic horror-Christmas movies ever… and yet have ZERO relation to the original Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise??

Like bro, when horror fans hear “Silent Night,” the brain IMMEDIATELY jumps to:

1984’s Silent Night, Deadly Night

2012’s remake

the entire “killer Santa slasher” vibe


But these newer movies?
They just took the title, slapped it on totally unrelated films, and dipped.

It makes searching for them a nightmare.
It makes organizing reviews a nightmare.
It makes talking about them a nightmare.

Because if you mention “Silent Night” out loud, EVERY horror fan assumes you mean the original two.
Nobody thinks you’re talking about the apocalypse Christmas movie…
or the Joel Kinnaman revenge thriller…
unless you immediately slap the year onto it like it’s a college essay.

Honestly?
The title reuse feels like studios going:

> “Eh, Silent Night is public domain-ish enough. Just steal it. Who cares.”



It’s lazy. It’s confusing. It’s misleading.
And it absolutely makes horror fans everywhere want to yeet their phones across the room when trying to Google these things.



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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview 🎬

Silent Night (2023) is basically John Wick if John Wick took a vow of silence and had his rage set to “Christmas Spirit: Demon Edition.”

Joel Kinnaman plays Brian, a regular dad whose son is murdered during a gang shootout on Christmas. Brian also gets shot in the throat, loses his ability to speak, and decides, “Screw healing — I’m going full Punisher.”

From there, it turns into a holiday revenge rampage told with zero dialogue.
Not “minimal,” not “quiet,” literally mute.
John Woo uses action, music, and facial expressions to carry every emotional beat.

Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it feels like someone muted the movie by accident.

But when the action hits?
It hits.


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Character Rundown 👥

Brian (Joel Kinnaman):
A grieving dad powered by grief, rage, and questionable decision-making. Kinnaman does well facially, but the movie really gives him nothing to “say,” literally.

Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno):
Plays the perfect tragic wife. She’s good, but the script doesn’t give her much to do besides suffer.

The gangsters:
Interchangeable. Evil. Wear leather. Drive fast. Explode often.


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Pacing / Episode Flow ⏳

The film is 90 minutes, and honestly?
It needed maybe 10–15 minutes more of emotional set-up. The first act feels rushed, the second act drags slightly, and the third act goes “full Woo” and doesn’t look back.

But when the gunfights kick in, it becomes the chaotic Christmas gift of carnage the poster promised.


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Pros 👍

• The action rules. John Woo still knows how to direct shootouts like he’s in a competition with himself.
• The Christmas atmosphere + revenge story gives it a unique flavor.
• The “silent” gimmick occasionally works and makes scenes feel intense.
• Some kills are so over-the-top that you can’t help but grin.


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Cons 👎

• The silence gimmick also hurts the movie — sometimes it genuinely feels like something is missing.
• Emotional weight doesn’t fully land because characters can’t talk to each other.
• Villains are forgettable. They’re basically NPCs with guns.
• If you’re not already a John Woo fan, this will either confuse you or annoy you.


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Final Thoughts 🎄

Silent Night (2023) is messy, stylish, violent, and weirdly ambitious.
Some people adore it.
Some people hated it.
Most people walked out saying:

“Yeah… that sure was a movie.”

For me?
It’s fun enough, violent enough, and Christmas-themed enough to sit comfortably in the “worth watching once while eating holiday leftovers” tier.


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Rating ⭐

7/10
(Feels fair for what the movie delivers without blowing smoke. Solid action, flawed execution, unique gimmick.)


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SPOILER WARNING ⛔🎄

Stop reading unless you want the whole plot ripped open like a Christmas present.


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Spoilers 🎁

The film opens with Brian chasing down gang members through a neighborhood lit up for Christmas. His son gets caught in the crossfire and dies, and Brian himself gets shot in the throat. No more talking for him — ever.

He spirals. Drinks. Sulks. Broods silently like Batman if Batman couldn’t say “I’m Batman.”

Then one day he snaps and decides he’s done grieving. He starts training — literally Batman-training — in his garage. Martial arts, cardio, gun practice, weapons crafting. He writes notes to himself like a deranged Santa making a kill list.

By December, he’s ready.

Brian hunts down every gang member involved in the shooting, turning Christmas Eve into a bloody advent calendar of revenge.
The police get involved, but most of them die because this city apparently has the structural integrity of a GTA map.

Eventually, Brian storms the gang’s warehouse, marking dozens of dudes.
He rescues innocent people, torches cars, slices through hallways, and ends up in a one-on-one battle with the main gangster responsible for killing his son.

Brian wins, obviously, but not without getting stabbed, shot, and thrown around like a Christmas ragdoll.

At the end, he limps outside, collapses, and his wife finds him.
They “talk” without talking — just a quiet emotional moment — and the movie ends on a somber note rather than some triumphant hero shot.