Silent Night is one of the bleakest, darkest, grimmest dramas I’ve ever seen… that start out as a light frivolous Christmas comedy. I liked the funny first act, loved the grim third act, and then hated hated hated the final second of the flick.

The film is set at Christmas with a bunch of friends and family meeting at an English home to celebrate. As it turns out though, it’s their last night on Earth since there’s a death cloud shrouding the planet that will kill everyone violently. That is, unless you take the government prescribed suicide pill. Merry Christmas!

The first act could be mistaken for your average holiday family comedy, only with the occasional off-hand comment that makes you say, “what’s that now?!” I reasonably enjoyed this part of the film. It’s not the best holiday cheer comedy but it’s alright. Good cast, including Keira Knightly and that kid from Jojo Rabbit.

And then it turns a corner and informs us what the film is really about and we can get existential crisis after existential crisis. The mood of the film slowly grows grimmer and grimmer as people debate and ponder their imminent doom. The children wonder if this is all fair and if they should off themselves or let the poison gas take them. And, indeed, if the government officials and scientists are even right in the first place.

This movie gets seriously dark… fatalistic, grim, sad, and really messed up. And I loved it. I loved the dread. I loved the apocalyptic nightmare the actors were allowed to act against. The existential doom was real. It reminded me of 80s cold war movies like Miracle Mile where the cast faces the apocalypse with no means to stops it.

But then, randomly, the movie throws in late stage off-color jokes. And I get that it’s trying to be pitch black comedy but they’d done such a good job with the grim atmosphere, the comedy just flatlined. Which is funny since I love me a good dark comedy… but I guess there’s just a tone inversion too strong to insert jokes into.

And the very last second of the very last shot made me kind of hate the movie. Maybe it could be justified with a specific explanation, but without that explicitness, I came away loathing the choice. And, honestly, part of that dislike is due to the feeling this entire film is a reaction to the pandemic and, more importantly, to vaccine denialism and anti-science thinking. And I hate that I bring my personal beliefs to bare on my rating since I don’t usually do that. But, still, bah to the subtext.

Which ultimately means, in all fairness, I still liked the movie well enough to give it a good score. But during its darkest moments, my mental score was so much higher than my final score. Maybe in a decade the movie will play a little better, even if the comedy in the final act still rings hollow.

Score: 84