Films you can't miss: Silent Night

"Tonight is all about love and forgiveness,” announces Nell (KeiraKnightley) as she welcomes friends and family into her house on Christmas Eve. A textbook festive sentiment that gains a whole new meaning in Silent Night. The evening starts off as a typical toxic family get-together, where, as people get increasingly drunk, ugly truths and resentments begin to surface.Recovering addicts fall off the wagon, bored housewives make crushing confessions, societal advantages get called out—you get the picture.

Among the run-of-the mill outrage, however, some incongruous bits of dialogue begin to circulate around the dinner table: are the Russians trying to poison us? Is the Earth about to self-destruct? Who will and who won’t take “the pill”? It all feels like a bizarre dream in which incompatible elements of our life get jumbled up.

When the other shoe finally drops, it catapults Silent Night into the realm of apocalyptic horror. It’s impossible to describe what goes down without giving too much away, so let’s just say that a dystopian cataclysm, suspicious medication and the government all play a part.

Whether or not the idea for Silent Night was conceived pre-COVID, there’s a risk that its message could be wildly misinterpreted in these bizarre times. We urge you to leave preconceptions behind the door though and enjoy it for what it is: a silly, entertaining horror comedy that, if anything, will remind you that your family Christmas isn’t half as bad.