For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. While vaccines are more widely available now than they were last year, for some plans still remain the same this holiday season, unsure about going to movie theaters. However, this shouldn’t stop us from enjoying holiday movies with friends and family.
During the month of December, therefore, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2021—a year that can still do with plenty of spirit. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch it.
In 11 seasons of The Walking Dead, one may wonder why there has yet to be a Christmas special episode of the series. Walkers wearing Santa hats during a rare Georgia snowstorm must certainly be the lively yuletide celebration for which audiences yearn. There is far more to zombies than watching them idle down a street or wave helplessly while stuck in a face though, which is, as Camille Griffin’s Silent Night shows, the reason a proper walker holiday special has not been produced.
Silent Night takes place at the country estate of Nell (played by Keira Knightly), Simon (Matthew Goode), and their three sons–Hardy & Thomas (Hardy & Gilby Griffin Davis) and Art (played by JoJo Rabbit’s Roman Griffin Davis). The family is hosting a large gathering for Christmas Day. Also attending are their friends Sandra and Tony (Annabelle Wallis and Rufus Jones) with their daughter Kitty (Davida McKenzie), Nell’s obnoxious sister Bella and her wife Alex (Lucy Punch and Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and finally James and his much younger wife Sophie (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù and Lily-Rose Depp).
While it appears that this is like any other holiday meeting of friends and family, subtle hints are dropped throughout the first half of the film that a toxic gas will surround the world on December 26th. Queen Elizabeth II supposedly gave her annual holiday speech from a bunker and all shops have closed, leaving anybody brave enough to loot remaining goods. With as dangerous as the gas has been said to be—turning people into the walking undead—and many different opinions on social media about how to handle the crisis, the majority of the citizens have chosen to take a cyanide pill, thus killing themselves instead of becoming zombies. On Christmas Day, however, there is still plenty of time for celebration as the family and friends drink wine and open presents they will be unable to cherish.
Two particular characters question taking the pill, but find the idea of killing oneself instead of fighting to live wrong. Art has watched multiple videos about the gas cloud and its effects on the human body and wonders whether he could find a way to survive. Sophie, it turns out, is pregnant and doesn’t want to kill her child. This causes frustration among the group who have all chosen to abide by the nationally declared solution to the global crisis. Art, who escapes the house and finds himself inside the gas cloud that the group was apparently not quite as prepared for as they thought, ultimately convulses and dies in bed.
Silent Night examines how people handle global health crises through communication on social media, news broadcasts, and between family, and how, when the final moment happens, we truly react. Coincidentally, the film had finished shooting before the COVID-19 pandemic, with small reshoots happening in September 2020. Yet, when studying all that the film says about dangerous toxins and people dying, it is not difficult to see the same story about a group of upper-class people being affected by COVID-19. Rather than do anything to save the planet from dangers like climate change or the Coronavirus, some groups would voluntarily die, leaving the mess for others to clean up. Even Kitty, Sandra’s and Tony’s presumptuous teen, regularly comments throughout the film that “It’s not all bad. We’re still luckier than some. At least our government doesn’t want us to suffer,” referring to the fact that in this case, even the British wants to ignore the crisis they’ve caused. The actual gas cloud, it seems, has possibly occurred due to climate change, which Art points out, saying “for years the planet’s absorbed everyone’s filthy rubbish and it’s had enough. It can’t take it anymore, so it’s spitting it back out as a ‘fuck you’ to the world.”
Global warming, COVID-19, poverty, homelessness, and racism are only a small number of major issues the world still faces during the holidays, but some try to ignore it, or only give a little to certain causes during this season to show they care. Griffin’s film, while depressing as its final moments unfold, is a spectacular way to show our misgivings about important causes throughout the year. Yet, as a Christmas movie, the most holiday cheer to be found in this story is in the first half. Although this is no reason to skip the film, it is a good reason to find cheerier stories for now, while pursuing Silent Night early in 2022.
Silent Night is available to stream on AMC+ and in select movie theaters.
