Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming
Dir: James Plumb
2013
*
Theodore
Gershuny's original 1972 Silent Night, Bloody Night became infamous and eventually
reached cult status, largely thanks to the involvement of Lloyd Kaufman, John
Carradine and the almost full set of Andy Warhol superstars. It's a fairly
awful watch but it has become hugely influential and a hero to all independent
horror films made ever since. James Plumb's sequel/remake
is clearly made out of love and admiration for the original and isn't just
cashing in on the now famous name but I'm afraid that is pretty much the
only praise I can give him and his film. The title 'The Homecoming' sounded
pretty American to me, I wondered how they would continue the story and had
images of school dorms and graduation balls but no, The Homecoming is a puzzling and odd title that has
very little to do with anything. The biggest surprise to me was that the film,
a remake rather than sequel, was set in Wales. Nothing wrong with that, not
until it becomes clear that this is one of the most amateur productions
ever to have been submitted to DVD. I like independent horror films and
quite often a low-budget can be overcome by originality and creativity but Silent
Night, Bloody Night: The
Homecoming suffers everything that makes a low-budget horror film bad. Most of
what makes it so terrible is made worse by the fact that the first five minutes
of the film features some truly brilliant old-school composition. For those
first few minutes it really did feel like this was going to be a heartfelt and
authentic tribute to independent horror but it was as if someone flicked the
quality switch from on to off and the circuits broke, the wires came loose,
burst into flames and the house burnt down with everyone inside. I have many
gripes with amateur independent films but I think the most irritating is the
self-congratulation usually seen towards the film's finale. I get it, I've
worked on many low-budget films and admit I've made the same mistake but by
sticking in personal jokes and over-doing the gag reel, you only end up
ostracizing the audience even more than you did by making a low quality film.
Horror film makers and heavy metal rock music often go hand in hand also and
I'm sure many of the fans enjoy both but I'm not sure why they feel the need to
make their lead characters - who certainly don't come across as rock fans -
secret rockers. I also understand that many of the cast were probably friends
of or indeed the film makers themselves but the problem is that they really
look like horror film makers and thus ruin the illusion. There is often a fine
line between a tribute and woeful imitation and I'm afraid cinema doesn't get
any more woeful than this.
