Silent Night, Dead Night (2011)

Aka Scrooge in the Hood

Based on the art work, I thought this was a horror movie, Instead it’s an action/comedy re-telling of Scrooge. Well, if Scrooge were a pimp and drug dealer working in Boston, Tiny Tim was an overweight adult who lived at home with his criminal family, and the Jewish Mafia was out to kill Scrooge and take over his business.

The story doesn’t have much to do with Dickens except for the Scrooge penny pincher plot, and the ghosts who want him to mend his ways. As with every other character in this movie, the ghosts are unlikeable clowns.  

The is very low budget and the acting is similar to what you might find in community theater. The jokes are so thin, you’ll find yourself wondering if it’s supposed to be funny.  A lot of the humor would probably appeal to teenage boys, such as you can’t see the ghost but you can see his pee.

In one scene, the sound of water pouring into a cup masquerades as the sound of gasoline being poured around a house.  Or the sound of sirens in an outdoor scene makes you think the police are going to show up. But then you realize it’s literally police cars going by and they just didn’t bother to reshoot or do ADR.

They try to give the feel of a drive in with a trailer at the beginning, an intermission and ads for pizza.  At intermission, there is a long segment from the movie in the trailer, Boston Massacre. There we see Detective Riley flub around, and we wonder why they are showing so much of this in the middle of the movie. I’d guess to pad out the film. The most amusing part is when Riley brushes against a door and they op falls open two inches, showing it’s not actually attached. Seconds later, he throws a man in a fight, who goes crashing through it. 

This is a hard one to get through, especially if you’re expecting a horror movie.

Cringeworthy dialogue:

You should have lent him the two grand and he would have let him live.

“Bitch, I’m the boss around here. I can’t afford it.” 

Finally a place where I can get a spot o’ booze. (Said in a bad British accent)

There’s a ghost pissing on the kitchen floor!

Tiny Tim’s got a bum leg and a bad sense of balance.

I’m not sure if this is a hotel or his bedroom, and
are those two bags of Utz chips on the bed?

Tiny Tim is on the right. His mother is wearing the straw hat.

Is this a third title for the movie?

The palatial Scrooge estate

You know it’s the past when the wigs come out

Scrooge finds his grave based on the cash sign

I thought the guy on the left was a manikin until he blinked.

The head of the Jewish mafia and his cocaine

The coolest guy in the film.  Also it looks like Scrooge is too
big for that casket and the lid isn’t going to fit.