Toast & Kent's Xmas (2025) Advent Calendar - Day 19: Silent Night

2021, d. Camille Griffin - Tubi

It seems to me that in creating a Christmas movie, the point is to make something that will make people want to watch it at Christmas time, to get into the festive season, to fill one's self with holiday feels, and to do it again the next year.

I can't imagine anyone watching Silent Night and thinking it a part of annual tradition.

With a quite wonderful ensemble cast, including Kiera Knightly, Matthew Goode, Lucy Punch, Kirby Howell Baptiste, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, Sope Dirisu and Roman Griffin Davis (the young star of Jojo Rabbit), this pretends in its outset to be a holiday gathering of friends that promises some laughs, good times, and drama, as all ensemble films about holiday gatherings might.

What starts as weird statements, odd turns of phrases, and curious anecdotes soon reveals that a toxic gas cloud is slowly enveloping the earth, and that in the UK, the government has issued its citizens the Exit Pill, that will allow them to pass on in a quick and painless manner, sparing them from the more slow and brutal death that the gas will provide.

And so the gathering is not simply a holiday feast, but also an event for the dearest of friends to gather one last time, to speak truth and offer forgiveness and to share in each other's love one last time.

But, this isn't going to be a simple silent night. Not everyone is part of the "inner circle". Some are significant others who don't have the history and connection and are left on the outside, and some, like Art, are children who refuse to accept their fate and are angry and want to fight.

This is a deftly woven tale, with some genuinely funny moments as well as some darkly funny moments, balanced with some juicy drama built out of the vow of honesty, and some gut-wrenching intensity as the story peeks here and there into the outside world.

The ending is just as bleak as you would expect, with an aspect of sweetness and beauty to it all, but it's the aching release after 90 minutes of anticipation. There should be no joy to this world, but there's still little moments that crack the bleakness, stop it from being so dire.

I don't know who would want to watch this every Christmas, as it didn't make me feel terribly festive. That said, it's a remarkable little film, an emotional rollercoaster that's surprisingly much more evocative than I was expecting.

[not to be confused with this Silent Night]