Original Release Date: November 22, 2009 (USA film festival premiere)
Run Time: 83 minutes

Does a title “make” a story? Observe, if you will, Sean Cain’s movie, “Silent Night, Zombie Night;” in-depth details of the movie will be forthcoming below, but for such a holiday-centric title, the inclusion of Christmas and the unique characteristics surrounding the day is fairly minimal in the film. Sure, the story takes place the week leading up to Christmas, the characters have gotten each other presents, and there’s a great scene involving a disgustingly-zombified Santa, but other than that, the holiday really doesn’t play any major part in the central plot line of the film. I’m not bringing this up in any sort of negative way, really, just some food for thought, and an advance warning if anyone was seeking out this film specifically for the Christmas theme.

But I digress. “Silent Night, Zombie Night” is a fun and above-average entry from the world of smaller/independently-produced zombie films. The story is straightforward enough: in Los Angeles, two cops discover that a routine dispatch is anything but: zombies are taking over, and the two officers, Frank and Nash, quickly hole up at Nash’s apartment, where Frank’s wife Sarah is conveniently waiting for them.