Camille Griffin – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SILENT NIGHT (TIFF2021) – Review by Pam Grady

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021 Pam Grady Camille Griffin, Keira Knightley, matthew goode, Silent Night, toronto international film festival

Apocalyptic stories are no strangers at the Toronto International Film Festival, my favorite of all time (granted one that predates my time at the festival) being Don McKellar’s TIFF award-winning Last Night, in which the Toronto native imagines how a group of city residents count down humanity’s final hours and emerges with a drama that is captivating and oddly, beautifully romantic. This year, the festival chose writer/director Camille Griffin’s Silent Night, another end-of-the-world story that like McKellar’s film tries to strike a tone beyond pure horror, but one doesn’t quite work with pieces that don’t quite fit. Griffin deserves credit for taking the risk, but it is one in which pay off proves elusive.

Festivals Reviews

SILENT NIGHT (TIFF2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021 Leslie Combemale Camille Griffin, Keira Knightley, matthew goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Silent Night, toronto international film festival

Can you remember the first time you really knew you were going to die? You know, when you learned that every human and living being on the planet has an expiration date, including you? What if that date was Christmas, and everyone else was going to die, too? That’s the premise for writer/director Camille Griffin’s film Silent Night. The film is terrifying and as dark as a starless sky, not because of the premise itself, but because of how the story unfolds. Absolutely not for children, and not even for adults who avoid movies with children in peril, this is decidedly not a Christmas movie.