Summary

• Silent Night's title is a clever play on the Christmas carol, but it also symbolizes the loss of voice and communication as characters take the "exit pills" and face their deaths silently.
• The gas in the film is never officially named, but it manifests as a supernatural superstorm and affects the nervous system like other deadly gases. Its effects are delayed and different from known nerve agents, suggesting it may be a modified version of sulfur mustard.
• While Silent Night is presented as a Christmas movie, it delves into themes of misinformation, fearmongering, and the importance of courage in the face of a government and society that may be misleading its people.

Despite having all the makings of a fun holiday movie with the perfect mix of family drama and Christmas carols, Silent Night's ending explained that things are much darker. Set in what appears to be present-day England, the film begins with the coming together of family and friends at the country home of Nell, Simon, Art, and his twin brothers Hardy and Thomas. A familiar mix of personalities arrives at the house and an ominous secret is revealed: the world is coming to an end and everyone plans to take a government-issued “exit pill” to avoid a torturous death by poison gas.

Directed by Camille Griffin, the apocalyptic Christmas movie features a brilliant ensemble of British actors, led by Kiera Knightley and Matthew Goode, but the real standout is the director’s son, young actor Roman Griffin Davis, in the role of Art. Griffin Davis’s Art offers a much deeper meaning to the otherwise strange yet entertaining Silent Night during the film's finale. The only dissenters are Sophie, who has recently found out she is pregnant, and Art. As the group’s final night on earth comes to an end and the toxic gas threatens to envelop the house, Art makes a stand and his actions leave him the only one left alive.

Silent Night’s Christmas Title is About More Than Christmas

Though It Does Play On A Classic Song

The film’s title is an obvious play on the traditional Christmas carol. However, there is more to Silent Night’s title than the holiday. As the characters submit to their fears and take their "exit pills," a common symptom emerges. They lose their ability to speak. Bella tries to say something to Alex after stabbing her but finds she has no voice before dropping to the floor. Young Kitty loses her voice and uses her doll to tell her dead father she loves him before finally, silently, embracing her mother. Silent Night ends with everyone mutely going to their death and Art waking to a quiet morning after a silent night, as much a narrative clue as it is a pun.

What Is The Gas In Silent Night?

It Never Gets An Official Name

The gas in the Christmas horror movie Silent Night is never named and is described only in its appearance and effect, with many of its elements leaning toward the supernatural. Appearing first as small dust clouds and then as tornadoes, the poisonous gas arrives in something of a superstorm that involves lightning, thunder, and strong winds. Additionally, Art’s mother, Nell, describes the poison as airborne, and everyone in Silent Night refers to it as a gas. The water that flows when Alex turns on the tap near the end of the film is brown and has a foul odor, lending to the idea that the water is also tainted.

In effect, the gas attacks the nervous system like other known deadly gases. Immediately after Art is exposed to a toxic dust cloud in Silent Night, he appears unaffected by the poison (or any symptoms are hidden by the trauma he suffers seeing the dead family in the car). Alone in his room, after his father, Simon believes Art is safe in bed, Art begins to seize and gasp for air. Later, as his mother cradles him on the bed, Art suffers the paralysis associated with nerve-affecting poisons like Sarin, and his mother, Nell, believes him simply subdued.

When she finally releases him, it is his limp body along with blood from his nose and eyes that leads her and the family to believe Art is dead, though no one checks his pulse and they all rush to take their suicide pills. However, whereas Art’s symptoms are delayed in Silent Night, Sarin’s effects are immediate, happening within the first moments after exposure. Furthermore, with other poisons that affect the nervous system, the victim typically loses control of bodily functions, something that was absent from Art’s struggle.

Another possibility is a version of sulfur mustard similar to the hydrogen-corrupted mustard gas conceptualized in 2017’s Wonder Woman. Symptoms of exposure include agitation of the body’s mucous membranes which would explain Art’s bloody eyes and nose. Additionally, like Sarin, sulfur mustard affects the respiratory tract but, unlike Sarin, sulfur mustard is not a nerve agent and does not cause the seizures Art experiences in Silent Night. Also, while Sarin is likely to cause death, sulfur mustard is unlikely to kill someone possibly explaining why Art survives.

Interestingly, water can be contaminated by both Sarin and Sulphur mustard and, though Sarin is odorless and colorless, Sulphur mustard can make water appear yellow or brown and smell like onions, garlic, or mustard, explaining the earlier scene with Alex.

Silent Night Is Not Really A Movie About Christmas… Or The End Of The World

That's Part Of What Makes It So Unique

Camille Griffin's Silent Night presents itself as a Christmas movie with the feel-good comedy associated with the genre. Likewise, the film delivers horror at the end when Art wakes up his dead family and becomes a survivor in a world full of “exit pill” consumers. Silent Night, however, is more than a holiday-horror-comedy.

Throughout Silent Night, Art spouts questions about whether the scientists could be wrong and if the government could be misleading people. Through the other characters’ arguments about suffering and pain, Art remains unconvinced, but their fears are revealed, and they become examples of how fearmongering and fake news can spread in today’s culture. When Art is the only one left alive, his survival lends to the underlying themes throughout Silent Night that the government is wrong, science is wrong, the news is misleading, and fear and the lack of courage are the greatest threats to humanity.

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  Silent Night (2021)

  Summary:

  In true British fashion, (while the rest of the world faces impending doom), a group of old friends reunite to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of an idyllic country home. Burdened with the inconvenience of mankind’s imminent destruction, they adopt a stiff upper lip, crack open another bottle of prosecco and continue with their festivities. But no amount of stoicism can replace the courage needed for their last night on earth.

  Release Date:

  2021-12-03

  Cast:

  Keira Knightley, Sope Dirisu, Lily-Rose Depp, Lucy Punch, Roman Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis, Matthew Goode, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Rufus Jones

  Director:

  Camille Griffin

  Genres:

  Comedy, Drama, Horror

  Rating:

  pg-13

  Runtime:

  92 minutes

  Writers:

  Camille Griffin

  Studio(s):

  Altitude Film Distribution

  Distributor(s):

  Altitude Film Distribution