And the parents continue to spend a great deal of energy trying to justify their generation’s poor choices, both to themselves and their children. Bella (Lucy Punch) continues to talk over and dismiss her girlfriend, Alex (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Nell and her determinedly selfish friend Sandra (Annabelle Wallis) continue to make catty comments about James (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) and his younger girlfriend, Sophie (Lily-Rose Depp). So is Tony (Rufus Jones) enthusing about how fun it was to break into a store.īut while the end of the world is freeing in some ways, for the most part the old gang remains locked in their same old squabbles and blinkered affluence. Its characters certainly have charm Simon running around the yard haplessly trying to free the chickens, and looking much like a chicken himself, is adorable. “Silent Night” is colder and less forgiving. “The Big Chill” loved its aging boomer cast and their nostalgic friendships. It’s like “The Big Chill,” except everyone dies. Nell (Keira Knightley) and her husband, Simon (Matthew Goode), host one last Christmas party for a group of their school friends.

The British government has issued euthanasia pills to (almost) everyone so they can die with less pain. Poisonous storms sweep the landscape, and everyone caught in them dies in hideous agony. “Silent Night” is set in a near future in which the earth has experienced massive environmental collapse. The true horror is not that all the social rules crumble in the face of bloody catastrophe.

As a result, her brilliant new end-of-the-world comedy, “Silent Night,” is more genuinely bleak than most zombie apocalypses. Director Camille Griffin understands that watching someone get their face torn off is often less upsetting than watching someone socially faceplant.

Silent night robert thier