Silent Night (2021)

Set in England, an imminent worldwide environmental catastrophe in which a rolling gas cloud is killing all forms of life has caused the government to issue suicide pills so that citizens can die in dignity rather than the horrible painful death by the gas cloud. A married couple (Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode) host a Christmas party for a small group of family and friends including their children to enjoy one last get-together before they all kill themselves. Oh, did I mention this is a comedy? Written and directed by Camille Griffin. Amazingly she manages to balance the black humor with genuine horror. We laugh but we're also petrified at the idea of the apocalyptic end of the world. One child (Roman Griffin Davis) refuses to take the pill insisting that just maybe the scientists made a mistake and it isn't the end. In some ways, it's quite a cynical film but the questions it brings up are legitimate. Is it wrong to force your children to take a suicide pill or should they be allowed to choose for themselves? Should you risk a painful lingering horrible death if there's any chance of surviving? The film is uneven in its execution but I was taken with its blend of black comedy and apocalyptic sci-fi horror. The biggest problem I had with the film were those damn English accents which were often difficult to understand. With Annabelle Wallis, Lily Rose Depp, Kirby Howell Baptiste, Lucy Punch, Sope Dirisu, Rufus Jones and Trudie Styler.