Yes Reel Nerd fans, I will be taking a little time off form the Podcast to focus on my soon to be born son. But fear not I will still find a way to make sure my voice is heard, I will be reviewing the Blu-Rays I will be watching so you can still know what films I am checking out.

The Film: Silent Night is a remake of the “classic” slasher film, Silent Night, Deadly Night. In the film a small town in terrorized by a killer Santa Claus. The film relies heavily on the imagery of a psycho Santa and for the most part it succeeds. The film is well shot, the camera moves fluidly and there are some cool deaths for sure, which is a must for slasher films. The story is pretty ho-hum(or Ho-Ho). Two police officers played by the hit or miss Jaime King and the always spot on scene chewing Malcolm McDowell. Jaime King plays Aubrey Bradimore, a woman who has recently lost her husband and now lives with her parents. I guess that’s what happened because it is only briefly mentioned in the beginning. King gives an uneven performance through out the film, at times she is wonderful with a lot of warmth behind her eyes. Every once in awhile, whether the director did not care about her performance or if the writing let her down, she just reads the lines very flat. On the other hand Malcolm McDowell is once again relishing in the camp. His performance is right in tune with the tone of the film. Over the top and funny at the same time, I loved it. The kills are pretty gruesome, highlighted by a nude woman shoved in a wood chipper. The film does flip, flop on the motivation of the killer. Does he kill sinners, like it says on the Blu-Ray case? Or is he seeking revenge? Both are presented and I guess it doesn’t matter that much. Overall this film was a lot better then I was expecting and if you are looking for a campy, gory, good time you could do a lot worse.

The Video: The film is very sharp. The colors pop with a blue hue through out. The director seems to be more in love with lens flares then J.J. Abrams however, as he uses them an awful lot, especially when flashlights are in use. There is little or no grain and the blacks are inky good. This film looks really good for a low budget horror flick.

The Audio: The mix is solid, but nothing spectacular. The sound effects are squishy when they need to be. The music is nothing memorable, in fact I can’t even remember what the theme to the film is. Overall the sound is good not great.

The Extras: The extras are pretty weak. There is a fifteen minute making of, but it is just a bunch of cobbled together behind the scenes footage. No interviews with the cast or crew, just some dude who is filming behind the crew while they shot the film, pretty boring. Same goes for the only other feature which are some deleted scenes. Nothing special.

The Verdict:  As far as the Blu-Ray is concerned it doesn’t offer a lot besides the film so it hurts the overall package. Overall I was pleasantly surprised how much fun this film was. Going into remakes can be a little scary, but with 80’s slasher films like Silent Night, Deadly Night if you stick close to the story and add better filmmaking techniques you can usually make a film that might not be better, but is not any worse.