Following its UK cinema Christmas release last year, Mike P Nelson’s grindhouse slasher movie remake par excellence is now getting a Blu-ray, DVD and digital download release through Studio Canal.
This new version of the 1984 original keeps the best elements (child traumatised by seeing his parents killed by 'Santa' grows up to become lunatic slasher wearing the same festive outfit) but adds a lot more to the mix, including why the killer is creating his own advent calendar of death, a subplot about children being abducted, and a romance with a girl into true crime documentaries.
Where SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT really scores big, though, is that here there's none of the irony, smugness or post-modernism of so many of those tiresome pseudo 1980s slasher tributes, the ones so keen to keep nudging you that 'this is just like the 80s, right?'. Instead here everything is played straight, which also helps to make an outrageous sequence in the middle (that appears so gob-smackingly out of left field) a thing of near genius. There are some in-jokes but they are subtle and more to be nodded at by those in the know, although fans of SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 will most likely cheer at the mention of ‘Garbage Day!’.
Considering how many extra elements are added, including the reason the lead character has been going on a killing spree every Christmas for the last ten years, it would be easy for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, to collapse under the weight of too many absurdities. Full marks, then, to Nelson and his talented and likeable cast who get the balance just right. Likely to become an annual seasonal watch for horror fans, this is how you do a modern slasher picture. Studio Canal’s Blu-ray comes with an eleven minute making of that includes interviews with Nelson, the producers (who also produced the original) and the lead players.
Mike P Nelson’s SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from Studio Canal on Monday 2nd March 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment