Silent Night, Deadly Night: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Silent Night, Deadly Night: Collector's Edition



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Horror movies, slashers in particular, seem to have a niche for just about every holiday out there. While a lot of the “big” ones center around the Halloween season, a few others branch out into other holidays, but there are generally VERY few that focus on the Christmas time of year. Last year’s Krampus focused on that time of year (and was a great film by the way), but most people shy away from horror films around the day of ’s birth due to the desire to not sully the joy and holiday spirit associated with the holiday. Silent Night, Deadly Night tried to break that mold back in 1984 (and 4 subsequent sequels as well), but got REAMED by parents and critics alike as they accused Charles E. Sellier Jr’s films of trying to appropriate the holiday season with a murderous Santa. There were even protests formed in the theatrical run boycotting the film after the copious marketing run plastered the blood soaked Santa project just weeks before the classic holiday. Even the critics tore it to shreds, claiming a lack of tact for the holiday as its major fault.

Much like everything that gets boo’d and beaten up in public, Silent Night, Deadly Night gained a cult following on home video, and has been highly sought after ever since. I used to own the old DVD from back in the day, and while I loved the tar out of the film, it never really looked that good, and the Starz/Anchor Bay Blu-ray release from about 3 years back was so bad that I literally through it in the trash because my DVD was BETTER in some ways. I felt that we were never going to get a quality release of Silent Night, Deadly Night, but lo and behold. Scream Factory steps up to the plate and decks out a fantastic collector’s edition, complete with a 4K remaster for the video, the original theatrical cut, AND a whole slew of special features! Right before the very holiday in question.

Young Billy (Jonathon Best) has the worst Christmas of his life when he visits his mentally ill grandfather at his parents bequest. Not only does the crazy old man warn him about how Santa Clause punishes the naughty children, but a murderer dressed in a Santa costume hijacks his family car, murdering his mother and father while the young boy escapes. Years later, Billy is being raised in a cloistered convent run by a harsh mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin) and a kindly nun named Sister Margaret (Gilmer McCormick). Unfortunately for him, the trauma of his youth combined with the harshness of the Mother Superior has left Billy with an unhealthy fear of Christmas, and a dark streak that the “good” Mother can’t seem to whip out of him.

Shoot forward another few years and Billy (now played by Robert Brian Wilson) is a strapping 18 year old in need of a job. A job which is given to him thanks to the pull of Sister Margaret working as a stock boy at the local toy shop. However, a dark turn of events occurs when the shop owner forces Billy to dress up as Santa Clause for the little children, triggering years of repressed memories and a harsh sense of punishment thanks to the over aggressive Nuns at the convent. Suddenly the terrified boy is terrified no longer. In his place is a murderous monster who will stop at nothing to “punish” the over sexed teenagers of the city, as well as anyone who gets in his way.

Silent Night, Deadly Night got horribly maligned in the early 80s due to the rabid parents protesting the sacrilege of ruining Christmas, but even with the rabid cult following it has achieved I can objectively say that the movie wasn’t that great either. In fact I would have to say that it doesn’t deserve the rabid hatred it got originally, nor the cult following it garnered as a rebound result of the criticism years later. It’s a middle of the road slasher that is so gloriously excessive (just like the 80s in general) that it works on a silly primal level, but lacks any true intelligence to make it great. I loved the film as a young burgeoning teenager (most likely due to the scantily clad nubile teenagers that Billy went around hacking up), and to this day the 82 minute film holds a special place in my heart as I sing Christmas songs in my head.

The film rarely goes above and beyond the simple premise of fear, and is never really exploitive enough to be truly disturbing. There’s plenty of topless girls running around shrieking before getting heads chopped off, or stuck onto deer antlers, but past there Silent Night, Deadly Night is fairly simplistic and straight forward in its approach to slashers. Even the ending is a bit derivative and typical of the genre. Acting is what you would expect from an 80s film, and the low budget nature of the flick is VERY obvious in this day and age. Still, it’s a gloriously campy film that has its reasons for being a cult favorite and Scream Factory went all out on this special edition.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




Video:

As I mentioned above, Silent Night, Deadly Night WAS released on Blu-ray back in 2014 by Starz/Anchor Bay, but it was a horrific event. The Blu-ray was one of THE worst Blu-rays that I had ever seen, with a transfer that didn’t look any better than the mediocre old DVD. In fact, I think it actually looked worse in some aspects. When Scream Factory announced a new 4K remaster for their collector’s edition I was really excited, but also keeping my expectations in check considering how many 4K remasters of crummy looking films don’t show all THAT much improvement. However, this 4K remastering is simply a revelation to the films visual nature. The horrific Blu-ray is completely vindicated with this new edition and new life has been breathed into the low budget film. Sure, there’s some speckles here and there, and the occasional soft focus shot, but the colors pop and the detail is simply startling. The cheap blood shows off perfectly, while the fine details in the picture are magnificent against the heavy grain structure of the movie.

To make things even better, Scream has given us the extended cut that was on the 2014 Starz/Anchor Bay disc, but also included a 4K remaster of the theatrical cut as well! The differing cuts are given their own separate discs in the package, and while the theatrical cut is homogeneous, the extended cut’s “extended” scenes (which do very little for the film, the theatrical cut is perfectly fine) seem to be sourced from a VHS tape, or something of that quality. Scream Factory even has a blurb in the opening credits that states that a search through Sony’s storage vaults proved fruitless in getting quality elements for the extended scenes. They did the best they could with smoothing them over, and color timing to make them look as seamless as possible, but you can only do so much with the elements at hand (luckily it’s only a couple of minutes worth of footage).





Audio:

The audio track on the 2014 disc was just as abysmal as the video quality is, and Scream seems to have gotten new elements for the 2.0 DTS-HD MA track on the disc today. It’s not a wildly nuanced track, but the 2.0 mix is perfectly acceptable to hear Billy stomping around screaming “punish!” as he hacks and slashes his way through the holiday night. Effects are bright and allow plenty of pop, and the minimal LFE in the track is acceptable for an 80s hack n slash. Vocals carry a goodly punch to them, and I can detect no signs of major hissing or other auditory crackling. An all around good track for a great collector’s edition.





Extras:

Disc One: Theatrical Cut
• R-Rated Theatrical Trailer & VHS Trailer
• TV Spots
• Radio Spot
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

Disc Two: Unrated Extended Cut
• NEW Slay Bells Ring: The Story Of Silent Night, Deadly Night – Featuring Interviews With Writer Michael Hickey, Co-Executive Producers Scott J. Schneid And Dennis Whitehead, Editor/Second Unit Director Michael Spence, Composer Perry Botkin, And Actor Robert Brian Wilson
• NEW Oh Deer! – An Interview With Linnea Quigley
• NEW Christmas In July – Silent Night, Deadly Night Locations – Then And Now
• NEW Audio Commentary With Actor Robert Brian Wilson And Co-Executive Producer Scott J. Schneid
• Audio Commentary With Michael Hickey, Perry Boykin, Scott J. Schneid, and Michael Spence
• Audio Interview With Director Charles E. Sellier, Jr. From Deadpit Radio (Extended Version)
• Santa's Stocking Of Outrage
• Poster And Still Gallery

Final Score: ​

Silent Night, Deadly Night is unique slasher midst a sea of clones that really was made famous due to the initial controversy surrounding its theatrical release. The movie has stuck around over various formats over the years, and I was REALLY turned off by the abysmal audio and video quality of the Starz/Anchor Bay release 3 years back, so I was STUPID excited to see that Scream Factory was having a go at it. Luckily fans of the film can rest easy, as the 4K remaster is a revelation for the movie’s visual look, and Scream packed in more extras than you could possibly imagine, including some brand new ones that are well worth checking into. It’s not the GREATEST of slasher movies, but the collector’s edition is the definitive version of the movie for fans, and is impeccably done.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero
Directed by: Charles E. Seller Jr.
Written by: Paul Caimi (Story), Michael Hickey
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 82 Minutes (Theatrical) / 85 Minutes (Extended)
Blu-ray Release Date: December 5th, 2017

Recommendation: Fantastic Collector's Edition for Horror Fans

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never saw this movie.. Will have to check it out.

 

[Michael Scott]

@Asere ... wink wink

 

[Asere]

@Asere ... wink wink

Thank you for reviewing the film Michael. I am glad you got to review this film because I have been wanting to get it on BD but was not sure how the video was going to be. I am glad the video got what it deserves this time around since to me this film is a classic. I saw it awhile back on some streaming service (can't remember which one) that was not in HD and the quality was really poor.
I just might buy this one considering it has a new video remastering.

 

[Michael Scott]

Thank you for reviewing the film Michael. I am glad you got to review this film because I have been wanting to get it on BD but was not sure how the video was going to be. I am glad the video got what it deserves this time around since to me this film is a classic. I saw it awhile back on some streaming service (can't remember which one) that was not in HD and the quality was really poor.
I just might buy this one considering it has a new video remastering.

yeah, The video has always been REALLY cruddy, but they went back and treated it right for once. Like it's shocking the difference.

 

[Asere]

yeah, The video has always been REALLY cruddy, but they went back and treated it right for once. Like it's shocking the difference.

You may already know this but Shout has the collectors edition along with the Santa figurine for $64 or so. While the figurine is nice $64 is steep when I can get the movie alone for $17 with Amazon.

 

[Michael Scott]

yeah I saw that. the Figurine is really cool, but I'll take the regular edition for $17 as you said. Although that Figurine is calling me