Don’t Open Till Christmas is a yule-tide horror movie coming to Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and includes several interviews, an audio commentary, deleted scenes and more.
Don’t Open Till Christmas
(1984)
Genre(s): Horror
Vinegar Syndomre| NR – 87 min. – $34.98 | October 25, 2022
Date Published: 10/25/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Vinegar Syndrome provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
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It’s just days before Christmas in London, but not everyone is full of good cheer – as a maniac with a pathological hatred of Santa Claus stalks the streets, butchering any man that’s unlucky enough to be wandering around dressed as Old Saint Nick. Not restricting them to any one method of murder, this twisted killer dishes out stabbings, gunshots, a castration, and even burns the face of one poor Santa on his own roasting chestnuts! As the bodies of slaughtered Father Christmases pile up, Chief Inspector Harris (EDMUND PURDOM) finds himself under increasing pressure to crack the case before the holiday is canceled for good! |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 5/5 |
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This release (for the limited edition) comes with a Blu-ray (I received the standard one for this review). Features are plentiful and another well done job by Vinegar Syndrome. Audio Commentary — Film Historian Amanda Reyes Interviews:
The Making of a Horror Film (52:06) — Archival making-of documentary with cast and crew interviews. A Dangerous Place for Santa (14:39) — The locations of Don’t Open Till Christmas Deleted/Extended Scenes (16:09) are from the never-before-seen rough cut. Also included is a Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery and the Original Theatrical Trailer (1:56). |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Don’t Open Till Christmas comes to Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and is presented in the original 1.66 widescreen aspect ratio. The 1080p high-definition transfer was culled from a newly scanned and restored in 2K from the 35mm internegative. Detail on this was quite good with the natural film grain ever present while colors were decent, although some scenes were a tad washed out. There were no major instances of artifacts, aliasing, dust marks or scratches. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which does sound rather good considering it’s a niche film from the mid-80s. Dialogue comes across with good clarity and there is solid depth for the kill scenes and there were no noticeable or apparent pops, hissing or other audio flaws. |
OVERALL – 3/5 |
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Overall, The Fear is far from a great independent horror-thriller but admittedly there are some moments of pure entertainment, mostly for the climax more so than the bulk of the film that don’t make much sense, not to mention bland, one-dimensional, characters. The Blu-ray released by Vinegar Syndrome comes with great transfers and solid bonus features, including a lengthy retrospective documentary. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.