Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie Review

Just in time for, uh, St. Patrick's Day.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III March 17, 2023

Three short years after his oddly enjoyable 80s action/horror throwback VFW, low-budget director Joe Begos returns with Christmas Bloody Christmas, another film that brings to mind several others that have come before; Bob Clark's Black Christmas (which is even name-checked during the film), of course, but also less holiday-themed genre entries such as The Terminator, Hardware, and High Tension. Its story is simple: a robotic Santa, up for recall due to faulty programming glitches, terrorizes a hapless group of twenty-somethings and anyone else who dares to get in its way. But "explain the whole film in one sentence" isn't exactly a compliment here: Christmas Bloody Christmas is not only derivative, but feels like a decent short film padded to within an inch of its 87-minute life.

And if you're waiting for the blood in Christmas Bloody Christmas, please be patient: its almost excruciating setup involves a figurative mountain of mostly terrible banter between record store owner Tori Tooms (Riley Dandy) and horny employee Robbie Reynolds (Sam Delich), whose profane conversations find them debating the merits of music, movies, and more while we're just waiting for the action to heat up. It finally does after a quick encounter with young lovers Jay (Jonah Ray) and Lahna (Dora Madison), who get spoilered during a quickie while closing up the local toy store. The culprit, of course, is robotic life-sized Santa Claus, who grabs a nearby axe and somehow doesn't lose it for the rest of the movie. It's implied that he's strong and certainly durable -- as demonstrated by a laughable number of Terminator-style resurrections after squaring off with bloody Tori, like she's goddamn Sarah Connor or something -- but he otherwise doesn't seem especially dangerous without his weapon. It doesn't seem to matter, though: robo-Santa straight up murders at least a half-dozen hapless victims (including a kid, yikes), usually by way of satisfyingly squishy practical effects that at least deserve some credit. But do we care about these victims? Not really.

Unsurprisingly, there's little here that makes Christmas Bloody Christmas feel like anything more than a D-tier curiosity, a "why not?" when you've run out of better holiday-themed horror films. I'll certainly give this one points for its ability to mount suspense during the final leg of the journey... but then again, it takes so many beats from earlier, better films that they deserve the real credit. Given the slight but noticeable downturn in overall quality between 2019's VFW and Christmas Bloody Christmas, here's hoping that director Joe Begos -- who's once again working with a few regulars, including producer/editor Josh Either and musician Steve Moore, perhaps better known as one-half of the Pittsburgh rock duo Zombi with Anthony Paterra-- maybe tries something a bit more original next time.

For a similarly lukewarm take on the main feature, please read Brian Orndorf's theatrical review.

RLJ Entertainment presents this Shudder original production on Blu-ray -- no 4K option this time, sorry -- and the results are decidedly mixed. Its low-budget origins don't exactly lead to a strong looking (or sounding) disc, although it's certainly a step up from streaming options, and the lack of better bonus features means that there's very little to dig through once the credits roll. This is truly a "try before you buy" disc if ever I've seen one.

Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It's almost impossible to know where native technical limitations end and encoding flaws begin during Christmas Bloody Christmas, with its (intentionally?) scuzzy appearance and blown-out, extremely colorful lighting design leading to all manner of crushed blacks, swarming noise, and a general lack of smooth, satisfying image detail. There's a part of me that thinks it looks just fine as-is, potential flaws and all -- and yes, that includes regular amounts of macroblocking, which are hard to pick out amongst all the other issues but nonetheless contribute to the film's grindhouse atmosphere. Either way, I've attempted to serve up a varied cross-section of scenes from the film that showcase its very particular appearance, warts and all... and while the end result looks a little less garish in-motion, for the most part what you see here is what you get. I'm not convinced that a dual-layered Blu-ray or even a 4K release would have improved its visual presentation to any real degree, but if nothing else it's likely a decent step up from streaming versions.

Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Christmas Bloody Christmas treads through vaguely familiar sonic territory for horror films, featuring almost entirely front-loaded dialogue with subtle (and not-so-subtle) surround activity reserved for general ambience and jump scares. Steve Moore's original score, which occasionally adds flavor but often seems to pop in randomly during dialogue scenes just to "fill the void", likewise creeps into the sides and surrounds but only overpowers for stylistic purposes, mostly during the final stretch. It's a solid enough effort considering the genre and budget, establishing and maintaining an overall suitable atmosphere but not exactly going above and beyond in any crucial area. That said, much like the video this lossless mix will at least sound better than any compressed streaming versions, so there's that.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with appropriately creepy cover artwork, a matching embossed metallic slipcover, and no inserts of any kind. Bonus features are limited to a trio of short self-explanatory featurettes featuring brief promotional interview clips with key members of the cast and creative team. They're worth a look if you really enjoyed the film, I guess, but aren't substantial enough to add any real value to this package.

• Behind the Scenes (3:51)

• The Special Effects (2:33)

• The Cast (3:42)

Christmas Bloody Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Joe Begos' low-budget holiday horror film Christmas Bloody Christmas isn't exactly a rock-solid future cult classic, but at least has some merit in the practical effects department with occasional bursts of squishy, satisfying gore and plenty of suspense in the second half. Sadly, its better moments a buried under an early mountain of dull dialogue, throwaway supporting characters, and way too much reliance on genre entries like The Terminator, Hardware, and High Tension. RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray offers modest support with a good-at-best A/V presentation and a few quick featurettes. It's priced to move but probably for established fans only -- newcomers should stream this one first.