The following article was written by my pal and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can be taught extra about him HERE.
Whether you’re stuffing the stocking of a physical-media fan or simply increase your personal vacation home-video library, there’s an eclectic number of media assured to boost your Christmas.
Holiday Horrors and Thrillers
The 4K launch of 2022’s sleeper hit Violent Night (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) – starring David Harbour as an exhausted Santa who has to face off with a workforce of criminals headed by John Leguizamo – is one among a number of new releases that colour manner exterior the traces of what has historically been thought of vacation leisure. Also getting 4K reissues are two classics set on the holidays however not at all times thought of “Christmas movies”: Sydney Pollack’s 1975 espionage thriller 3 Days of the Condor (KL Studio Classics), starring Robert Redford as a CIA agent who discovers his total division is being eradicated with excessive prejudice, and Charles Laughton’s still-creepy The Night of the Hunter, which provides a candy vacation capper to a brilliantly unsettling story.
Perhaps the best mixture of the Christmas vacation and horror is Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary with a 4K Ultimate Collector’s Edition that has hi-def followers swooning. Leaning much more into the spooky facet is Christmas Bloody Christmas (RLJE Films), starring Abraham Benrubi as a Santa robotic that goes berserk, and The Mean One (DeskPop Entertainment), which takes a decidedly unsettling take a look at a beloved Christmas-stealing hermit.
Deck the Ha-Ha-Halls
Defuse your vacation stress with some Christmas comedy: Richard Donner’s beloved 1988 Scrooged (Paramount Home Entertainment) makes its 4K debut with new particular options (together with a commentary from the late filmmaker), and if that’s not sufficient office hilarity for you, The Office: Complete Christmas Collection (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) compiles each Dunder Mifflin vacation episode from this long-running fave. Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (Shout Factory) sees the Aardman Animation icon coming to the rescue whereas his American counterpart cuts a rug in Sesame Street: Elmo’s Holiday Spectacular: The Nutcracker and Other Tales (Shout Factory).
The very unusual French-Canadian child’s film The Christmas Martian (Canadian International Pictures) will get a Blu-ray that appears assured to bulk up the movie’s cult following. Legendary comedy author Bruce Vilanch and actor-impersonator Michael Airington workforce as much as give audiences the vacation extravaganza that by no means was with Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas (Cinephobia Releasing), with a triumvirate of legendary drag-queen company: Jackie Beat, Lady Bunny, and Jack Plotnick as Evie Harris.
The final vacation rom-com, Love Actually (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) celebrates its twentieth birthday with a brand new 4K launch (and a week-long theatrical reissue), and the long-awaited sequel A Christmas Story Christmas (Warner Bros. Discovery) makes its physical-media debut, lest you fearful Ralphie’s return can be ruled totally by the whims of streaming.
Hallmark and Lifetime and Company
Over the final decade or so, no single participant within the realm of Christmas motion pictures has modified the sport as a lot because the Hallmark Channel, whose vastly widespread vacation romances has carved out a complete new (and massively widespread) sub-genre. And whereas the community reruns their vacation movies 24/7 from the week earlier than Halloween to New Year’s Eve, in addition they launch DVDs for cord-cutters and film-library keepers alike.
This yr’s releases embrace the channel’s 2022 highest-rated hits, Haul Out the Holly and Three Wise Men and a Baby, together with A Royal Christmas Crush / Take Me Back for Christmas (Hallmark’s two Christmas in July options for 2023), Time for Him to Come for Christmas, The Gift of Peace, Five More Minutes: Moments Like These, A Maple Valley Christmas, A Magical Christmas Village, and A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe. If you’re within the temper to binge, they’ve additionally bought 3-Movie Collections – Lights, Camera, Christmas! / Undercover Holiday / A Cozy Christmas Inn, Our Italian Christmas Memories / Long Lost Christmas / We Need a Little Christmas, Holiday Heritage / All Saints Christmas / Inventing the Christmas Prince – Volume 2 and Volume 3 of their 6-movie collections, and even a 9-movie assortment. (The latter options a few of Hallmark’s most charming current titles, together with the LGBTQ+-inclusive The Holiday Sitter in addition to Christmas on the Golden Dragon, In Merry Measure, and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.)
Not to be outdone, Lifetime provides Volume 5 and Volume 6 of their A Very Merry Movie Collection, every that includes a dozen titles, together with the primary two installments of their widespread Merry Liddle Christmas franchise. Dolly Parton, a one-woman Christmas franchise all to herself, returns with Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas (Warner Bros. Discovery+). Shout Factory provides the Christmas within the Country Double Feature, that includes Colorado Christmas and The Great Christmas Switch, whereas Mill Creek Entertainment presents a Holiday 3-Film Collection (Christmas with the Knightlys, Christmas in Big Sky Country, Christmas in Maple Hills) in addition to An Angelic Christmas.
Finally, the TV traditional Babes in Toyland (KL Studio Classics) takes one other crack at this vacation chestnut, with the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves (alongside Richard Mulligan and Pat Morita).
Film-Nerd Fun for Kids and Adults
The people behind the pleasant card recreation Cinephile have additionally been publishing kids’s books for budding cinephiles, and this vacation season they return with three new one: My First Hollywood Musical, My First Spaghetti Western, and My First Yakuza Movie. Get these younger’uns began on style early, and so they’ll by no means look again.