Tune In Tuesday: Don't Open Till Christmas VS Blu Ray

Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release of *Don't Open Till Christmas* is a bloody mess of sleaze, sharp edges, and searing moments of noir-ish weirdness that somehow cling together like the last remnants of a dying firecracker. But, hey, let’s be honest — you came for the chaos and discomfort, and that’s exactly what you get. From the second you slide that disc in, you’re knee-deep in a perverse holiday fever dream, where the usual festive cheer is exchanged for blood, nudity, and disorienting violence.

This 1984 British slasher is a misunderstood relic, the kind of film that gleefully hacks away at your expectations of what holiday cheer should look like. A serial killer is stalking London’s sleaziest streets, picking off Santa's. It’s trashy in all the right ways — laced with absurdity and desperation, yet it somehow carries an undercurrent of biting commentary about the grotesque nature of Christmas. A cynical view of humanity wrapped up in tinsel and blood. You can almost hear the scream of “Why is this happening?” echoing through the streets of a dying holiday spirit.

Vinegar Syndrome does what it does best with this release: a transfer so crisp it practically slices your retinas, accompanied by a smattering of supplements that reveal just enough about the film's strange origins without being too enlightening. The picture is clean, too clean, which highlights the low-budget chaos that desperately tries to convince you it's more than it is. It's like watching a trainwreck in slow motion, except that trainwreck is full of bizarre characters who can’t stop making bad decisions. The sound, though — that grating, tinny synth score — that sticks to you long after the movie ends. 

As for the film itself, *Don't Open Till Christmas* feels like it’s trying to do too many things and ends up doing none of them well, and yet, it's hard to look away. The characters are paper-thin, their motivations opaque, but somehow, the sleaze and madness of it all come together like a great big, steaming mess of gory nostalgia. It’s a chaotic, ugly little movie, but one that dares to shove your face in the unwrapping of the season’s dark side.

Is it a masterpiece? Hell no. But is it a must-have for the genre's gluttonous fans? Damn right. Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-ray release is the perfect packaging for this frenzied, offbeat holiday slasher. It doesn’t apologize, it doesn’t pull punches, and it doesn’t care what you think. The thing is, you’ll probably love it, if for no other reason than because it has the audacity to exist in the first place. A scream at the sky wrapped in garish Christmas lights, flickering until the last of the batteries die.