Welcome back to This Week In Discs! As always, if you see something you like, click on the image to buy it. Silent Night It’s Christmas time in a small town, but instead of holiday cheer the streets are filled with blood. A masked Santa Claus is roaming town, finding those who’ve been naughty and ending their lives in violent and often gory ways. Steven C. Miller‘s remake of the nasty 80s original keeps the violence and mayhem but adds both personality and humor with the result being a fun slasher that vastly improves on Silent Night, Deadly Night. Jaime King brings charm and some serious heroine chops to the proceedings, and she’s joined by Malcolm McDowell, Donal Logue and Ellen Wong. That’s right, the most underrated player in Scott Pilgrim finally got another job! Horror fans will be pleased with and surprised by this early Christmas present, so if you’ve missed its (very brief) theatrical window it’s definitely worth picking up on Blu-ray/DVD.[Extras: Behind the scenes, deleted scenes]

If I were to call The Vampire Diaries stupid, I don’t think that too many people would be outraged or even ask me to explain why I had that opinion. Everyone would probably just assume that I wasn’t in to vampires or diaries or good-looking men with smoldering eyes and leave it at that. The show definitely has its fan base, and it’s a very devoted fan base, but it’s socially acceptable to not like The Vampire Diaries. Now, what if I were to call Mad Men stupid? The kind of inarticulate assessment that it’s perfectly OK to make when talking about The Vampire Diaries probably wouldn’t fly when talking about Matthew Weiner’s acclaimed drama (mainly because the show isn’t stupid and, even if it isn’t your cup of mid-afternoon booze, there are certain things about it that you have to concede—it’s thematically complex, well-written, pretty to look at, etc.). I happen to be a faithful Mad Men viewer but I know that there are people who find it painfully unwatchable and I also know that these people aren’t hillbillies (no offense to hillbillies) or unintelligent. Disliking a popular show is, of course, alienating—even when you’re steadfast in your opinion—but it’s also just incredibly frustrating; there’s a kind of emperor’s new clothes aspect to it where you’re left asking, what is it that I’m missing here?

Last week saw a record 634 DVDs get released unto the world, and we managed to cover half of them in our little column here. Thankfully this week’s schedule features a far more manageable number of titles. Many of them are smaller films that you probably missed during their brief theatrical windows (if they got one at all) including the sweet Dear Lemon Lima, the bloody Stake Land, the unstoppable pimp filled Streetwalkin’, and this week’s Pick, The Music Never Stopped. As always, if you see something you like, click on the image to buy it. The Music Never Stopped Fifteen years after a teenager (Lou Taylor Pucci) leaves home following an argument with his father (JK Simmons), his parents receive word that their son is in the hospital. He was struck down by a brain tumor shortly after leaving home, but while the tumor was surgically removed he’s been uncommunicative and unable to make new memories ever since. Now a father and son will attempt to reconcile across that fifteen year divide through the only language the young man can understand… music. This true story from the writings of Oliver Sacks is a small film with a huge heart. Pucci and Simmons are both fantastic, the soundtrack is a who’s who of seventies hits, and the film as a whole is a heartwarming reminder of the importance of loved ones. (See? I’m not a cynical bastard all of the time.)