Given its title, should one expect 2021’s Silent Night to offer a Christmas-related tale? Yes, though it follows a much different path than the usual holiday-oriented fare.

Nell (Keira Knightley) and Simon (Matthew Goode) live in a lovely country estate with their three sons. Every year, they host a Christmas feast for various friends.

However, this year’s holiday meal comes with a difference, as all involved know of an impending catastrophe. With the potential end of life on the horizon, the hosts and guests attempt to deal with the situation.

“Apocalyptic doom” seems like a curious choice for a Christmas movie, especially because Night doesn’t follow the expected bleak, gloomy path – not entirely, at least. Instead, much of it brings a darkly comedic view of the subject.

Don’t expect this to become something akin to the broad wackiness of another apocalyptic tale, This Is The End, though. When Night delves into humor, it does so more in a character-based manner, one that resembles various comedies about old friends who reunite and rehash old issues.

The first acts proceeds in that manner, and with a moderately cheeky tone, Night feels like it intends to follow the aforementioned route. We get hints of impending doom, but these remain loose.

Eventually the subtext comes to the forefront and we learn the nature of the oncoming disaster. At that point, Night changes tone pretty radically.

Not that the rest of the movie lacks laughs, as it tosses out some humorous beats along the way. However, the movie shifts from snarky comedy to drama/tragedy for the most part.

To my surprise, Night handles the change of gears fairly well. Perhaps because that first act doesn’t shoot for broad laughs, it makes the shift in tone seem less jarring than it should.

The movie’s comedy tends to feel understated. While some of the characters open themselves up to caricature and easy jokes, Night doesn’t push these themes hard enough to make the film such a wacky endeavor that it can’t move to the darker moments.

As such, the dramatic elements work better than they probably should, and the addition of some suspense helps. Although most of the characters believe death to be imminent, some don’t swallow the official line so easily, and that leads us to wonder who will end up right.

The ending clearly reveals the answer to that question, but concerns about spoilers mean I won’t state this resolution. On a semi-disappointing note, the finish probably won’t surprise many viewers.

Still, I think Night creates a fairly involving mix of comedy and dark drama overall. It offers entertaining characters and forms enough emotional material to make it a mostly engaging piece.

Silent Night appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, the movie presented strong visuals.

Across the board, definition seemed good. Even with a mix of low-light sequences, the film appeared accurate and concise, as only a smidgen of slightly soft shots emerged.

Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

In terms of palette, Night went with a heavy teal orientation, though it tossed in more than a little orange/amber as well and some reds. Within stylistic choices, the hues seemed well-depicted.

Blacks were dark and dense, and shadows gave us good clarity. I felt pleased with this transfer.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it offered a mostly subdued soundscape. The ominous impending cloud brought the most active use of the various channels, as it came with thunder that filled the channels.

Music presented good stereo presence, but this really did remain a pretty low-key soundfield most of the time. That didn’t feel like a problem given the nature of the narrative, though,

Audio quality was always good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy. Low-end appeared deep and rich.

Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. The mix didn’t excel but it suited the story.

Three Alternate Endings span a total of eight minutes, 44 seconds. We find “Automated Message” (2:59), “Tommy Calls” (3:01) and “Belinda the Chicken” (2:45).

Each one launches from the same point, a sequence that starts at 1:22:10. All offer fairly minor variations on the existing ending, so don’t expect much from them.

Four Deleted and Extended Scenes also appear. These occupy a total of 13 minutes, 42 seconds.

The three extended sequences add some minor tidbits but tend to run too long. The sole deleted scene gives us more with Alex and Bella. They provide enjoyable clips but I don’t think they would’ve helped the final film.

The disc opens with ads for No Man Of God, South of Heaven and Terminal. No trailer for Night shows up here.

Despite a comedic first act, Silent Night creates such a dour drama that it seems unlikely to become a Christmas viewing favorite – well, not unless you want to spend your holiday depressed. Nonetheless, the movie does what it needs to do and mostly turns into a compelling mix of laughs and tragedy. The Blu-ray comes with solid picture, adequate audio and some unused scenes. The movie fares fairly well.