JASON HARLOW'S YEAR IN REVIEW 2013

Just like every year, 2013 has been host to a few very solid mainstream releases in the horror genre, yet there was still an abundance of utter crap that was fed to us by big-budget Hollywood producers. Fortunately, despite a plethora of garbage, 2013 brought a few memorable genre films to the big screen, most notably Insidious: Chapter 2 and You’re Next. While I wouldn’t necessarily describe 2013 as a great year for the genre, I will definitely say that this year at least wasn’t filled with shitty remakes (other than Carrie) and we at least got to see some original concepts for once. (The Purge comes to mind) Without further adieu, allow me to highlight some of the films that stick out to me the most when reminiscing on the past year of horror releases.

         The Purge could be categorized in the “government” sub-genre of horror due to its original concept that follows the emergence of a new law that allows all crime to be legal for a twelve-hour period for one day each year. Taking place in the year 2022, the story follows a man named James Sandin, a home security salesman (played by famous actor Ethan Hawke, who also starred in Blumhouse’s Sinister), who, along with his family, are tormented by a group of disturbed individuals who are obsessed with “purging” in order to help decrease the poverty rate and “take back America.” While this film offers nothing spectacular and is predictable beyond belief, this film is very memorable, which is mostly due to its original concept and its high-octane level of entertainment.

         Similar to The Purge, You’re Next not only proved that the slasher sub-genre is still alive, but also that horror can be blended with action and still be successful. The duo of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett proved that they had something to offer that was not only gory and disturbing, but also a great overall exhibition in storytelling. If you want to see a film that features three creepily-disguised masked madmen and offers a take on the “home invasion” sub-genre that is new and original, look no further than You’re Next. The writer/director combination of Wingard and Barrett is definitely a promising tandem to look out for in the future.

 All Hallow’s Eve was a film that would’ve stricken many horror fans as something to watch out for upon the reveal of its trailer in September. However, this debut feature from writer/director Damien Leone (known for the popular horror short entitled Terrifier, which is featured in this film) was nothing more than cinema trash that very deservingly landed straight to DVD and video-on-demand for its numerous undeniable faults. The acting is atrocious, the story is uninspired and dull, and most of all, the film suffers from being painfully boring. If you’re looking for a straight-up killer clown slasher film, don’t look here. With a budget of six figures, you’d expect a film with a half-decent plot to at least be…decent, but this is far below average. Hopefully Damien Leone can break away from the Jesse Baget-owned Ruthless Pictures and do something that exceeds the high standards he set with Terrifier. Boring shit like this simply won’t cut it.

Insidious: Chapter 2 continued to showcase the ability that James Wan and Leigh Whannell possess when it comes to creating scares. In this sequel to the hit 2011 film, we “further” (pun loosely intended) explore the dark realm that haunted the young boy in the first film, though this time, his dad (portrayed by Patrick Wilson) is now the victim of the spirit world. This superb sequel dwells into the supernatural and successfully creates some of the most intense scare scenes ever depicted on film. This film outdoes the first film in every way imaginable; though, especially in terms of delivering the scares, Insidious: Chapter 2 takes the cake in a way that its predecessor failed to.

         Just when you thought the remake fad had died out, Carrie hit the big screen in time for Halloween, and opened to mostly mixed-to-positive reviews. Out of all the terrible remakes Hollywood has put out in recent years, one would know not to expect much from Carrie – and right they’d be in doing so. Just like the majority of remakes we see these days, this film is nothing but a painfully cheesy, pointless piece-of-shit that helps prove the average horror fan’s typical belief that no remake can surpass its predecessor in terms of execution and overall quality. Carrie fails from having the most typical and annoying characters of recent memory, having no antagonist or anything worth being remotely scared of, and simply being an unnecessary remake that offers nothing new or original to the Stephen King story.

         Overall, 2013 wasn’t a bad year for the genre compared to some of more recent years. James Wan came back with The Conjuring and more importantly, the fantastic Insidious: Chapter 2, which helped make his case as the best active horror filmmaker out there. Films like You’re Next and The Purge helped bring the slasher film back to the big screen in an impactful manner. Of course there was a bunch of crap, but what else can one expect these days? One can only hope that the coming years will be as good as or better than 2013. There are plenty of films that are slated for release in 2014 and 2015, some of which carry a lot of promise, others of which aren’t necessarily worth getting too excited over.  If the coming years can host a bit more horror films on the big screen, that sure would be appreciated.

Until next time.

-Jason Harlow

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 25 : BLACK CHRISTMAS (2006)

I thought bookending this whole thing with Black Christmas movies would be a nice touch as it certainly would be considered the most popular movie in the festive horror. Bob Clarks original is worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with great classics like Psycho and Halloween. Yet in 2006 when Hollywood came looking to remake the film, the results were less than satisfactory for many fans. 

Set in sorority house on Christmas eve as the original is, we delve much further into the back story of the attic bound stalker now known as Billy. On Christmas Eve the cell bound Billy makes his break for freedom, determined to home for Christmas. As the girls begin to disappear one by one they realise that Billy may have come home for the holidays.

When the film first came out it was met with anger from fans of the original, but the film has certainly aged well over its short lifspan. Especially in an age of remakes that go on title alone, Black X-Mas as it was eventually released steers very close to its original source material and only really jumps the shark towards its finale when it tries to add its own element to tie the carnage together. As modern slasher go however it is certainly a great movie, not on par with more recent films like Silent Night or Saint, but close. it also has some nice appearances from plenty of people you'll now recognise as much bigger actors.

Happy Horror Holidays everyone.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 23 & 24 : ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE (1972 & 1989)

It's difficult to write a list of christmas horror movies without covering All through The House. I was unsure about how to cover it, these are definitly 2 of my favourites, as there are two versions of the story. The first appeared in the feature length Tales From The Crypt movie in 1972 as one if it's stories and the other appeared as one of the first episodes of the popular late 80's/early 90's tv show based on the same source material. 

In both instances the story is the same, a woman murders her husband on Christmas Eve as her young daughter sleeps unstairs. Conincidently a lunatic dressed in a Santa suit has escaped a local asylum and has been on ramapge throughout the evening. When the killer strikes the woman sees an opportunity to pass off the murder as another of the madman's, but she may be too late as he may already be in the house.

The original version plays it all very straight and although the tension is played well, the Santa clad killer is somewhat small and frail looking, it's a little abstract and works, but it feels a little dated now. However you can see why it's remembered so fondly as it really was quite ahead of its time when it was released, Chillingly resembling the forthcoming Halloween (78) and even Black Christmas (73) in many ways, it's clear why it has been adapted more than once.

The second version is played a little more over the top and definitly more for laughs, which was common of the tv series. The new Santa looks much more grotesque and there are some added elements that secure the woman's motive in killing her husband that just makes the whole thing work a little better. The twist remains the same and is just more shocking in its presentation.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See you Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 22 : THE 13TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

During the holiday season I spend a fair bit of time researching Christmas Horror titles and on my quest I found some poster art for the incredible looking 13th Day Of Christmas. However during my searching I suddenly found that it was very difficult to find anything about the film. I keep digging and soon discovered that it wasn't a movie at all, but rather part of an old 80's ITV drama series called Time For Murder. I set out on my quest to find it and it wasn't long before I found a copy of the specific episode.

Set on the night of January 7th (The Thirteenth Day Of Christmas) A young man suffering from Post Traumatic Stress after serving time in the Falklands, is becoming an increasing burden on his parents, who are on the verge of having him committed. The voices in his head soon convince him that his only way out is to murder them, He finds a hiccup in his plan however when his sister returns home to find what he has done. 

The episode itself is only about 45 minutes long, but acts as its own self contained film. Also there is very little coverage of it anywhere else, It took me a fair bit of time to find this only existing still on the net, so I thought i'd take the opportunity to just spread its existence out there. It's pretty heavy in terms of drama and its shot on video for Tv look could be jarring, but its well executed of nothing else and would be great source material for a remake. If you can track it down it well worth the watch and its an exciting little gem for Christmas horror fans like myself.



Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 21 : WOLF CABIN

I wanted to take a chance to promote some grass roots stuff this holiday season, and on my quest I came across a little gem that I wanted to give a bit of a promo. Now please bare in kind this is certainly a labor of love from the filmmakers, it's by no means perfect and certainly not professional, but it's a nice little christmas slasher that does its job well over its 45 minute run time and has its heart in the right place.

A young man is invited out to cabin in the middle of nowhere by his best friend, who has also invited some attractive young ladies to join them. His friend now tries every opportunity to talk his friend into cheating on his girlfriend who has already recently been unfaithful to and is currently in the process of making amends for his behaviour. However their party soon comes to an end when they find they are being hunted by a Santa clad slasher.

Its made on very little, if no not no budget, and that certainly shows, but you always have to have respect for the guys who just go out and do it. Its a little sloppy in places, but it also shines with potential in others and I felt like it should be a worthy addition to this years list and best of all, they put it up on youtube for free. Watch it below.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 20 : RARE EXPORTS

A few years ago the internet became a buzz with the trailer for a film called Rare Exports, based on a short film that featured a group of men catching a training wild santa's to be, well the Santa that we all know and love today. There was sequel short made, but Jalmari Helander adapted the original short for their venture into a feature length story. 

A group of reindeer herders are plagued by something killing their herd, things get worse when Children begin to disappear from the town. That is until they catch the culprit, only to discover that they have infact catered a real life Snata Claus, A supernatural being that punishes the naughty.

Finnish in origin this has to be one of the strangest and most interesting Christmas films out there. It is considered by many to be a masterpiece and I was asked by a lot of people to cover it in the list, truthfully though, I don't think that you can list christmas horror films in this modern age without including this. Its great fun and a welcome addition to the Christmas Horror family.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 19 : A CADAVER CHRISTMAS

It's no secret to those who know anything about me, that I really dislike Zombie movies. My love of christmas horror is clearly stronger than my hate though as when I saw the film Cadaver Christmas (Known as Zombies At Christmas) here in the UK, I couldn't help but pick up a copy. Braving it this month I found it to be much more enjoyable than I would have first thought. Also If I had seen the US artwork I don't think I would have doubted this thing in the slightest. 

The janitor at the local high school finds himself trapped in a Christmas Eve zombie apocalypse, collecting a bunch of townsfolk to aid him, he sets about ridding the highschool from the hoards of the undead before christmas morn finds them joining their ranks.

The film is low budget, but that's part of its charm. It's a fun little gory romp that sits nicely in the Christmas season. Not been a fan of zombies I didn't expect to enjoy this and yet it kept my attention from beginning to end and I found myself really digging its atmosphere and characters. I can definitly recommend it.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 18 : ELVES

Some movies get lost in time, thankfully due to the internet, nothing stays dead for long. Such is the case with a film known as Elves. Made in the 80s with questionable production values the film didn't even land on my radar until two years ago, however it seems to be on every horror christmas list nowadays and it's not hard to see why, what you are looking at here is the Troll 2 of Christmas Horror movies.

A young woman finds that she is the target of a nazi experiment to breed a race of elves for thier evil plans. Trapped in a department store the only thing that can save her now is the guy from Grizzly Adams in a face off with one single elf, rendering the title redundant.

Elves is a great watch, but simply for how badly it's put together. It's a great example of shlock low budget filmmaking from the 80's that would otherwise have been buried. I'm not sure there's a DVD release of it yet and currently I've only found a VHS copy of it. It's wierd and I think contains incest although I've seen it 3 times now and I'm still not clear on the plot. Oh yeah and the the film only contains one 'elf' making the title misguiding at best.

Happy Horror Holidays

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 17 : JACK FROST 2 : REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN

You may remember that I talked in length about a sweet Holographic cover for the release of the Jack Frost VHS back in the late 90's. Well it would seem that it worked and must have shifted enough copies to warrant the production of the sequel 3 years later. Same score with the holographic cover, only this time featuring evil snowballs that look like Pacman on coke. 

Since the death of Jack Frost, the snowman, not the serial killer, Sheriff Tiler has tried to put the events of Snowmanton behind him, but he is still haunted by the feeling that Jack is still out there somewhere, waiting for revenge. In an attempt to get past his encounter with the icey killer he heads off to a tropical island for Christmas. Only Jack is still alive and follows our hero in a bid to make sure Tiler feels the cold grip of revenge. 

If you're expecting a masterpiece, you won't find it here, but its a solid, if not cheap looking, sequel to the original. The production value seems to have fallen somewhat, and It looks like it might even be shot on video tape this time round. However, its as silly as a film with kind of title is supposed to be and its a fun Christmas adventure for horror fans who don't take their horror too seriously. 

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 16 : PUPPET MASTER VS DEMONIC TOYS

I tried really hard not to include this, But we ended up catching it as part of our Chritmas horror night this weekend and I was reminded of just how wonderfully bad it is and thought "screw it" its not really a list being true to myself if it doesn't include a full moon title, even if it is a far removed cousin of the indie picture studio. The SyFy channel secured the rights to produce the film in 2004 and made it

directly for their original movie series. 

The hot toy this christmas are Christmas Pals, who look suspiciously close to the toys featured in the original Demonic Toys movie. Every kid wants one, But unbeknownst to the public, the toys are a ploy for world domination by a hellish demon who is pulling the strings at the toy company who makes them. Meanwhile a decedent of Toulon and his Puppets are caught in the crossfire and soon it becomes a battle for supremacy as Toy VS Puppet in a fight to the death.

First of, its not good, its so far removed from the series that is already finding itself becoming the victim of budgetary constraints, but here they at least had SyFy channel backing, so there really no excuse for the effects and sets to look as bad as they do. Corey Feldman does his best to keep it together, but being cast as a 50 year father doesn't really help his case. It worth the watch though just as another entry in a very fun series. 

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 15 : SILENT NIGHT 2012

As Silent Night Deadly Night has been one if my all time favourite slashers, I was very excited at the thought of Steven C Miller bringing the franchise up to date in th form of a reboot. In today's climate I wasn't even particularly worried when the production announced that it would be a very different tale to that of Billy and his murderous Santa rampage. What we get instead is the makings one of my favourite films of the last decade.

A small American town is terrorised by a Santa clad slasher as they prepare for their annual Santa parade, but all the victims have something in common, they have all been very, very naughty. its up to the small town sheriff to bring him to justice before the whole town goes up in flames. 

If I'm honest, I have waited a great many years for a Christmas horror to come along that is this well produced and on top of it likeable, a lot of the christmas horror presented here has been tough to watch low budget fare and the mainstream stuff? Well 2006's Black X-Mas had so much potential but definitely fell short and Saint had just too much off cultural difference for me to consider it close enough to perfection. Silent Night takes the idea and runs with it, it's fun and fast paced and slick and exciting and even stars 3 of my favourite actors working in film today in Jaime King, Malcolm McDowell and Ellen Wong. 

It's what christmas horror fans have been waiting for. 

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 14: SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 5 : THE TOYMAKER

After making a slight mistep in regards to the last entry in the series Yuzna set out to straighten things out with the next Silent Night Deadly Night entry. However the step in tne right direction was not to include the psychotic brothers that we were introduced at the series inception but at least this time we have a Christmas setting.

A young boy witnesses his father killed by a strange toy on Christmas Eve, the origin of the toy shrouded in mystery. The secret to that mystery lies in an old toy shop run by an old man and his strange son, and as the toys come out for revenge, christmas will never be the same again.

The premise is great, but the film falls down in its execution, there is very little feature made if the killer toys, which is arguably the draw to this title. It's still one of the better entries in the franchise though and many actually consider it to be the best since the original. It's fun and entertaining and silly and it works.


Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 13 : SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 4 : INITIATION

In the early 90's famed low budget horror producer, Brian Yuzna, acquired the rights to the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise, However the direction he chose to take was very different to what anyone was expecting. The next film didn't continue the tales of Billy or Ricky, But chose to go in an all together stranger direction. 

A cult attempts to coerce a woman into joining them, however they seem to be in league with some kind of alien beings who cause spontaneous combustion within humans. She is now in a fight for her life against the cult as she becomes in danger of a fiery death.

"What has this got to do with christmas?" I hear you ask. Well, that is a avery good question and aside from a christmas tree here and there, the holiday season doesn't seem very important to the  plot of Part 4 at all, resting on the title to shift some copies seems more likely and that in turn caused some back lash that was taken onboard for part 5. The film is pretty boring all in all and although the effects are pretty good the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired. 



Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 12 : SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 3

One of the hardest films to track down of the course of collating my christmas horror collection was Silent Night Deadly Night Part 3. After VHS died out, it was a while before it got an official DVD release and even then it was only in the US. When I first tracked it down I remember thinking that it was a little far removed from the previous films, but watching it recently it does eventually degenerate into a standard slasher and it does have the added bonus of starring Bill Moesly. 

A young blind girl is part of a sleep experiment, unbeknownst to her she is actually being prjected into the psyche of Ricky from Silent Night 2 who was left in a coma after the events in said film. After Heading out to their grandmothers house for christmas the girl is followed by Ricky when he awakens from his coma with only her on his mind.

It's actually one of the better entries in the series in retrospect, it's well shot and has some veryinteresting ideas, however, it very quickly seems to skip over the fact it's a christmas horror, choosing to go a much more standard slasher route. It's got some great gore though and it's such an interesting idea you can't help but feel that it is a great film in its own right. If you like that kind of thing.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 10 & 11 : SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHTPART 1&2

SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT

Being as they are essentially the same film (I'll explain shortly) I figured I would combine the first two films in the Silent Night Deadly Night series. Silent Night Deadly Night was the original Santa slasher, much more akin to HALLOWEEN and Friday The 13th than its Christmas Evil counterpart, it nearly stopped the slasher sensation that was sweeping through the 80's due to anger from parents over the depiction of old St Nick. However this also gave the film a fair amount of notoriety at helped it spawn 4 direct sequels and a remake last year.

After witnessing the death of his parents by a delinquent dressed as Santa, Billy and his younger brother are sent to be brought up at an orphanage. Here Billy undergoes psychological torture that comes to a head shortly after he lands his first job at a toy store and is forced to dress as Santa for the season. Billy storms the town in a murderous rampage, his goal? Getting revenge on Mother Superior.

The film has dated somewhat and it's grasp of story telling is basic at best, Yet all the pieces are there for a fun and silly holiday time slasher film. It deals much more with the psychology of its lead rather than jumping in on the Santa action, but there are some classic moments here and it's obvious why it has become such a classic film.

SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 2

However when it comes to Part 2, things take a dramatic turn to the just plain weird. Not Highlander 2 weird but strange in its own right. The sequel is made up of about 60% footage from the first film and plays out as a kind of, previously on Silent Night. Then continues it from there in the most vague and ridiculous sense possible.

The film follows Billy's younger brother Ricky, who recounts the important events of his brother upbringing and the subsequent massacre that took place due to his treatment by the awful Mother Superior. Ricky is explaining these events to his psychiatrist who he eventually kills when he runs out of footage from the first film and goes on a vengeful rampage of his own in a bid to get revenge on Mother Superior. 

Whats strange about the film, is that its kind of amazing, I'm not sure why, but it has all the best parts of the original and the stuff they added is just outright insane. Its so bad that it becomes almost art. The film itself inspired the Garbage day meme that has become a staple of internet humour and poor Eric Freeman who played Ricky has disappeared off the face of the earth, never for his face or amazing eyebrow acting to be seen again.



Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 9 : INSIDE

There are some films set around Christmas that do away with the holiday feeling and replace it with something  much darker. I have always been a fan of European horror and the French have always surprised me with thier interesting and outright twisted visions of terror that have come from thier cinema since the turn of the century.

On Christmas Eve a pregnant woman is plagued by a strange woman who comes knocking at her door. It soon becomes obvious that this woman has a sinister agenda that include stealing her baby, before it it is even born.

The film is downright incredible, it simply rises and rises in tension and the pay off is immense, there are enough twists and turns to keep the remote, one location terror simmering until it eventually boils over. It's not your traditional christmas movie, but it ecrtainly serves as a macabre christmas treat this time of year. 

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tommorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 8 : GREMLINS

It's not Christmas without certain films and although it wasn't until my my late teens that even thought about considering it a christmas horror, it is nothing but. The feeling of the season is implanted throughout and used as a story arc as we follow our heroes through some thing that feels like a cross between a family classic and a creature filled nightmare.

Billy Peltzer is given a strange new pet by his father on Christmas Eve, a small furry animal known as a Mogwai. Things are great and Billy loves his new pet, until it gets wet and multiplies. See Mogwai's come with a few rules that Billy father kind of skips over and the most important never, ever feed the after midnight. Unfortunetly the new Mogwai's manage get to snack time after the midnight hour and now the town is overrun as they metamorphos into slimy, scaley creatures hellbent on destruction. 

This has been one of my favourite films since I was a kid I remember begging my grandmother for the VHS for Christmas along with its sequel. It is a magic blend of horror, comedy and holiday magic that is just right this time of year and is not only one of my favourite christmas horrors, but certainly one of favourite films of all time.

Happy Horror Holidays.

See You Tommorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 7 : SINT (SAINT)

A couple of years ago a couple of Christmas films landed at around about the same time, and what was exciting is that they weren't American or English, which led me to believe we would get a much more interest g take on the evil Christmas idea. One of those films was Rare Exports, but we'll get to that later. The film is question hails from the Netherlands the film called Sint. 

When the moon is full on December 5th, the murderous Bishop St Nicholas appears to capture and murder children. Good ole Nick reeks havoc across Amsterdam as a set of unlikely heroes attempt to stop him.

Its a fun film and one that has the right tone, it has a very Halloween vibe towards the beginning, which feels intentional and is very welcome to helps us meet our protagonists. The production value is astounding and I haven't seen a whole lot of Dutch made Horrors, but if this is something to go by then I would be happy to take on more. A silly romp that includes Zombie Santa running around rooftops on a demonic horse is hard to not like. 

Happy Horror Holidays.


See You Tomorrow.

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 6 : JACK FROST

Back in the late 90s video shops began to employ a little tactic to draw attention to some of thier more, 'questionable' releases, the approach was to take mediocre or sometimes terrible movies and grant them awesome holographic cover in hopes that that would be enough to shift them from the video shelves and into our vcr's. They were of course absolutely right and amongst those titles was a film called Jack Frost, it's cover featured a snowman turning into a horrific monster. Sadly the film could never even hope to keep up with the promise it's cover offered. 

Being transported to a maximum security prison, serial killer Jack Frost, is caught in an accident involving an experiment fluid that turns him to mush, but has the odd side effect of blending him with the snow. Now able to form into a mutant killer snowman, he takes the opportunity to reek havoc on the sheriff who put him away in the small town of... Wait for it... Snowmanton. Brilliant.

It's a film that has aged extremely well in today's world of cheap digital micro budget production, and is actually better than I remember it as a kid. It's pretty wacky and never takes itself too serious, but then again, with its laughable snowman suit it would be hard to take it seriously at all. It's very self aware and is well worth 90 minutes of your christmas season. Oh and it features a very young Shannon Elizabeth.

Happy Horror Holidays 

See You Tomorrow

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 5 : SANTAS SLAY

There are some films too awesome for words, but being a Blog I have to write something and so tonights chosen film is one that when I was first told about it, thought someone was pulling my leg, and when I finally saw some stills and a trailer I suddenly started to think that maybe, just maybe, this could be amazing. It was and is one of my favourite Santa slashers of all time. 

Turns out Santa is actually a demon of sorts, cursed to spend 1000 years being nice to children on Christmas Eve by delivering presents, tonight, 1000 years is up and the horrific vengeful santa is back ready to murder and maim all in his path and his chosen target is the township of the aptly named 'Hell'.

The film is exactly what you'd expect a Bill Goldberg starring Psycho Santa flick to be, glorious seasonal violence that is always just silly enough to keep it light,
it has its problems, the pacing seems strange and often events throughout seem almost random, but its all in good fun and never takes itself seriously at all and thats where its charm lies. Goldberg does a brilliant job as the murderous Claus. Well worth checking out.

Happy Horror Holidays

See You Tomorrow. 

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 4 : CHRISTMAS EVIL

When you think of Christmas Horror films, Which, if you're me in quite often, your mind doesn't wander too far before it thinks of Troma release Christmas Evil. One of the more classic festive horror efforts, it sadly falls to a victim of somewhat misleading advertising. Presenting itself as a classic slasher in the vein of Halloween and Friday the 13th, what we actually get is something much closer to films like Henry Portrait Of A Serial Killer. 

Scarred at young age by an incident at christmas as a child, involving his mother and a man in a santa claus outfit, who turns out to be his father, a toy factory worker, develops an unhealthy relationship with Christmas and as his christmas seems to worsen, he becomes obsessed with donning a red suit and beard and punishing those who are naughty. 

The film has a very old school approach, but its a great and fun watch, oven if it does take itself a little too seriously for the subject matter involved. Its not the straight up slasher that its box art wants it to be, but it actually works on a very different level, much more psychological, and there are few kills, but the ones that are there are inventive enough to keep slasher fans happy, including an awesome cut throat with the star from a christmas tree. It has also been released under the title You Better Watch Out. However the most common release is the Troma version. Its well worth checking out. 

Happy Horror Holidays

See You Tomorrow

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 3 : PSYCHO SANTA

Trying to find Christmas Horrors is tougher than you might imagine, I also like to try and find some rarities that you may not necessarily have heard of. However sometimes, actually quite often on this list, there is a reason for said film being rare. Like someone has gone to an effort to keep it buried from the eyes of the public. You can see by the low res artwork here that it was very tough for me to find any images corresponding to this title. 

Usually at this point I'd sum up the story of the film in question, but I have to be Honest, I've watched the film twice now and I find it difficult to understand exactly what is going on here. Part exploitation, part slasher, the film seems to built on three accounts of a man Dressed as Santa attacking a variety of people, including some lebians and a young couple lost in the woods. I think, all though it's never really made clear what exactly is going on. I guess it anthology although the poor sound and exposition makes it tough to say that for certain.

The main issue with the film is that makes zero attempt to have any exteriors look like it could be part of the festive period. I understand that it's not all snow and ice everywhere in the world at Christmas, but in film world we have come to expect those things and their absence here is a problem. The film also insists on drawing out things like a terrible lesbian dance scene, but is all to quick to the get the killing over and done with giving us very little in the way of horror for the most part.

It's not all bad news, there's an interesting set if ideas in here, and I don'twanna crap on what was obviously a low budget production as I know how much work goes into any project. The film is certainly entertaining, but maybe not for the reason the filmmakers intended.

Happy Horror Holidays

See You Tomorrow

MJ

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVIL : DAY 2 : DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS (1984)

I like to spend December collating as many classic Christmas horrors as possible, However due to that I, at times, find myself coming across films like Don't Open Till Christmas. Worse yet, I force myself to endure them every year. 

A serial Killer is loose in London and he's killing Santa's, or at least anyone wearing santa's garb, When a young girls father is killed, she is drawn into a nightmare that points to the culprit being her sleazy boyfriend, could it be him or is it connected to the reporter who knows more than he's letting on.

It's difficult to watch this film as serious art and its not quite fun enough to not take it as the straight laced movie it wants to be, its badly paced and horribly scripted, let alone shot. However it still carries a certain charm, even if its hard to see that charm in the dimly lit night streets of London Town. The film borrows heavily from Halloween and Friday the 13th, the opening is almost a direct attempt at Halloween down to its creepy music on black Credits with the holiday tradition in front of us, decomposing before our eyes. 

Yet the film somehow feels more of a hark (lol) back to films like Peeping Tom and Driller Killer once it gets going. It by far the best of bunch, hence my difficulty in finding a copy for a great many years. But its certainly worth a watch and the finale is done very well considering what precedes it. 

Happy Horror Holidays

See You Tomorrow

MJ