The Good and Bad of Holiday Horror

So I decided to continue my holiday post-a-thon by making a good and naughty list of Christmas horror movies. I thought this would be a good idea, since there are a lot of them and I hope this list helps many horror fans to pick and choose what holiday horror flick they want to watch. I made my list, I checked it twice and pouting is not tolerated! The ranking goes like this.

Presents = How good a movie is. The more presents, the better it is.
Coal = How bad a movie is. The more coal, the worse it is.

So, let’s begin.

GOOD

Black Christmas (1974) – This was one of the first few slasher movies ever to hit the big screen and with a great tone and some really clever scare tactics, this movie builds up an atmosphere that is both scary and haunting. I had a blast watching this and it truly is a memorable horror film.
9 presents out of 10.

Christmas Evil (1980) – This was actually a really good movie and even though it had a very slow build-up to a climactic ending, the movie built character development and made you feel for the antihero. It had some great kills and some pretty disturbing scenes but you can’t help but feel sorry for Harry.
7 presents out of 10.

Gremlins (1984) – Though, I wouldn’t call this a horror; it’s a great creature feature. It has all the conventions of any monster movie, mixed with some violent cartoon humor and of course the Gremlins… this is a holiday treat that cannot be missed. It’s so wacky and it has some amazing puppetry and physical comedy.
9 presents out of 10.

All Through the House (1989) – Now this was a good Christmas themed slasher. It had the Christmas atmosphere of Black Christmas and it was really tense and scary. Even though it was from "Tales form the Crypt," Zemeckis proves that he can do a great horror flick.
8 presents out of 10.

Jack Frost (1996) – At first, I wasn’t much of a fan of this movie but then I realized that it had a pretty dark sense of humor and some pretty nifty ways to kill somebody. The story is also interesting and I really enjoyed the puns that the massive amounts of gore. A true diamond in the rough for the winter season.
7 presents out of 10.

BAD

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) – Though, out of the ‘Bad’ list, this movie isn’t really that bad but it is plagued with shitty acting, some continuity errors and little to no scare value. I do credit the movie for being really controversial but that’s the only thing this movie has going for.
7 lumps of coal.

Black Christmas (2006) – This was one of the worse remakes of the 21st Century and took a beloved Christmas slasher and glossed it up with an unnecessary back story and it had one of the worse twist endings in horror history. There was nothing likeable about this, not one single thing.
9 lumps of coal.

P2 (2007) – The concept for this movie was really good and I thought it would be a good movie but it turned into a crap fest that kept getting shittier. I hated the protagonist and the killer was just idiotic. I think they could have really done some new things by abusing the setting of a parking lot but they didn’t and it turned out bad.
8 lumps of coal.

Well, there is my list of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ Christmas horror films of all time. It wasn’t really that difficult but I did notice that I did not see that many Christmas horror films and there were a bunch of films that I have missed. Below are a list of ‘undecided’ films that I have not seen but want to:

UNDECIDED
Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)
Santa Claws (1996)
A Christmas Nightmare (2001)
Santa’s Slay (2005)

Review - Black Christmas (1974)

With the Christmas season upon us I think it’s my duty to start doing a review for almost every Christmas horror film out there starting with Black Christmas. I saw this on the big screen during Terror in the Aisles 3 on a 35mm print. It had all the scratches and cigarette burns and it was a great way to see this amazing movie. Black Christmas is about a sorority that’s preparing for Christmas but they keep getting obscene phone calls from a psychopath and then, one by one, the caller kills the girls. It’s a great concept and is one of the first slasher films next to Psycho and Halloween. I had a really hard time writing a review for this movie so, here goes nothing.

There was something that I really liked about this movie but I could never put my finger on what it was until Steve from Lost Highway got it, it was the atmosphere that this movie builds. It’s so tense and you know the killer is the house but the girls don’t know it and you want to yell at the screen! With the POV angles this movie has, it builds greater tension and puts you right there in the spooky position of our heroine. The movie itself has this holly jolly emotion to it but there is a deep dark veil over it, I guess that’s the way to describe the atmosphere of it.

Black Christmas was one of the first, or is the first, movie to start the college slasher genre and I will go further to say that it inspired movies like Graduation Day, House on Sorority Row, Cheerleader Massacre and Urban Legends. In fact, this movie is a play on the old urban legend about the babysitter he had been receiving frightening calls from inside the house… and it’s a terrifying experience. This film takes that to a while other level and it becomes something that is truly memorable and haunting.

For me, Black Christmas did something for me that a movie today would rarely do and that is scare the hell out of me. Granted, compared to now, the jump-out frights aren’t really that scary today but the phone calls… those are something else. I don’t know how to describe them other than: disturbing, loud, perverted and crazy. Every time the killer talked he impersonated several different people including a little kid, an old mother, the heroine and her boyfriend among others. It was so frightening. And, if that’s not enough, you never really see the killer other then his figure in the shadows and the one eye of his that happens to be in the light. It’s really frightening.

Overall, this was a great slasher movie and in the general scheme of slasher films… this movie is ranking in the top 5, if not the top 10. This movie has such an intense atmosphere and some great killings, not to mention the really spine cringing phone calls that are made. The remake of Black Christmas (titled Black Xmas) didn’t even try to nail the brutality and tone that this one perfected. The cast was amazing and it’s on overall great achievement in horror cinema. If you are a slasher/horror fan, then you need to see this movie.

Terror in the Aisles 3

Tonight, or should I say this morning was this years last Terror in the Aisles and it was pretty damn good. The original lineup for this time around was Night of the Creeps, The Blair Witch Project and [REC] 2… but because of some trouble, they couldn’t screen [REC] 2 and instead played Black Christmas. This made a lot of people not show up to the Portage and blow off Black Christmas. Honestly, I don’t know why they would do that because Black Christmas is a good slasher movie and one of the best out there. Anyway, I also want to point out that I did not have my camera so I only have pictures of the signatures.

Eduard Sanchez’s signature.

Upon walking in, I was greeted by “Santa” and received a little leprechaun figurine and a pack of “So You Think You Can Dance?” playing cards. Fred Dekker and Eduardo Sanchez were there as guests and I had Fred sign my DVD copy of Night of the Creeps and I had Eduardo sign a promo slip for Holiday of Horrors. Fred was really nice and really laid back… I wanted to talk to him more about Night of the Creeps but I had to restrain my geekiness. Eduardo was really thrilled and kept talking on and on, probably because he was so excited, but he was a nice guy and we shook hands. He told us the story about the strange woman the group interviews in the beginning of Blair Witch and how she died recently (R.I.P.) and how her daughter tried to sue. I even got to call him Wolverine because of his muttonchops.

Now, let’s get to the movies.

Night of the Creeps: Well, if you want my opinion… you can read it right here.

Treevenge: This was a fun movie that really captured that grindhouse tone. It was bloody, it was funny and it really made you empathize for the trees… hell, it made me not want to buy a real tree for Christmas. Here is the review courtesy of Horror Society.

The Blair Witch Project: This movie was pretty scary for me when I got in theaters and after seeing it on the big screen, it brought back so many memories and so many times I got scared. I hate little kids laughing and I realized that the acting in this movie was really top notch. Plus, I have a whole new respect for Blair Witch after I know how it was made. We saw the Sundance cut of the movie. I’ll be writing a full review of it later.

Black Christmas: I have always loved this movie, but I loved it even better when I saw it on an original print. It’s a great slasher flick and it really used the element of shock and surprise to its advantage. It makes you sit on the edge and it was such a great cap to the night.

Overall, this was a very fun night and even with the absence of [REC] 2, it was worth it and I had a great time talking to friends and meeting the directors of all these great movies. I’ll be catching next year’s Terror in the Aisles for sure.

Fred Dekker’s signature
Signed: “Thrill me”


The signature of the man who brought the movie to DVD

Yeah, I had a geek moment.