The Devil in the Details

When an American research operation on Finnish soil manages to dig up the "real" Santa Claus, you’d think it be cause for celebration. The spirit of Christmas is finally alive once more and all that sort of thing, right? Well in Rare Exports, a film that proudly proclaims itself to be “from the land of the original Santa Claus,” things aren’t so simple. You see, the Santa Claus we’re dealing with here is a far cry from the jolly old fellow they use to sell Coca-Cola, far more interested in punishing the naughty than in rewarding the good. He’s a boogeyman meant to keep children in line and now that he’s been freed, there’s no telling what will happen. Our young protagonist, Pietari, is a boy who is on the cusp of young adulthood, forced by family tragedy to grow up fast yet still unwilling to let go of the familiar Christmas myths. His relationship with his father is difficult and strained, and Christmas in their empty household doesn’t seem like a great time. Things are esp...

Continuing our discussion of alternative holiday classics, let’s move on to a film that is decidedly more twisted than the last one we looked at, and one which is considerably lesser-known: 2016’s Better Watch Out. Now unlike most everything we talk about here, where I’d start out with some summarizing, I feel the need to give a special introduction to this particular film, and try my very best to avoid spoilers. This is a film that really wants you to go in totally blind, armed only with assumptions based on the poster and genre expectations, and so I feel obliged to try and discuss the film without ever venturing into spoilers or even much innuendo. It’s a losing battle with films like this, which rely on shock and surprise, when the first thing that anyone who recommends the film is going to do is spoil everything with the intent of making it sound as interesting as it is. Unfortunately, by spoiling the ‘real’ premise for viewers, you may entice them, but you also unquestionably dim...

Seeing as I got started so late this year with watching Christmas films and sharing them with you guys, I figure I’ve got about three more good ones left in me before the season has passed, maybe four at max. As a result, I’m trying to stick with real heavy hitters, avoiding guff like A Christmas Horror Story or even a few great films that are tangentially related to the holiday (Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation.) So without further ado, let’s talk about the Christmas horror film that everyone out there should have seen by now, Michael Dougherty’s follow-up to his 2007 wonderful Halloween-themed anthology film Trick 'r Treat, 2015's  Krampus. You see, Krampus isn’t just a great horror film that happens to take place over the holiday like  Black Christmas  or Better Watch Out . No, this is undeniably a Christmas film, and not even just for the obvious reasons that it features lots of Christmas music and the constant presence of familiar holiday iconography; no, t...

Well, it’s that time of the year again and you know what that means! While I would have ideally had some Christmas horror movies prepared to last the entire month of December, things just haven’t worked out that way, and so now that half of the month is already over, I’m putting my back to the grindstone and discussing with you guys an important film in the development of horror as a genre that just might be my favorite horror film to watch over the holidays. So first off, how many of you have seen Bob Clark's  A Christmas Story? Yeah, yeah, I know: it’s old and creaky and so no one watches it anymore, I get it. But for those of you who do still enjoy films with heart and a not insignificant amount of edge, especially when it comes to the holidays, rejoice! Because Black Christmas was directed by the very same man, only much earlier. And it shows too, what with all the humanity and hilarity on display in the film alongside edgy, progressive content that still feels fresh in 2022. ...

Created by one-time filmmaker Fabrice Zaphiratos with money from his girlfriend at the time, Bloodbeat  is a particularly rough-hewn example of the kind of unique cinematic passion project that I love to see. It tells the story of an endlessly dysfunctional family reconvening to spend a quiet Christmas together, something which is utterly spoiled by a series of violent murders that seem to be growing ever closer to them and their home. Though they're a much stronger family unit than they initially appear to be, can our heroes really get along with one another long enough to deal with the maniac prowling their neighborhood? Or will they be turned into mincemeat like their friends and neighbors?  The first character we're introduced to is Gary, a self-described 'good ol' boy' who spends his time hunting and watching TV with headphones in his easy chair. In one of his first scenes, we learn that he and the mother of this family, Cathy, are not married; just dating. Cat...

I hate the attitude that most modern creatives and their audiences have, where everything has supposedly been done before and thus hackery is totally natural and not shameful at all and normal for growing boys and girls everywhere yada yada yada. A pox on you, I say! That kind of attitude has never gotten us anywhere. Sure, it's nice to tell yourself that there are no new original concepts left when turning in some pedestrian genre flick, but I think films like Anna and the Apocalypse prove that new takes on an old story can be pulled off easily by those with any talent or even ambition to create something that has heart and soul behind it... is what I would be saying if it weren't for how predictable and formulaic it becomes by the end. Indeed, it's more than a little forgettable, but what I can remember sticks out as particularly strong and worth the hour and a half of my life that I spent watching it. Three stars, a handsome and witty film.  Damn, only one paragraph so ...