The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 10th February 2026

Another week and another trilogy of news stories. This year while currently in-between bill paying jobs, I have been trying to do blog weeks, where I work full time on my site. It hasn't exactly been going well, until yesterday at least, where rather than sticking to a rigid 09:00-17:00, I instead just set a task of watching and reviewing three films, it went well. By the time this post goes up, I should have gone to the cinema and finally got around to watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, am excited for it at time of typing (update - that didn't happen today, but is now Thursday I'm meant to be seeing it). 

Described as a '...horrific psychological thriller', Velvicide is due to be released by BayView Entertainment, if not already out. Directed by Kenneth Perkins, the film follows protagonist Velvet Stevens, who recounts the details of her own abduction. The press release states '...escape was only the first act.'.

Christmas horror - Shiver: Slaying All Night has entered full production, filming on location in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Written and directed by Robert Resto, this sees a bunch of guests and students staying at a remote ski resort being targeted by Vincent; a disturbed man who lives out in the surrounding woods. Described as a tribute to classic slashers, this promises '...old-school practical horror'.

Finally for today, The Mourning Architect is an upcoming gothic horror about a former punk-rock icon reconnecting with their estranged daughter, only for the girl to be inadvertently killed by a vigilante serial killer. These events lead to the parent and killer alike heading to a 19th-century mansion that is haunted by a immortal spirit who specialises in turning human grief into disturbing works of art. Written and directed by Joe Hollow (The Family Business), this features Joe Castro (Terror Toons), Debbie Rochon (Tromeo and Juliet), Elissa Dowling (Girl on the Third Floor), Debra Lamb (The Devil's Disciples) and Harley Wallen (Ash and Bone) among others. Filming for The Mourning Architect begins this April in Florida.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping (2024) - Christmas Horror Film Review

I have a soft spot for Christmas themed horror films, as the title of the Charlie Steeds' (Werewolf Castle, Death Ranch) He Sees You When You're Sleeping suggests, this slasher is one of those. While very indie like in nature, there was still plenty of fun to be had here.

As a child, Chester Van Buren witnessed his parents being murdered by an axe wielding maniac dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. The boy managed to escape and the killings were pinned on Henry Bates, a mentally ill man who had escaped from a nearby mental institute. Now, some seventeen years later and Chester (David Lenik - Mask of the Devil, Jekyll and Hyde, and who also wrote this) has returned for the first time to his childhood home, at the behest of his Aunt Marion (Caroline Williams - Halloween II, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) who Chester has allowed to live there and who has invited him to stay for Christmas. Unknown to him, she has cooked up a plot with the assistance of her son, Burke (Cedric Gegel), his girlfriend Melody (Natalie Veater), as well as Chester's girlfriend Afton (Nellie Spackman) to gaslight him into thinking he is going crazy, so that they can steal the house out from under him. The plan is perhaps going a little too well however as a mystery person has gotten themselves involved, someone dressed up as Santa who is on a secret killing spree. Could it be Henry Bates returned to finish what he started all those years ago?

This was an enjoyable indie horror that managed to sell its story despite an obviously limited budget. It starts off with a fun prologue, with Uncle Nick (Scot Scurlock - Death Ranch) stealing the show by telling the young Chester a Christmas themed horror story. In the present, I don't think Chester made for a great protagonist. The character is really bit*hy and sometimes this would make him a bit abrasive. It was fine when he was being like that to the people who deserved it, but after re-meeting childhood sweetheart Eden (Peyton Michelle Edwards - Goodbye Honey), he also has plenty of moments where he seemed a bit mean to her also. The cast were fun due to so many of them being over the top cartoon evil, especially with Williams and Gegel who both brought a lot of evil life to their characters. I loved how Burke was incapable of being nice to Chester, while Marion was so obviously fake in the way she acted, making for a deliciously nasty mother and son duo. Of course, when the Santa killer gets going, there were plenty of characters who deserved their comeuppance. 

There was a decent body count even if many of the kills were similar in look. The main weapon of the slasher is an axe, usually used in one or two blows to kill the victim. There were some other Christmas themed kills to be found, such as strangulation by Christmas tree lights and an ice skate boot to the face. There wasn't too much blood and effects were mostly kept to a minimum, but the kills still worked.
The plot was simple yet I did like all the gaslighting aspects of it, especially with the bad members of the family barely able to stop fighting amongst themselves. The eventual revelation of what had been going on was fun and silly, fitting the tone of the film well.

I do like Christmas horrors, and while this obviously had some budget constraints it was a movie that was fun to sit through. I might not have been too keen on the central protagonist, but this moved a long at a speedy pace with its one hour twenty minute runtime flying past. He Sees You When You're Sleeping became available on-demand and digital platforms on November 1st.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 14th May 2024

This week I am back to business as usual, having gotten over my illness, and returned from a mini-vacation to Nottingham. I have a week off my day job soon, I am hoping to get to watch some horrors I have had my eye on for a while.

Pandemic Sex Party is a grindhouse horror film written and directed by Myles Erfurth. The film is about a group of online influencers who have headed out into the desert on the cusp of another pandemic, in order to make content. They soon encounter The Rancher, a masked killer who is out to kill all the young people. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to get funds to create this, as of typing it has raised £559 out of a wanted £19,958 with fifteen days left to go

He Sees You When You're Sleeping is a Christmas themed slasher that is due to release towards the end of the year by The Horror Collective. In this horror a maniac dressed as Santa begins to kill off a wealthy family for their money, with a young man finding himself needing to defeat this killer.. Directed by Charlie Steeds, he says of the movie "It's set in the 80's and we filmed on location in New York State. The script draws from horror classics such as Black Christmas, Scream and Silent Night Deadly Night which are all films I adore".

Finally for today, A Southern Horror is an anthology film from filmmakers in Columbus, Georgia that recently had an Indiegogo campaign running. The film is made up of three different stories, with the wraparound having troubled Adelaide discovering a mysterious computer that she feels drawn to investigate. This is due to come to Amazon Prime this December.

It's A Wonderful Slice (2024) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Towards the end of last year I reviewed Phil Herman's Christmas themed anthology horror, I Slay on Christmas. Recently he contacted me about another Christmas themed anthology horror, this one titled It's A Wonderful Slice, written, directed, and produced by Michael Moutsatsos. There was certainly a lot packed into this ninety five minute anthology, but did at times feel a bit lacking in terms of variety. I couldn't find this on IMDB and there isn't much of a credit sequence at the end of the movie, so apologies for leaving out actor names.

The film is split up into five different short films, but there are also a lot of little sequences around these, most notably at the film's start. The introduction sequence has a man dressed as Santa armed with a machete dancing around streets while festive music plays out. This brought a recurring idea of a juxtaposition between wholesome music and twisted visuals. I liked that this sequence seemed to be shot around real people rather than actors, giving some nice reaction shots. This is then followed by a little sequence 'Santa's Woods', in which Santa, Krampus and an Elf frolic around woodland getting up to mischief. This kind of introduces the shorts as it is explained that there are many stories of horror that take place around Christmas time. Following this is a short sequence of a vlogger heading to woodland before encountering a festive slasher, before a similar one titled 'Krampus: Prologue' that is set in 1975, represented by a sepia look and fake Super-8 style film grain. This barrage of shorter sequences also sets up some of the issues I had with the anthology as a whole. They mostly feature a victim encountering someone dressed up as Santa who then proceeds to kill them as the finale of the short. It led to a repetitive feel, with some of these being better than others.

The first proper short was 'A Slay to Remember'. In this one, a peppy Airbnb host named Alex is delighted to be hosting a famous actor and writer, Tom, a man who has headed to a remote American town to get away from his fame for a while. The character of Tom was played by an actor who appears in nearly all the shorts, playing a totally different character each time. With multiverses being in vogue at the moment, it was almost like each short took place in a different reality for this character. It's good he was entertaining to watch, but not as much as the character of Alex. I liked how it wasn't too clear to begin with which of the two characters the horror would stem from. This was a fun short, though I felt it stuck around a little bit too long.
Next up was 'Here Wolfie Wolf'. A man (the actor who played Tom) has headed to woodland with his filmmaker friend Carlos. After Carlos vanishes, the man discovers a werewolf type creature dressed up like Santa, who swiftly takes chase. I liked the sound effects used for the creature, and it had a fun finish that was unexpected twice in quick succession.

The third film is 'Santa's Got an Axe to Grind' and serves as a kind of sequel to the first short, as the character of Alex pops up again, but this time in a woodland setting. As fun as it was to see this character again, there wasn't really much going on here, making it probably the most unneeded part of the anthology as a whole.
'Demonic Intensions' is the penultimate one, again starring the actor who played Ben previously. This one tries something a little different by featuring just the one character. A man who is either demonically possessed or who is suffering mental health issues.
Final short is 'A Doll to Die For', and for a change we have a female antagonist. Filmed in black and white, this one stood out visually, though is the same sort of thing by having a crazed person torturing a tied up victim. The actress had a neat enough Harley Quinn style craziness, believing the mall Santa she has kidnapped is the real deal.

Christmas and horror does go well together, and this indie anthology does have good parts to it. The shorts were obviously linked together, there are two different creepy looking Santa masks that the various killers wear throughout, while the tools of violence they use are also shared between them all. This also goes to the interior locations, with the first and fourth film having the exact same building, while the woods used for most the others is functional, but again brings a conjoined familiarity. This indie horror never tries to be something it isn't, the acting can be a bit basic at times, but this is leant into, with some enjoyable moments coming from some of the dialogue. The sound quality wasn't always fantastic, with some moments that sounded a bit tinny, but I did love the music throughout, a definite highlight, the mix of light music and dark actions never got old.
While I wish there had been a bit more variety than just short after short of a festive themed killer capturing victims, I still thought It's A Wonderful Slice had a decent enough unified look to it, and regardless of variety it felt like a lot was stuffed into this, and there were some definite stand out actors, such as the recurring bearded character and the man who played Alex. 

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Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022) - Horror Film Review

It is slightly a Christmas tradition of mine to be watching a Christmas themed horror on the day itself. Making the most of my recent return to Shudder, I thought I may as well pick a film from that. Christmas Bloody Christmas was written and directed by Joe Begos (Bliss), it ticks a lot of the typical boxes you might expect, blending parts of The Terminator into its mix as an added bonus.

It is Christmas eve and small town music store owner, Tori (Riley Dandy) just wants to get drunk, ending up to agreeing for a night of booze and good times with her employee and friend, Tommy (Sam Delich - The Marshes). Elsewhere, a local toy store was in possession of an animatronic Santa Claus (Abraham Benrubi - Bliss, Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series), a model that had been re-called by the manufacturers due to some reverting to their original programming as instruments of war. This one too has revertted to its original programming, solely existing to kill. Spotting a passing Tori and Tommy, the robot heads off in pursuit, determined to kill anyone it sees.

So, it doesn't take much to see where The Terminator references come from. Initially this starts off as more of a traditional Christmas slasher, the antagonist mute, hulking, and deadly with an axe. Later, for anyone who has seen that other sci-fi action film, it won't be a surprise to discover that it is going to take a heck of a lot more determination to stop a robotic killer than a human. The Santa look always goes well with murder and mayhem, and this Santa is certainly intimidating. What I found a little bit disappointing is that an early advert states how these Santa animatronics have thousands of lines of dialogue they can spout, yet this particular Santa barely talks at all. Outside of a few phrases at the start, the film is more happy to make him into a strong silent killer than a wise-cracker. It did feel a bit odd to make a point of referencing its ability to speak, and then completely ignore that side of things entirely. At first it does just look like a man, later on, there are some decent special effects to reveal the robotic endoskeleton within.
I had heard that this took a while to get going, but the kills start around fifteen minutes into the film, so really not that long a time at all. The first few were underwhelming, taking place from a first person perspective of robot Santa, but later you do get to see more. Many of the kills are axe based, but the robots strength means on occasion he flings people large distances. The kills get quite gory, with Tori spending much of the film caked in blood, it doesn't even shy away from children getting killed, which was an appreciated touch.

As a protagonist, Tori was fine, if a little cliche. An alternative music and horror film fan who spends her pre-horror time drunkenly debating what is good and what is not, while never more than a word or two away from swearing. I did love that Tommy references Bad Religion's Christmas themed album (an album I put on while wrapping presents each year), and I have to say, I did love it when Tori stated Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was a great film, as that is un-ironically one of my favourite horror films of all time! Characters aren't treated that well, with a high body count made up of deserving and non-deserving people, with some key characters getting wiped out much earlier into the film than you may expect. I found the final third did go on a bit, I get the robot would be hard to stop, but it just keeps on coming over and over each time it seems that it has finally been defeated. I didn't like the abrupt way this ended either, not setting things up for a sequel, but not really ending the film in an interesting way either.
The movie is obsessed with day-glo colours, both Tori's shop and home are drenched in day-glo paint and lights, while neon green and reds pop up in nearly every scene, even the robot's innards are lit by a neon green glow. It made the many dark scenes stand out, even if the idea was a little overused.

Christmas Bloody Christmas was a decent enough Christmas themed horror. I wish the antagonist had more personality or reasoning behind its actions, as it did become surprisingly dull at times. The film also appeared to have lost some of its jovial feeling at some point. By the conclusion it had all gotten a little bit dark, with even the surviving characters doing so at a heavy price. Nonetheless, this was enjoyable for what it was, if not one that is going to be an essential Christmas horror.

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The Advent Calendar (2021) - Horror Film Review

As it is so near Christmas, it felt fitting to watch a horror film based around that season. Having recently gone crawling back to Shudder, I decided I would find an old classic to watch, but then I spotted The Advent Calendar and was intrigued. This Belgium based French language horror (original title Le calendrier), written and directed by Patrick Ridremont, follows somewhat of a familiar format for a cursed time frame horror, but impressed due to how clever it became towards the end.

Paraplegic Eva (Eugénie Derouand) is gifted an ornately crafted antique advent calendar on her birthday by her best friend, who had picked it up while working in Germany. She notices it has some sinister rules surrounding it, that if you attempt to throw it away, refuse to eat any of the chocolates hidden behind each of the twenty four locked doors, or not follow the instructions then you will be killed. Figuring that wasn't something to take seriously, Eva opens the first door and eats the chocolate within. She begins to experience strange events associated with each new door she opens. A door that contained her father's favourite chocolate behind it for instance led to him calling her, something that should be impossible, not only as he is in late stages of Alzheimer's and long ago forgot she existed, but also because he calls her from a phone that had been disconnected. Elsewhere, a door that contained within it a toy car (that is promptly savaged by Eva's dog), results in a man who tried to rape Eva getting into a deadly car crash. At first Eva puts these strange situations down to coincidence and the chocolates being drugged, but with the use of her legs slowly starting to come back as a result of eating the chocolates, Eva comes to realise that completing the calendar may result in her disability getting cured completely, though at a terrible cost to her and those around her.

So, as I said in my intro, this does fall into a well trodden sub-genre of horror, one that me personally stretches back to The Ring, though I guess goes back to at least the classic 'Monkey's Paw' fable. The most recent entry I can think of would be Smile, a great concept if not executed that satisfyingly. Here, the cursed time frame is associated with the twenty four advent days of December. This neatly splits the film up into little mini chapters, usually opened with one of the dates appearing on the screen. Eva doesn't make for the most sympathetic of protagonists, but she is one with reasons for being the way she is. Sardonic, and quietly bitter, she misses the good times before the accident that claimed the use of her lower body. She is surrounded by people that are not good for her, a horrid boss who appears to have only hired her for the grant he would be given, a wicked stepmother and an Alzheimer's riddled father. Even her best friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier) is shown to be very self centered, not only was she the one who gifted Eva the cursed calendar (revealing later she had stolen it), but it is clearly insinuated that she was the one that caused the accident that made her wheelchair bound. As such, despite all the terrible things that begin to happen, you do question if it is worth the cost for someone so unhappy with their life.

There are some interesting moments that occur within the film as a consequence of the curse, time travel, teleportation, missing time, blackouts. These all lead to Eva becoming visibly messed up, with good make-up effects to show her deterioration. The scenes of violence are often implied rather than shown, but work well. Having a dog chew up a toy car, edited together with scenes of the real car getting broken in a similar manner were fun, as was later when the effects inflicted on a doll are edited with scenes of a character in a bath suffering similar trauma. Also, there was one very bloody sequence involving man's best friend, that looked great on film.
The central antagonist appears more and more as the film goes on, a somewhat generic look of a thin demonic looking humanoid. I did like his interactions with Eva, less about being some terrible evil, more about him encouraging the woman to continue with her chocolate based pact. The religious angle was also neat, with the demonic being having some link to religion, and many of the chocolates referring to religious iconography. It was cool also that there is zero explanation for how the calendar came to be, there is a reveal of who the previous owner was (linking to the clever direction the plot went in). It leads up to an open ended finish, in which it is up to the viewer to decide what direction the protagonist chose to head in.

As much as the central character wasn't the most noble of people (going out of her way to be twisted on occasion), it felt fresh having a disabled character as the lead, and it was fresh that the film seemed to suggest being selfish is as much a valid choice as being noble. The Advent Calendar is currently streaming on Shudder, it might be a familiar story, but it was executed wonderfully.

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I Slay on Christmas (2023) - Horror Anthology Film Review

At the start of this year I reviewed Phil Herman's anthology film, Doomsday Stories, which as the theme might suggest, had the central theme of the post apocalypse. Now he is back with a new anthology film, I Slay on Christmas, which unsurprisingly uses the theme of Christmas to base its stories on. Much like the anthology I saw earlier this year, the budget here appears to be extremely low, but low budget thankfully doesn't equate with badness, at least for some of these short films included within the package. I had originally intended to review this last week, but being an idiot, I looked at the wrong week of my schedule when picking the films to watch!

Contained within the hour and twenty two minute film are four short films, as well as (bizarrely) two wraparound segments. The first layer is made up of 'Wraparounds' which is made up of a few disjointed segments. There is some effort to link this in with the ongoing zombie story that has been ongoing since 1992's Hell on Earth II: The Arena of Death, with the opening having a man watching a news report about a viral outbreak, as he himself slowly begins to transform into one of the undead himself. This zombie storyline comes back at the end of the film, but it doesn't seem related to anything else that happens here, so felt a bit out of place. Still, it had a good monologue sequence from Jaysen P. Buterin, appearing to be reprising his role from Doomsday Stories.
The actual proper wraparound segment was the titular I Slay on Christmas. This starred Herman as a man who finds himself wandering a snowy forest, with no real memory of how he got there. He encounters a spectral figure who gives him four pine cones, telling the man that each pine cone will reveal to him a nightmare from Christmases past. This worked fine as a uniting segment, and ends on a slightly clumsy, but functional ending.

The first short proper was 'All Chopped Up And Nowhere to Go'. This had a very mean man, Drudge (Joel D. Wynkoop - Doomsday Stories), someone who is physically and mentally abusive to his deaf son, and who hates Christmas so much that he flies into a rage even hearing the word said out loud. After his long suffering wife heads to her sisters with the child after one of his assaults, his wife's friend, Maddie (Vera Marlowe) visits looking for his wife. With the misogynistic brute looking for a good time, he tricks the woman into a dangerous situation, which results in Drudge's evil side completely coming to the forefront. The best part about this one was the title itself. While Wynkoop put in a spirited performance, the story didn't reach a satisfying conclusion, just seeming to end without the story being wrapped up neatly. This anthology has a lot of women hating characters in it, but they are always shown to be horrible people, and often, the female characters end up coming out on top, though not so much here. This first short, along with the second wraparound segment both featured nudity, something that doesn't appeal to me, but it was vaguely appropriate for the unpleasant story being told. 
Next up was 'The Best Company', directed by Marcelo Fabani (Doomsday Stories) which started off as a news report about the victims of a disturbing serial killer, before we are introduced to the killer, Luis (Walter Alonso). When he invites his new girlfriend to his apartment, it looks like she is due to be his next victim, but things don't exactly go according to plan. Sure, the twist here was obvious, but it was also a fun one, and the first sign of women not being here purely for exploitative reasons.

The third film was 'Re Gifting', written by and starring Debbie D (Doomsday Stories). This had a woman, Suzette (Debbie D) meeting up with her new boyfriend, having brought him a gift for Christmas, but his restrained behaviour comes to a head when he decides to give in to his violent desires. This was another one that didn't seem to end very well, the plot felt like it ended before there had again been any kind of proper resolution. The acting in this one was also some of the worst to be found in the whole anthology.
Thankfully, the saving grace of this film was the wonderful Derek Braasch directed 'Christmas Revenge'. It is always good when a great film turns up in an otherwise unspectacular anthology, and this one was the golden part. Taking on a more fantastical feel, a violently angry man, Curtis (Justin Bower) has managed to kidnap the real Santa Claus (P.J Laird) He mistakenly believes that as a child he caught his mum kissing Santa, and that this was what resulted in his father leaving him and his mum. Rather than a case of mistaken identity, the man kidnapped is the real deal, and with his supernatural powers given him a photographic memory, he is able to tell the troubled man what he really saw as a child. There are scenes of torture here, with some of the more gruesome effects to be found, but thankfully Santa does have a contingency plan in place for situations such as this. What I loved about this, outside of the fun flashback sequences that show events from an unreliable perspective, was the curveball of an ending, something that was so unexpected that it put a smile on my face when I saw it play out.

As a Christmas themed horror, there wasn't too much Christmas stuff going on. This is explained away from a news report at the start saying about a unseasonably warm winter, though I suspect it was actually down to the film not being filmed in the colder seasons. I think it was 'Re Gifting' that featured a classic Christmas tune made to sound more sinister, if it was, that was something that segment did do well. The quality throughout is low, and the acting sometimes not the best, but it was enjoyable, especially with the wonderful 'Christmas Revenge'. The final ten minutes did feel like they dragged a bit, with the actual film done with, but the zombie storyline from previous films tacked on. Overall though, this very low budget anthology was worth sitting through, with neat ideas dotted throughout. I Slay on Christmas was released on November 10th.

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Silent Night (2012) - Horror Film Review

After watching the classic Christmas slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night I got a hankering to see the rest in the series. I didn't get too far with that due to there only being the first two entries on Shudder, but what I did find was the Steven C. Miller directed 2012 remake with the snappier title of Silent Night. Remakes really can be hit and miss, but upon noticing that one of my favourite genre actors, the legendary Malcolm McDowell was in it, I just had to give it a watch. Whether the best or worst film ever made it doesn't matter, for McDowell never fails to put in a spirited performance whatever the role, and here he certainly doesn't disappoint. 

It is Christmas Eve in the sleepy American town of Cryer and there is a serial killer on the loose dressed like Santa. Due to nothing exciting ever usually happening, the local sheriff, Cooper (McDowell - Rob Zombie's Halloween, A Clockwork Orange) relishes the chance to prove himself by hunting the man down, but one of his subordinates, Aubrey (Jaime King - My Bloody Valentine, Sin City) is determined to take things more cautiously. As the body count ramps up it becomes apparent that the crazed killer is targeting people seen to have sinned, and it becomes a race against time for Aubrey to find and stop the maniac before those she holds most dear are taken from her.

I can't say Silent Night started off good, the first kill, that takes place during the prologue was inventive (a man tied to an electric chair covered in Christmas tree lights) yet tame, and the same could be said the the next kill that shortly follows. With that and the style that felt very much from the early 2010s I was prepared to be watching a bit of a dull trainwreck. I needn't have worried though as it wasn't long before a woman was being fed feet first into a wood chipper! The kills come thick and fast after this and while none quite match that brutal way to die I was still invested to see what would follow. 

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) - Horror Film Review

Having enjoyed watching Silent Night, Deadly Night on Shudder the other day I was pleased to see that the first sequel, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 was also on there. This film was directed in part by Lee Harry, I say in part for this sequel is half made up of reused footage from the first film, it is only in the second half when anything truly new makes an appearance.

The film mainly takes place as a series of flashbacks in which psychiatric patient Ricky (Eric Freeman) talks to psychiatrist Dr. Henry Bloom (James Newman - The X Files 'Two Fathers') about his past. Being the brother of Billy (the killer from the first movie) much of this is him re-telling the story of the night his brother went on a rampage. It is around forty minutes into the movie when Ricky begins to talk about the things he has done, in particular his very own rampage that resulted in him getting locked up.

I actually knew beforehand that a lot of footage from the first film was used and so this didn't come as an unwelcome shock. Mainly it is a truncated version of the story, all the kills are there (albeit edited in many parts to reduce the on screen violence), but none of the parts that didn't implicitly involve Billy. Not that it really makes that much sense seeing as the character of Ricky spent that whole film in the orphanage so didn't actually witness the vast majority of that particular story. Much like the format of what came before this jumps around in time, after the summing up of Silent Night, Deadly Night we then see Ricky as he gets adopted by a couple as a child, and the key events in his life that shaped him into the psychotic killer he became. What was interesting to me was the different type of crazy he was. Billy seemed to really believe he was Santa and that what he was doing was the right thing. Ricky isn't as deluded, he appears to be triggered by the colour red, and he does punish people he sees as being 'naughty', but he is more typically insane.

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - Horror Film Review

I've discovered in the past year that I have a real soft spot for eighties slashers, that really was a golden age for the genre, full of trashy films with fun kills and plenty of blood. Christmas horror films have a genre all to themselves brilliantly, it is a great time of year to set a horror, the juxtaposition of all things happy and light alongside darkness and insanity. Silent Night, Deadly Night came from director Charles E. Sellier Jr in his feature length directorial debut. It features a great killer, but the pacing means there is too much down time in the middle.

As a child, Billy witnessed his parents getting murdered by a criminal dressed up as Santa Claus. Understandably this led to him having a lifelong fear of the fictional man, who he believes has the right to severely punish those who haven't been good. With the help of a nun from the orphanage where he grew up, Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) now eighteen, gets a job at a local toy store. All is going well until Christmas comes around, Billy gets triggered by all the festive decorations, things are made worse when the store owner, Mr. Sims (Britt Leach - Weird Science) gets the boy to dress up as Santa for visitors to the store. His final bit of sanity is lost when during a Christmas Eve after party at the store he witnesses a colleague in the midst of getting raped. This begins a night of terror as Billy rampages around the small town, convinced he is Santa, and determined to punish everyone he judges as having been naughty.

Parts of this felt like a Christmas themed Halloween, both Michael Myers and Billy had a childhood event that changed their life, both brought up in institutions, both obviously killing during a yearly event, and both even have someone who knows them better than anyone else trying to track them down, in this case the only nun at the orphanage that showed Billy any kindness. Where this is different is that we get to see plenty of the troubled teen before he snaps. The film opens with him as a child witnessing his parents murder, before leaping forward a few years to show his experiences as an orphan. Then we get a jolly little segment that includes a montage of him working at the toy store. Anyone could have seen that that was not the best place to put a boy with severe psychological troubles associated with Christmas! Due to all this the killer's identity is always known, but to all the many children he meets along the way they firmly believe him to be Father Christmas and so constantly go out their way to help him and interact with him.

Deadly Games (1989) - Horror Film Review

It was just the other day that I first heard of the French Christmas themed slasher Deadly Games (original title 36.15 Code Pére Noel and also known as Game Over) for the first time. It was described as a more realistic take on Home Alone, and indeed it does share many similarities. This film was released a year before that classic though, and so if anything the makers of that took inspiration from this one (so much so that the director René Manzor once threatened to sue them).

Thomas (Alain Lalanne) is a child genius who lives in a huge mansion in which he has created lots of secret doors and traps, as well as designed an entire home security system which he controls by a device on his wrist. Despite his intelligence he has an active imagination and still believes in Santa. His toy store owning mother wants her son to keep his innocence as long as possible and so encourages this belief. This turns out to be a bad move though as through a series of events a perverted psycho (Patrick Floersheim) has dressed up as Santa and broken into the mansion, with his eye on the boy. Being Christmas eve, Thomas is convinced that this maniac actually is Santa, and that he has become murderous due to Thomas staying up to try and see him, rather than being in bed asleep. With no other help but his elderly and sickly grandpa (Louis Ducreux) Thomas must find a way to either stop or escape the killer.

You can tell right away this is an eighties film as it opens on a montage of Thomas dressing up as a Rambo style soldier. With an impressive mullet Thomas exudes the spirit of this decade. This character was the most interesting part of Deadly Games as he genuinely believes the intruder is Santa and so has to constantly battle his unwillingness to hurt his hero. Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone movies is supremely confident, full of wise cracks, and with traps that always outwit the villains he faces. Thomas is much more believable as he is visibly traumatised by the events of the movie. At several points he breaks down in tears and cries for his mother and by the film's conclusion has a haunted 'thousand yard stare'. There are no wise cracks to be found here, aside from maybe the maniac who doesn't break the character he has created. Underneath all his madness there is a kind of childlike innocence, in his eyes it all might be a literal game he is playing with the boy. Both Lalanne and Floersheim were expertly cast and there is a great dynamic between the pair, the same can be said of the tender relationship between Thomas and his grandpa.

Black Mirror: White Christmas (2014) - Horror TV Episode Review

Some people have put White Christmas in with season 2 of Black Mirror but it was actually fittingly a one off Christmas special. Sure in the world of this show that means there is no cheer to be found at all, instead we get an anthology of three interconnected stories that all take place over the festive season.

Matt (Jon Hamm) has been isolated at a remote arctic outpost with Potter (Rafe Spall) for the unspecified job they both do. Despite having worked together for over five years they never normally talk to each other, but as it is Christmas Matt forces the issue and they sit down to talk about what led them to getting such remote jobs. Matt talks about a shady dating advice service he used to run that went wrong, then he talks about his previous job as an A.I integrator. This leads to Potter and his traumatic story of how his ex girlfriend 'blocked' him and the repercussions of that.

Usually Black Mirror is pretty harrowing, so to have the stories all take place in the past meant I didn't feel much worry for the main two characters as obviously they survive seemingly all right (sure this turns out not to be the case but I didn't know that at the time!). As always it was more the use of technology that really made me think, there was some interesting things here, but also some which felt a bit too outlandish and so hard to take seriously. This episode takes place in a world where everyone has implants, like Google Glass but inserted into the brain. As such people can be 'blocked' which results in them being greyed out and their voice made unintelligible to whoever blocked them. The exploration of the uses of this made me think quite a bit even if it then set up a twist that became very obvious. Thankfully that was only one of many twists, some which were less obvious, and some that were handled better.

All Through the House (2015) - Horror Film Review

It wasn't that long ago that I had little to no idea how big of a genre the Christmas themed horror film actually was. I knew of a few such as Black Christmas, Gremlins, and Jack Frost but it is only really in the last two years I discovered there are countless others. All Through the House is a new addition to the genre and is heavily influenced by the slasher films of old.

It is the Christmas season and a deranged killer dressed up as Santa has arrived in a small neighbourhood to cause mischief and mayhem. Rachel Kimmel (Ashley Mary Nunes) is with some friends helping to decorate the house of harmless local crazy woman Mrs Garrett (Melynda Kiring, who is one of the final nominees for best supporting actress in the 2016 Fright Meter Awards) when the killer shows up. Now Rachel must find a way to survive against the seemingly unstoppable garden shears wielding maniac...