BLOODY NEW YEAR (1987)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Norman J. Warren. Co-screenwriters: Frazer Pearce and Hayden Pearce.)

Review

This British film opens in a ballroom New Year’s Eve party (“Goodbye 1959, Hello 1960” its banner reads) before cutting to the late-1980s summertime. Three twenty-something couples go sailing after fleeing carnival punks. The couples’ boat springs a leak, and they swim to a nearby island where they find a hotel whose decorations are those shown at the film’s start. Unbeknownst to them, they’re being watched.

The SCOOBY-DOO-esque friends settle into the seemingly abandoned Grand Island Hotel as supernatural things happen (e.g., electronic devices turn on by themselves, including a projector that shows scenes from the 1958 film FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, before a hard cut shows a bizarre, genie-like spirit jumping out from the screen). And then there’s that wild indoor weather, with further, sometimes fatal weirdness in store. . .

The camera work during key parts of BLOODY is lifted straight from THE EVIL DEAD (1981), with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) providing further influence in the wackadoodle, sometimes fun, sometimes lackluster BLOODY.

Cult softcore/horror Norman J. Warren (INSEMINOID, 1981) eschews his usual gore, sex and brutal violence for a relatively bloodless, mainstream horror work. Sporting kind-of Eighties/kind-of retro rock ‘n’ roll music from Nick Magnus and Cry No More, its soundtrack makes good, limited use of synthesizers and a particular recurring piano riff.

BLOODY’s ending, with its Plot Convenient Dumb Character Moment and odd end-shot, disappoints. That said, this sometimes fun, unfocused, and overlong movie might be worthwhile if you’re loopy, tired, or high.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989)

 

(a.k.a. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT III: BETTER WATCH OUT!. Director/co-screenwriter/uncredited co-editor: Monte Hellman. Co-screenwriters: Rex Weiner, Arthur Gorson, and uncredited Melissa Hellman.)

 

Review

Christmas Eve. Ricky Caldwell, killer from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1987), has been in a coma for six years, after being shot by the cops at the end of the previous film. A clear dome has been attached to the top of his head, exposing his brain to open view—not logical, considering all his bullet wounds were in his torso, but never mind about that—and an oddball doctor, Dr. Newberry (Richard Beymer), has been using a blind clairvoyant woman, Laura Anderson (Samantha Scully, BLOODSUCKERS, 1987) to try and rouse Caldwell from his six-year slumber.

Laura, often angry and sarcastic, has traded dream memories with Ricky (played by Bill Moseley, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, 1986—in SILENT 2, Ricky was played by Eric Freeman). These mingled memories and emotions stir them more than the doctor or Laura suspect, though the young woman, disturbed by what she’s experienced with Ricky, is ready to quit the experiments. Later that day, Ricky wakes and kills Danny, a drunken, mean-spirited hospital Santa (SILENT 3 director/co-screenwriter/co-editor Monte Hellman), and a b*tchy hospital receptionist (Isabel Cooley) before escaping the institution.

Laura arrives at her grandmother’s house with her brother, Chris (Eric DaRe, CRITTERS 4, 1992), and his new girlfriend, Jerri (Laura Harring, billed as Laura Herring), the latter of whom Laura openly dislikes. Their “Granny” (Elizabeth Hoffman, FEAR NO EVIL, 1981) is strangely absent from her house and they look for her. They’re unaware that Ricky, triggered by taunts and the color red, has slashed and decapitated his way to their current location.

Ricky’s bloody trek has not gone unnoticed by others. He’s being pursued by an intrepid cop, Lt. Connely (Robert Culp, SANTA’S SLAY, 2005) and Dr. Newberry, who are not far behind them. Will they find Granny safe and whole, and can they survive Ricky’s second-time-‘round murder spree?

Though director Hellman and Ed Rothkowitz show strong editing chops and the behind-the-scenes crew knew what they were doing, the often brightly (often whitely) lit movie lacks suspense (sometimes bordering on tedious) and the dream sequences aren’t particularly disturbing. The gore quotient is low but effective. This isn’t the worst horror movie I’ve seen, far from it, but it’s probably one that only die-hard Monte Hellman and/or SILENT franchise fans might appreciate. Followed by SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION (1990).

 

Other actors worth noting

Melissa Hellman (daughter of director Monte Hellman and uncredited SILENT 3 co-screenwriter) played “Dr. Newberry’s Assistant”.

Leonard Mann (NIGHT SCHOOL, 1981) played “Laura’s Psychiatrist”.

Carlos Palomino (IT’S ALIVE III: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE, 1987) played “Truck Driver”.

Jim Ladd (TO DIE FOR, 1988) played “Newscaster”.

Richard N. Gladstein (SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION, 1990) played “Detective”.

Dave Mount Jr., billed as Dave Mount (PUMPKINHEAD II; BLOOD WINGS, production assistant, 1993), played “Policeman”.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

Eric DaRe, who played Samantha’s brother in SILENT 3, also appeared in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s TWIN PEAKS (1989-91), along with Richard Beymer, who played Dr. Newberry in SILENT 3.

Further David Lynch connection: Laura Harring, who played Jerri, Chris’s girlfriend, in SILENT 3, also appeared in Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) and INLAND EMPIRE (2005).

 

Richard N. Gladstein, who played a “Detective” in SILENT 3, was also an executive producer for the film. He also produced/acted in SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION (1990) and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOYMAKER (1991).

 

Hellman was not a fan of the original SILENT 3 script, so he requested original co-screenwriter Arthur Gorson work on a new screenplay with another writer, Max Weiner. (The other original screenwriter, Steven Gaydos, went uncredited for his work.). Later Hellman, and his daughter (Melissa) tweaked the rewrite—SILENT 3’s original script became the screenplay for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION, 1990.

 

The movie the gas station attendant (and later Laura and Chris) watch on TV is THE TERROR (1963, directed by Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hale, and uncredited Monte Hellman).

DEAD END (2003)

 

(Directors/screenwriters: Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa)

Review

A bickering family of five (the Harringtons plus one) are making their annual Christmas Eve trip to a family get-together when Frank (Ray Wise, CAT PEOPLE, 1982), father, falls asleep at the wheel and almost crashes headlong into a truck. Now awake, they realize they’re on an unfamiliar road—Laura, Frank’s wife and mother to twenty-something Marion and adolescent-obnoxious Richard, is particularly put out her husband’s decision to take a different way this year.

Things go further south. Their intrafamilial verbal swipes intensify. They pick up a strange, baby-cradling lady in white (played by Amber Smith) who abruptly disappears, and Marion, who gave up her backseat for said woman, walks a short distance to a ranger station (also her family’s destination) when she sees her screaming boyfriend, Brad Miller (William Rosenfeld, billed as Billy Asher), whisked away in a hearse-like car—the family panics, situations worsening and becoming more bizarre with each passing minute, a forty-five-minutes-too-long TWILIGHT ZONE episode.

Genre-familiar viewers might spot DEAD’s thematic framework straightaway. If you’re a fan of such films and books, and bickering-family dynamics (I’m not), you might enjoy DEAD. If you’re not, you can give this popular movie a pass, despite its clever-playing-with-cliché twists, good-to-great acting, and overall visual and audio competence. It’s not bad, it’s just an initially promising movie that runs way too long, with a weak, overly familiar ending.

DEAD’s other notable actors include: Lin Shaye (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, 1984) as Laura Harrington—she’s especially great in this; Alexandra Holden (WISHCRAFT, 2002) as Marion Harrington, Richard’s older sister; Mick Cain (DRAG ME TO HELL, 2009) as crude teenager Richard Harrington; Steve Valentine (MONSTER HIGH: THE MOVIE, 2022) as “Man in Black”; Sharon Madden (TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: “LOVE HUNGRY”, 1988) as “Nurse”; and Karen S. Gregan (THE HAUNTING, 1999) as “Doctor”.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

Speculation: Is the name of Frank’s wife, Laura, a reference to Laura Palmer, daughter of Leland Palmer (played by Ray Wise) in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s 1990-91 television/ABC series TWIN PEAKS?

At one point, Marilyn Manson is mentioned—one of Manson’s songs, “Wrapped in Plastic,” was inspired by one of the opening shots in TWIN PEAKS (“Wrapped in Plastic” appeared on Manson’s 1994 album Portrait of an American Family.)

JACK FROST 2: REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN (2000)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Michael Cooney)

Review

A year after the niveous carnage of JACK FROST (1997), anti-freeze dissolved serial killer snowman (Frost) is accidentally resurrected in an FBI genetics lab by a clumsy employee (Brett A. Boydstun). The icy menace (again voiced by Scott MacDonald) tracks his source-film nemesis Sheriff Sam Tiler (Christopher Allport, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., 1985), with whom Frost shares a psychic link, and his friends to a tropical island.

Sam, traumatized by his experiences with Frost, and his wife (Anne, again played by Eileen Seeley, CREATURE, 1985) are (also) island-bound to attend the wedding of Sam’s deputy (Joe Foster) and his secretary (Maria).

The quip-spouting Frost, via his “genetically altered water molecules”, wastes no time in dropping bodies—initially two boat-trapped castaways, then young, drunk, and otherwise oblivious vacationers. The kills are creative and appropriate (e.g., a LOONEY TUNES-esque icy anvil crushes a model; a man’s tongue, in a shout-out to A CHRISTMAS STORY, 1983, has his tongue ripped off; sentient-spawn snowballs tear apart numerous victims). Before long, Sam and the others figure out the environs-dominant Frost is out to get them, and this time, it’s going to take more than anti-freeze to end him.

 

Other notable cast members include:

Ian Ambercrombie (WARLOCK, 1989) as Sam’s terrible “Psychiatrist”;

Chip Heller (MUNCHIES, 1987), returning from the first FROST, as Deputy Joe Foster;

Marsha Clark (MY DEMON LOVER, 1987), also from the first movie, as Maria, Joe’s future wife;

Stefan Marchand (HELLBORN, 2003) as Charlie, one of starving, life raft-bound castaways who fights with fellow boat-mate Dave (Doug Jones, JOHN DIES AT THE END, 2012);

Ray Cooney (real-life father of director Michael Cooney) as the idiosyncratic Col. Hickering, former British officer and murder-hiding resort manager;

David Allen Brooks (THE KINDRED, 1987) as returning-from-the-first-film character Agent Manners (played by Stephen Mendel in JACK FROST);

Tai Bennett (JOHN DIES AT THE END, 2012) as Bobby, as Col. Hickering’s assistant;

and

Sean Patrick Murphy (THE HANGRY DEAD: THE BIGGEST INSTAGRAM MOVIE EVER, 2020) as energetic entertainment director, Captain Fun.

Michael Cooney, despite a behind-the-scenes dramatic slashing of his sequel budget, has crafted a tightly written and edited, silly, and over-the-top work that deftly balances horror and humor. If you can get past its financial limitations, hammy acting and bad dialogue as well as ridiculous/cheesy CGI gore and plot elements (Frost can travel via the actual ocean and control local weather), you might enjoy this decent, Asahi beer-sponsored follow-up to the solidly made first film. 

Be sure to watch the credits all the way to the end. A follow-up to JACK FROST 2 was planned, but Christopher Allport, who played Sam Tiler in the first two films, passed away before it could be filmed, scuttling Michael Cooney’s intentions.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

In Andrea Subissati’s article “Massacre Under the Mistletoe” (Rue Morgue magazine, issue 203, November/December 2021, pp. 12-18), she interviewed JACK FROST director Michael Cooney. In it, Cooney said that Asahi beer, JACK FROST 2’s only sponsor (to the tune of $5,000] might’ve thought they were funding a sequel to the Michael Keaton film, also released in 1997. 

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1987)

 

(Director/screenwriter/editor: Lee Harry. Other story sources: Joseph H. Earle, Dennis Patterson and Lawrence Applebaum.)

Review

Christmas Eve. Four years after the events of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984), eighteen-year-old Ricky Caldwell (Eric Freeman), a murderer like his brother Billy (from the first film), is interviewed by a brave psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Bloom (James Newman, THE X-FILES: “TWO FATHERS”, 1999 episode) in a psych ward cell.

Ricky, prompted by Bloom’s questions, recounts the seen-in-flashback events that led up to his current incarceration. For SILENT 2’s filmmakers, who were given little money to make this sequel, this meant having to use thirty minutes of stock footage from the first film—something that led to SILENT 2 being often and justifiably criticized (as far as the producers’ intentions were concerned).

Ricky, in the present, is sarcastic and dangerous, menacing in his manner toward those around him. Like Billy, Ricky is obsessed with punishment toward the wicked, his initial kill-snap inspired by what could almost be termed heroic. Ricky’s vigilantism and temper-snaps quickly turn darker, less heroic.

As Ricky’s tale progresses—SILENT 2 solidly, intuitively cuts between the present and flashbacks, some of them shot for the second film—Ricky’s menacing attitude ratchets up, unnerving Dr. Bloom. Is the increasingly aggressive Billy planning to escape and (possibly) kill again? And if so, will he succeed?

This underrated movie, which began as the producer’s excuse to recut the first film’s footage into a so-called sequel—credit director Lee Harry for insisting on shooting new material—is a fun, fast-forward-through-first-film-footage dark comedy with effective symbology and offscreen violence, mostly creative slayings, sly storytelling and genre commentary, solid to B-movie great acting (the latter attributable to Freeman) and great editing. Not only that, SILENT 2 has some meme-worthy, situationally hilarious dialogue (“Garbage day!”).

Supporting actors worth noting: J. Aubrey Island whose brief, flint-gazed presence is memorable and effective (especially when cross-cut with extreme close-ups of Billy’s mocking joy); Elizabeth Kaitan, billed as Elizabeth Cayton (FRIDAY THE 13^th PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD, 1988), as the over-the-top Jennifer—given her character’s exaggerated emotions and body language, Cayton might’ve made a great silent film actress; Jean Miller replaced Lilyan Chauvin (from the first film) as Mother Superior; Nadya Wynd replaced Gilmer McCormick as Sister Mary, called Sister Margaret in the first film.

If you can forgive SILENT 2’s overuse of previous-flick footage, this second film, best viewed as a dark, occasionally bloody comedy, might be your B- or C-movie jam. Viewed as anything else, you might want to avoid it and its three sequels, starting with SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

The film that Billy, Jennifer and others watch in the theater is SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984).

RARE EXPORTS (2010)

 

(a.k.a. RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS STORY; director/co-screenwriter: Jalmari Helander. Co-screenwriter: Juuso Helander, Jalmari’s brother. Dialogue writers: Petri Jokiranta and Sami Parkinnen.)

 

Review

This Finnish-language (with some English dialogue) film is a delightful, masterful mix of light and darkness, humor, fantasy, brief action, horror, mythology, and heart. It’s rated R for male/nonsexual nudity, brief violence, thematic darkness, occasional bloodiness, and profanity.

After an American company, Subzero Inc., falsely advertising itself as a crew of “seismic researchers,” blasts open the icy tomb of the original, beastly Santa Claus within the Korvatunturi Mountains, strange things happen in the area.

Meanwhile, a young boy, Pietari Kontio, is concerned about the presence of Subzero Inc. and its continuous mountain-blasting. He researches the original Santa myth (where he’s a child-devouring monster who was frozen, trapped by the Sami people). Then the reindeer roundup goes awry, One of the American crew members─thirty years old, but he looks like an old, feral-eyed man─is found in Pietari’s father’s illegal wolf pit, harbinger of the chaos to come.

At eighty-four-minutes, RARE moves at a brisk pace. The deft, multi-genre tone of it is mostly light with a touch of dark, its ambience furthered by Mika Orasmaa’s cinematography and Juri Seppä and Miska Seppä’s spot-on soundtrack. The cast is dead-on as well, especially Pietari (played by Onni Tommila) and his father (Rauno, played by Jorma Tommila, Onni’s real-life father). Jalmari Helander, the director, is Onni’s maternal uncle.

RARE is one of my Top Five Christmas movies of all-time for its originality, its charm (it always maintains a heartfelt feel, even when events are dark) and its overall execution by the filmmakers. Well worth your time this, if the above elements appeal to you, and you keep your expectations realistic.

JACK FROST (1997)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Michael Cooney)

Review

Snowmonton, California. After a truck carrying vicious serial killer Jack Frost (Scott Macdonald) to his execution collides with a genetics company truck, Frost’s body is bathed in the experimental fluid, fusing his melted body with the snow. The police, thinking Frost dead, declare him as such.

But Frost is still alive. He is a murderous snowman seeking revenge on the small-town cop (Sheriff Sam Tiler, played by Christopher Allport) who arrested him, with a few more killings along the way. Tiler is still jittery about Frost, who to the end of his life, vociferously vowed vengeance on Tiler.

The bodies pile up quickly in this low budget horror comedy─an old man is found frozen to death, with serious spinal damage; a bully picking on Ryan, Tiler’s son, while Ryan builds a snowman (actually Frost, unbeknownst to Ryan). Horrible, quip-punctuated deaths follow. 

As a direct-to-video comedy horror flick, JACK─not to be confused with the 1998 Michael Keaton film─is a golden turkey (“so bad it’s good”): it’s fun, mostly light-toned, and fast-paced, with good cinematography and FX, and intentionally cheesy/well-shot kill scenes (and quips to accompany said killings). One of the murder scenes involving a bathtub stands out for its darkness: a young woman (Jill Metzner) is raped by Frost before she’s covered in frost (while this is shot in a ridiculous, darkly humorous way, it’s obviously still disturbing and unnecessary)─shown in JACK's original trailer, the filmmakers had not intended for Jill to be assaulted that way, just killed, but since her murder scene so closely resembled further violation, they shot additional footage of Frost saying sex puns.

Shannon Elizabeth, billed as Shannon Elizabeth Fadal, played Jill. This was her first role; she appeared in AMERICAN PIE two years later and other bigger budget movies.

There are no wasted shots in JACK and all the players are solid in their roles, making this hour-and-a-half-long B-movie breezy entertainment with an imaginative, laugh-out-loud finish to its villain. Its ending explicitly leaves JACK open for a sequel, keeping with the (mostly) fun spirit of the film. Followed by JACK FROST 2: REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN (2000).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

In Andrea Subissati’s article “Massacre Under the Mistletoe” (Rue Morgue magazine, issue 203, November/December 2021, pp. 12-18), she interviewed JACK FROST director Michael Cooney. In it, Cooney said:

—JACK FROST was made in 1994 but not released until 1997, and originally was budgeted as a bigger film with a bigger director.

—JACK FROST  was not intended as a horror film, though it was “influenced by horror films. . . [it was influenced] by Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD (1981)”.

—Cooney wished he’d shot JACK FROST “on film.” The producers wanted it “shot on digital because that’s how they wanted to promote it. Nobody had lit this camera before, and we struggled. The early digital [cameras] had no depth of field; we were trying to figure out how to make pools of light; the little centre on this brand-new camera picked up every piece of light. . . I think it would have had more warmth if it were shot on film.”

ONCE UPON A TIME AT CHRISTMAS (2017)

 

(Director/co-story source: Paul Tanter. Co-story source: Simon Phillips. Screenwriter: Christopher Jolley.)

Storyline

In Woodbridge, New Jersey, a teenage girl and a police officer try to stop a serial killer couple, dressed up like Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, who are turning the town’s once-jolly holiday into a terror fest.

 

Review

ONCE is a solid, low budget Christmas killer film—not shot-on-video cheap but not far from it. It opens with Mrs. Claus, a tall, leggy blonde in a short-skirt Santa suit (played by Sayla de Goede, billed as Sayla Vee) in a jail cell, talking with a cop outside it. The cop, Sam Fullard (Jeff Ellenberger), tells her to give up hope that she’ll be getting out of that cell anytime soon. She thinks otherwise.

Film cuts to eleven days earlier, December fourteenth, when Mrs. Claus—not her real name—and a brown-bearded guy in a Santa Claus suit slay another guy in a Santa Claus suit. She carries a crossbow and a bat. Killer Santa, burn marks around his whitened left eye, wields a bat.

The next morning, Jennifer (Laurel Brady), a teenage girl, wakes to her parents arguing. They’re getting divorced, something she forces them to admit. Jennifer, angry, leaves to hang out with her friends, including the bitchy Courtney (Susannah Mackay).

The same morning, cops─among them Fullard and Sheriff Mitchell (Barry Kennedy)─survey the scene of the Santa murder. This seems like a senseless crime. This frustrates the older, no-b.s. Mitchell, who, over the course of the film grows increasingly frustrated, not only by the murders but corrupt, crass bureaucracy.

Days progress and more murders happen, including two teenagers making out at Turtle Dove Point. When Jennifer, following her shift as a mall Santa’s helper, sees a macabre jack-in-the-box and a note with her name on it, the mystery surrounding the motives and identities of the Christmas-iconic couple gives way to solid clues. It all leads to a Christmas Eve “Drum Fest” concert at Phil’s Bar, an event few in attendance─including Jennifer and her friends─are likely to forget anytime soon.

The kill scenes are fun and varied. If Mrs. Claus seems like she’s trying too hard to be like Harley Quinn, at least there’s a playfulness to her that provides a nice counterbalance to her spouse’s over-the-top pronouncements. Gore-wise, the kill scenes are restrained, sometimes less than convincing (not a lot of blood when peoples' throats slit)─I’m guessing this is because of budgetary constraints, not bad filmmaking.

ONCE’s virtues outweigh its flaws. While its budgetary limits, Mrs. Claus’s lacking backstory, sometimes-dumb cop stuff, the fact that Santa has teeth (he supposedly lost them), and Santa’s weird-logic speechifying near the end of the movie detract from its modest joys, there’s still a lot to be had here. It has: a tightly penned, solid-mystery and holiday-centric script; oddball psychos who are interesting (even if the actress playing Mrs. Claus sometimes grates on one’s nerves); an impressively sparse but effective soundtrack (e.g., when Jennifer finds the wind-up box, only the slowed-down tinkle sounds from “Silent Night, Holy Night” are heard); most of the actors are solid in their roles, and most of those who are bad players are only briefly seen or quickly dispatched by the red-clad, deadly duo.

ONCE’s bookend finish─cutting back to Fullard guarding the jailed Mrs. Claus─is a predictable setup, but its saving graces are that it’s logical and it leaves ONCE open not only for a sequel (often a genre requirement), but for multiple outcomes. Not a great film, this, but entertaining and well-made (for the most part)─worth watching on cable, if you see it as an option (and you’ve already seen all your other holiday-related flicks).