SNOWMANIAC (2023)

 

(Director/screenwriter/editor/co-star: H. Owen Richardson)

Review

Two drunk guys, Robert and Eric, are outside a house in what seems to be the middle of a wind- or freeway-loud nowhere late at night. While one of them uses the telephone booth to call a cab, the other smokes a cigarette. The one using the telephone booth makes his call, steps out of the phone booth, and sees his friend is gone, somewhere in the oh-so-dark night (smoker is being killed by a knife-wielding person wearing a snowman mask). When the telephone rings—a callback from the cab company, likely—the Snowmaniac turns his attention to the phone guy.

Posted on Youtube and viewable for free, the nine-minute SNOWMANIAC feels like a proof-of-concept short film. While it runs like a series of scenes (not a story), it’s an effective, well-shot stalk-and-slay work, from its use of spare, spooky music to its muddy-dark background night (courtesy of cinematographer/co-producer Kai Hall), which makes it almost feel like a 1970s flick. The sound effects are crisp and ickalicious (e.g., when smoking guy’s tongue is ripped off the road sign), the acting is solid for its concept, and its creepy piano tune is a mood-effective capper for SNOWMANIAC.

H. Owen Richardson, who also wrote, directed, edited and co-produced it, played Robert. Ryan Skates played Eric. Tom Rockell played the Snowmaniac.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: THE INITIATION (1990)

 

(Director: Brian Yuzna. Screenwriters: Zeph E. Daniel, Richard N. Gladstein, and Arthur Gorson)

Review

After a woman’s building-leap, spontaneous combustion death, an aspiring reporter/classified ads editor Kim Levitt (played by Neith Hunter) investigates the story despite her dismissive male boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister, PHANTASM, 1979) and equally dismissive male colleagues at the LA Eye—one of these colleagues is her easy-going boyfriend, Hank (Tom Hinkley, WATCHERS II, 1990).

Kim’s investigation drives her to seek out a book on spontaneous combustion. She looks for it at a feminist bookstore (Bring Down the Moon) in the building from which the flaming woman leapt. While purchasing a book on the subject, she meets Fima (Maud Adams, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, 1974), owner of the establishment, who gives Kim a book, Initiation of the Virgin Goddess by J.B. Beattie, and invites Kim to a feminist-group picnic the following day.

Bizarre stuff happens to, and around, Kim. A filthy, oddly shy, and seemingly simple street guy (Ricky) follows her up to the roof and tries to hand her a hand-plus sized squirming larva. Cockroaches, in large numbers, appear in her apartment. She sees disturbing faces in everyday places (simulacrum). Her dreams and perceptions become life-threatening. All the while, she’s being stalked by Fima and her fellow female cultists who somehow are linked to Lilith, Adam’s rebellious ex-wife who is linked to “things that crawl.” It’s clear that Kim is changing somehow, and the cult has a lot to do with it.

While SILENT 4’s set-up isn’t hard to figure out, it’s a well-made (especially for a low budget direct-to-video film). The actors range from solid to excellent (especially Neith Hunter and Clint Howard, who plays the deranged but somehow tender Ricky), Richard Band’s mood-effective score is perfect, and Peter Teschner’s editing keeps SILENT 4 sharp and tight. Screaming Mad George (and FX company)’s disturbing and icky FX suit the visual-highlight moments of SILENT 4’s already unsettling milieu, all centered around Kim’s evolution, and maybe more—if she can break free of those counting on her sacrificing herself for them.

SILENT 4, a standalone film in the SILENT franchise, is worth watching if you don’t require a big budget to be entertained, and can appreciate an excellent, theme-ambitious cast and crew making the most of out of what little they have to work with, including often icky effects.

 Followed by the standalone SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER (1991).

Deep(er) filmic dive

Brian Yuzna, one of the story sources for SILENT 4, has said that he was “not interested” in focusing on Christmas in SILENT 4, hence its few scenes highlighting the holiday season. Yuzna co-produced its sequel a year later and tried to make up for it by mandating that Christmas should be central to SILENT 5’s storyline.

 

According to IMDb, SILENT 4’s premise was going to be used for the third entry in the SILENT franchise but was rejected by the third entry’s filmmakers.

 

In one scene, scenes from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989) are broadcast on an onscreen television.

 

Neith Hunter (who played Kim Levitt in SILENT 4) played a character named Kim in SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER, 1991). Clint Howard, who played Ricky in SILENT 4, played a character named Ricky in SILENT 5. Conan Yuzna, real-life son of Brian Yuzna, played Lonnie (Hank’s younger brother) in SILENT 4—he also played a character named Lonnie in SILENT 5.

According to Brian Yuzna, in a commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4, Yuzna said these recurring-name characters may or may not be the same characters, that he and fellow SILENT 4 and 5 filmmakers were “playing around” with names between the two films. . . He didn’t mention if Howard’s character (Ricky) is a call-back name to Ricky Chapman, younger brother of killer-Santa Billy in the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) and the killer in the first two sequels that followed.

 

According to IMDb, the call letters on a television news reporter’s microphone is UZNA, a reference to the film’s director, Brian Yuzna.

 

The giant cockroach seen in Kim’s apartment is a reference to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The long nose that Ricky wears during Kim’s ritual scene is a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971).

 

According to Brian Yuzna, his son (Conan), who appears in the film as Lonnie, isn’t fond of mentioning/promoting his appearances in this film and SILENT 5. Yuzna mentioned this in his commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4.

THE ADVENT CALENDAR (2021)

 

(aka LE CALENDRIER. Shudder Original film. Director/screenwriter: Patrick Ridremont.)

 

Review

On December 3, 2020, paraplegic ex-dancer Eva Roussel (Eugénie Derouand) gets a surprise birthday visit from her close friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier), who flew in from Germany to give her an old, pagan-Christian ornate, wooden German advent calendar she purchased from a “Munich Xmas market”. The back of the calendar reads: “Dump it and I’ll kill you.”

 

When Eva notes that it’s a “grim” statement, Sophie, shrugging, replies, “Germans are grim.” Eva opens the first date-door and eats the candy despite this and its three rules:

“Rule number 1. The calendar contains candy. If you eat one, eat them all. Or I’ll kill you.

“Rule number 2. Respect all rules until you open the last door. Or I’ll kill you.

“Rule number 3. Dump it and I’ll kill you.”

Crazy violent things happen at a rapid pace after she eats the first four candies (and continues doing so). Her father (played by an excellent Jean-François Garreud), who has Alzheimer’s and hasn’t spoken to her in some time, calls her and wishes her a happy birthday. An investor creep (Boris, played by Cyril Garnier) who aggressively hits on her has a car accident, not entirely unlike the car accident that made her a paraplegic—except he's dead in a horrible way. Other odd events, some good, follow. Many of these events are terrifying and dangerous for her and those around her, including her nurse boyfriend, William (Clément Olivieri).

This fast-paced, supernatural horror flick is an entertaining and an all-around sturdy movie, with its good acting, a strong script and ending, and an offbeat storyline. Animal lovers may cringe at one of its parts, although there’s no actual onscreen violence (or harm to the animal)—it’s all implied. This is a highly recommended French work, different than the usual Xmas terror fare.

MRS. CLAUS (2018)

 

(aka STIRRING. Director/screenwriter: Troy Escamilla)

 

Review

A Delta Sigma Sigma pledge sister, Angela Werner (Mel Heflin), is cruelly hazed by a sorority president, Amber (Kaylee Williams), and her clique. Shortly after that, the humiliated pledge kills the cruel sorority President and hangs herself.

A decade later, Amber’s sweet-natured sister (Danielle, played by Hailey Strader) is joining the same sorority, when the sorority sisters receive threatening Xmas-themed poems about “sluts.” People get systemically killed (garroted, stabbed, a large candy cane shoved down a guy’s throat, etc.) by someone dressed up like Mrs. Claus, complete with a mask.

It all comes down to a battle between Danielle (with some help) and the vicious Mrs. Claus. There’s a character-based twist (not entirely shocking but worthwhile). Its almost-solid finish is ruined by spot-it-from-a-mile-away sequel-friendly ending.

The good: Scream Queen Brinke Stevens (THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, 1982) is fun as Officer Julie Cornell, as is Helene Uddy (MY BLOODY VALENTINE, 1981; and THE DEAD ZONE, 1983) as Mrs. Werner. Kaylee Williams is also convincing as cruel Delta Sigma Sigma president Amber. The kill scenes are varied, effective (considering its micro-budget), gory and creative—credit their convincing bloodiness to makeup/special effects artist Heather Benson, who’s gone on to work on A-list films like KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2023). Mark D’Errico’s soundtrack is effective in many of its key scenes (e.g., a slow piano song with eerie female vocals).

Ultimately, CLAUS is a typical low budget slasher film with too much lag time between plot points, some seriously bad acting, and a too-strict adherence to horror clichés─despite its drawbacks, it’s not the worst Xmas body count film I’ve seen, though I’ll likely not watch it again.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

Kaylee Williams also appeared with Brinke Stevens in BENEATH THE OLD DARK HOUSE (2022; director/screenwriter: Matt Cloude).

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).

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)

 

(Director: Charles E. Sellier Jr. Screenwriter: Michael Hickey, his script based on Paul Caimi’s story.)

 

Review

Christmas Eve, 1971. After five-year-old Billy Chapman, baby Ricky and their parents visit their supposedly catatonic Grandpa (who says menacing things about Santa Claus to Billy) in a “Utah Mental Facility”, a roadside criminal in a Santa Claus suit (Charles Dierkop, MESSIAH OF EVIL, 1973) kills Billy’s parents while the hiding, fearful boy watches.

December 1974. Eight-year-old Billy and four-year-old Ricky are now residents at Saint Mary’s Home for Orphaned Children, run by strict disciplinarian Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin, PUMPKINHEAD II: BLOOD WINGS, 1993). Billy’s classroom drawings─childish renderings of his parents’ murders─indicate that Billy, quiet, is still traumatized by them, not that the strap-wielding Mother Superior cares (“Punishment is necessary. Punishment is good,” the no-nonsense nun tells Billy). Billy’s situation worsens when he, shocked, espies one of the sisters in flagrante delicto, and he─further freaked out─hits a visiting man in a Santa Claus suit.

Spring 1984. One of Saint Mary’s more sympathetic nuns (Sister Margaret, played by Gilmer McCormick) gets him a job as a stock boy at nearby Ira’s Toys. Things are going good─Billy seems nice, well-adjusted─until December rolls around, and memories of his parents’ killings return in full force.

Mr. Sims (Britt Leach, BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER, 1981), owner of Ira Toys, has Billy don a Santa suit for the store’s Christmas Eve shift. Billy is depressed but complies without complaint. He witnesses the near-rape of one of the female employees (Pamela, who he’s crushing on) and snaps, flashing back to his mother’s near-rape. He kills her assailant (Andy), then her─Billy’s town-wide murder spree has just begun, one that will eventually bring Billy home.

Shot in Heber City, Utah, this tightly edited (thank you, Michael Spence!) and controversial killer-rampage flick has a dark, focused intensity with its religious-critical, punishment theme (reiterated by “Killer Santa,” Grandpa, Mother Superior), its foreboding, humor-leavened mood reinforced by cinematographer Henning Schillerup’s effective mix of Christmas-light cheer and shadowy darkness as well as composer Perry Botkin Jr.’s unsettling, bordering-on-Eighties-cheesy score. Charles E. Sellier’s direction is solid, effective in its execution. Rick Josephson and G. Lynn Maughan’s relatively restrained FX simultaneously add a sense of fun to SILENT (with its syrupy-looking blood) while contributing to the movie’s overall mood and the effectiveness of the creative and varied kill scenes.

Its cast ranges from solid to excellent. Robert Brian Wilson is B-movie good as the trying-to-be-good-before-he-snaps Billy, while Alex Burton, in his only role (Ricky at 14), matches that B-flick goodness (a mix of cheese and sincerity) when he utters the word “Naughty.”

Other players include: Nancy Borgenicht (HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1988) as the feisty Mrs. Randall, one of Billy’s co-workers; Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1985) as Denise, a lusty babysitter; and Leo Geter (HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1995) as Tommy, Denise’s boyfriend.

Selliers’s workmanlike direction, along with SILENT’s creative kills, bordering-on-bleak humor and other elements, makes this a standout holiday-horror B-movie, one that spawned four sequels, starting with SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1987).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

Released stateside on November 9, 1984—the same day as Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET—it made twice as much money as NIGHTMARE (SILENT was in more theaters, before being pulled two weeks later, after a group, “Citizens Against Movie Madness”, were outraged when SILENT was advertised during primetime television, terrifying children, and angering their parents). SILENT‘s ads were pulled six days later. Curiously enough, producers had expected SILENT’s controversy to stem from its potent anti-Catholic vibe, not the killer Santa theme, which had been done already.

Director Charles Sellier retired from directing because of the film’s reception—it was too hard to find work. He focused on producing instead.