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).

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)

 

(Director: George Mihalka. Screenwriter: John Beaird.)

Storyline

A town haunted by a Valentine’s Day murder-curse holds its first V-Day Dance in decades and a new spate of violent deaths occur.

Review

This hack‘n’ stab flick about a small mining town haunted by a decades-old murder is a solid, entertaining, and waste-no-time flick. The murder was committed by a miner (Harry Warden) who turned to cannibalism while being trapped in the Hanniger Mine─the town’s main source of employment─during the town’s Valentine’s Day dance. Before he was sent to a mental hospital, Warden vowed more deaths if another celebration was held on February 14^th. Because of this, the town hasn’t held a dance in decades. This year, things are different.

Two days before the dance (Thursday the 12^th), one of the townsfolk receives a human heart in a candy box (echoing Warden’s gory heart-in-a-box style). Chief Newby (Don Francks) calls the out-of-town hospital where Warden was interned. Seems nobody can find any information about Warden, nor where he’s located. That night, a woman (Mabel) is killed in a laundromat after reading a heart-shaped card reading “Roses are red, violets are blue, one is dead, so are you.” Her killer, like Harry Warden, is clad in a dark miner’s outfit, complete with helmet and mask.

Newby hides the circumstances of Mabel’s demise, publicly ascribing her death to a heart attack─he also cancels the dance. The miners, young, horny, and derisive of the Warden legend, party at the mine. Hijinks, romantic rivalry, heavy flirting, and bad decision-making ensues. Meanwhile, another townsperson is killed by the pickaxe-wielding miner. It’s not long before the partygoers realize something’s amiss.

The setting is real and gritty, a small town that’s in the throes of a severe economic downturn (its locale, Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, was also going through hard times during the shoot). This grimy realism lends an underlying desperation to the film, though its action is standard stalk-and-kill fare, with a few effective suspense scenes in the mix (especially TJ’s fight scene with the killer). Rodney Gibbon’s cinematography adds to BLOODY’s increasingly dirty, harsh tone, especially as the killings─striking and rapid in their execution─get more brutal, and Paul Zaza’s spare, simple and well-timed score furthers the film’s effectiveness.

BLOODY won’t win any awards, but for what it is─an Old School, solid, occasionally suspenseful B-level slasher flick with inherent atmosphere, little gore, and no explicit nudity─it’s a worthwhile watch, if you keep your expectations realistic and modest.

Deep(er) filmic dive:

Helene Uddy, who played Sylvia, also appeared in THE DEAD ZONE (1983), MRS. CLAUS (2018) and other sometimes-notable films.

THE DEAD ZONE (1983)

 

(Director: David Cronenberg. Screenplay: Jeffrey Boam.)

Review

Based on Stephen King’s 1979 novel of the same name, this 1983 sad and horrifying David Cronenberg movie is one of my all-time favorite precognitive films. Its perpetually-set-in-wintry-tones mood is perfect for its emotional content and events while Johnny Smith tries to find his way in the world after a five-year coma, only to find that his melancholic recovery is complicated by a clairvoyant and precognitive abilities, which may kill him.

Boam’s screenplay and Cronenberg’s direction are great, with characters worth caring about and equally excellent actors to play them. Christopher Walken played Johnny Smith. Herbert Lom played Dr. Sam Weizak. Brooke Adams played his lost-love, Sarah Bracknell. Tom Skerritt played Sheriff Bannerman. Martin Sheen played Greg Stillson. Jackie Burroughs played Vera Smith, Johnny’s mother. Nicholas Campbell played Deputy Frank Dodd. Colleen Dewhurst, who played Henrietta Dodd (Frank’s mother), previously appeared in Woody Allen’s ANNIE HALL (1977) as the mother of Walken’s character, Duane Hall. Anthony Zerbe played Robert Stuart. William B. Davis (OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING, 1991), billed as William Davis, played "Ambulance Driver".

The human-based horror, as well as its palpable mood, is unsettling and memorable, like that of the source book, King’s first Top-Ten of the year bestseller. Composer Michael Kamen’s score adds an extra sense of longing, loss and flinching terror to this potent mix of talents.

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to IMDb, King’s novel and Cronenberg’s film are “loosely based on the life of famous psychic Peter Hurkos. Hurkos claimed to have acquired his alleged power after falling off a ladder and hitting his head". 

Bill Murray was Stephen King’s choice to play Johnny Smith.

Helene Uddy, who played “Weizak’s Mother,” also appeared in MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981), MRS. CLAUS (2018) and other, sometimes-notable films.