A Warning To The Curious (1972)


It may surprise modern folks, but the reason that A Christmas Carol did so well when first released by Charles Dickins was because it tapped into a grand tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time. So it’s probably of no surprise that the BBCs decision to commission a run of ghost stories for Festive viewings in the 70s was less to do with providing an alternative to bawdy light-entertainment and more to do with maintaining Victorian values. So it’s educational horror, beyond the usual anatomy lessons.
Continue reading

Amityville Christmas Vacation (2022)


To avoid any possible confusion, it needs to be made clear that this is a comedic pastiche of two genres that seem to have a near infinite canon: Hallmark style Christmas romance movies and budget horror’s trading off the Amityville name. I’ll leave you to decide which one is a bigger scourge on the psyche of mankind (mostly because I can’t make my mind up on the answer) and give the general warning that all such films need. Simply put; unless you are versed in the content being parodied you may not get all the jokes that are trying to be told, and just think it’s the cheap, formulaic junk that’s being sent up.
Continue reading

Santa Vs The Devil (1959) is devilishly good Christmas fun

In context even this is problematic, which is impressive.


Mexico isn’t the first place you’d think of when it comes to Christmas, but they like commercialism as much as any temperate zone country and, as films like The Batwoman show, they sure have a knack of low-budget high-energy fantasy. And when something is introduced to me as “Mexico’s answer to Santa Conquers The Martians” I just have to give it a go*.
Continue reading

13 Slays Till Xmas (2020)


The straplines made me think this was going to be good old fashioned Psycho Santa Slasher, but this is actually a horror story anthology with a Christmas motif and framing device. Which isn’t a problem as that’s prime quality festive family fun in the Super Fortress. Thus we fired up the streaming service and let the intro credits roll.
Continue reading

Christmas Evil (1981)


People can complain about Christmas themed horror all they want, but it taps into three key traditions. You have the Northern European tradition of telling horror stories at Christmas, the horror genre tradition of taking happy situations and warping them, and the horror movie tradition of ripping off anything succesful. You also have the great tradition of misleading posters, which occasional leaves you with something other than a lump of coal.

Continue reading

The Magic Christmas Tree (1964) is a lot


Who’s up for a timeless tale of Christmas joy, told with grace and style? Tough, all I’ve got for you today is 60 minutes of badly made insanity, the likes of which can only be found in 60s TV specials. A film so thoroughly low budget that only one of the cast has any credits other than this film, and none of them have face on IMDB. So; yes, this is the good stuff! Continue reading

Dog Day (1984) is very French

There is always a joy to watching Lee Marvin act, as you never know what he’s going to do next and you have the sense that him punching you is always a viable option. So, it’s rather fitting that his third to last film has a script that feels the same way. It’s was originally based Jean Herman’s novel of the same name, and then went through three other screenwriters until director Yves Boisset got his hands on it. Needless to say, the director behind the criminally underappreciated sci-fi death-TV masterwork that is Le Prix Du Danger insured that it had social commentary, blunt violence, and an uneasy touch of surrealism. Continue reading

The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2005)


Before we start, we need to address one key issue about this film: the historic Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier but Westle, who stars in the titular role, is a West Highland White Terrier. The Skye Terrier Club spoke to the press about this when the film was in production, That then gets complicated when in 2022, the president of the Canadian Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club claimed it for their preferred breed. Which is to say that some people take these things almost as seriously as this film took its subject matter, and that after am hour of research into this I can conclude that all the breeds mentioned are adorable. Continue reading

Elves (1989)


As is the tradition, the final movie of 2022 put through the Trash or Treasure group watching was the Christmas-themed low-budget shonk-fest with the craziest premise that could be found. This time we were promised monster elves, Nazis, and some chap called Dan Haggerty. There was also the prospect of impressive hairdos, because it’s from the late 80s and that Ozone Layer wasn’t going to massacre itself.
Continue reading

Attack Of The Lederhosen Zombies (2016)

I’m not going to pretend to have a vast knowledge of the Austrian horror movie scene and, until this film, I just assumed it existed rather than had proof it was there. So I was a bit surprised that writer-director Dominik Hartl made the first-ever Austrian zombie film, and decided to give it a try.
Continue reading