days 2 and 3.... spoooooooky

well, the WAS going to be daily...

lazy blogger. lazy.


anyway....

so today... errr... yesterday, i am going to talk about one of the more predominant threads in slasher/horror movies: holidays.

of course, duh, there's the entire halloween series - debate its quality all you want (and i will, later) - but holidays and horror really somehow go hand in hand.

probably the next most prolific horror holiday is christmas. now, gremlins aside (yes, it is sometimes considered a horror movie, and is probably one of the better "wink wink nudge nudge" style horror movies, before the whole trend in the mid 90's that "scream" started - yes, another post for another day), there are really two major players on the scene here.

first we have "black christmas." bad, "hot teen" filled remakes aside - as a general rule, i don't see remakes of horror movies, unless they really intrigue me, which they basically never do - black christmas was really the standard bearer for the whole "holiday slasher" film genre (and actually came 4 years BEFORE "halloween"!) it also was one of the first "the killer is in the house" movies. and, honestly, it's kind of a good movie.

the cast: juliette, lois lane, and david bowman! (errr... olivia hussey, margot kidder, and keir dullea). kidder was before her heyday, and was sort of a scream queen at the time - amityville horror, etc; dullea was still probably mostly known for 2001 (i didn't even know that he actually has been in quite a few movies, though none of them particularly great movies); and olivia hussey's career had sort of devolved from zefirelli's "romeo and juliet" - yeah, she played the virgin mary a few years later, and would one day play mother theresa - but she also ended up playing mrs bates in the bad made for Showtime "Psycho" sequel).

it's odd that this one even holds up - few slasher movies do, especially since all the deconstruction done on the genre. i mean, that it even qualified for a remake is testament to that... but yeah.

on the other side of the coin, we have "silent night, deadly night". now, when i was a kid, i actually thought that this movies was just a punchline to some joke told on the gary shandling show (i am pretty sure it was there, at least). little did i know that not only was it for real, but it also had a host of sequels!

plot is basically, kid sees dad murdered and mom raped by guy in a santa suit - after being told that santa punishes those who are naughty by his catatonic grandfather (he even warned his mom, after she said something unkind about santa, that she would be punished). so he's scarred. grows up, dresses as santa one day, and ends up going after "naughty" people - since this was the 80's, it wasn't just revenge that drove him - teenagers having sex, etc all were declared "naughty!" the end then brings us one of the most blatant openings for a sequel ever - when the killer is killed, as all slasher movie killers are, at least apparently, the camera pans to his younger brother - who also witnessed mom and dad getting killed - who says to the camera "naughty."

this one does not hold up. not in the slightest. pure 1984 cheese. seriously, if this movie wasn;t shown on the USA network's saturday midnight movie thing - which the only rule for what they would show was apparently that it had to be shit - i would be surprised. seriously, the best slasher movies are the ones that are somewhat inventive - hell, even sleepaway camp with the whole "female killer who's actually a male!" reveal has a certain quality to it - but this just seemed like someone saying "hey, let's make the killer a guy in a santa suit!" followes by "oooh, let's make a lot of quick, even cheaper, sequels!"

other holiday horror:
"my bloody valentine" and "valentine" for, well, duh.

"leprechaun" - ok, i don't think it takes place on st patrick's day but...

and, for easter (no, giant killer bunnies don't count):
the passion of the christ (zombie!)
the last temptation of christ (zombie! william dafoe!!)

* and yes, the last one was a joke....