THE CHRISTMAS HORROR ADVENT CALENDAR - Door 23: Silent Nights

Now then behind our last door we had two Christmas crackers, a pair of fantastically festive bad Santa movies. However true to form, 2011 was yet another fallow year. Was there some tradition or old charter that ruled you could only make Christmas horror movies every other year? It certainly seems like it! 

However, since the new millennium, while we regularly had every other year lying fallow, the next year we’d get not one, but two new festive fright flicks. And so, 2012 would deliver two seasonal shockers. But as seems somewhat traditional too, at least one of them would be released at a stupidly unseasonal time. And such was the case with today’s first movie, ATM, which was released 6th April 2012.  

Directed by David Brooks, this movie had a script by Chris Sparling, who had previously written Buried, the claustrophobic 2010 thriller starring Ryan Reynolds. Indeed it was the success of Buried that led to the spec script for ATM, which also features characters being confined and trapped, being scooped up. The premise is fairly straight-forward…

At a Christmas party, stockbroker Dave, played by Brian Geraghty, plucks up the courage to ask out co-worker Emily, played by Alice Eve. To his delight she agrees, and he offers to drive her home as it's a snowy night just before Christmas and cabs are thin on the ground. However he also ends up reluctantly agreeing to give his somewhat sozzled mate Corey, played by Josh Peck, a lift home too. 

Not content with playing gooseberry, Cory asks if they can stop at an ATM so he can get some cash out to buy pizza. Now this is not a hole-in-the-wall style bank machine, this is a locked booth in a parking lot which you need a bank card to open. The worse for wear Corey ends up having trouble with the machines and David and Emily go in to help out. However, as they are about to leave, a mystery man, dressed in a large parka with the hood up completely obscuring his face, stands waiting outside… 

And I will leave the plot summary there, as it would be unfair to let any spoilers slip for this little seen film. However suffice to say the mystery man is extremely dangerous and a battle of wits ensues to try and not just escape the booth, but survive the night. 

Now I must admit I’d not heard about his movie before I started researching this advent calendar, and looking at the reviews I was expecting a fairly cheap run-of-the-mill slasher. However that isn’t what ATM is about at all. Rather it is a dark little tale of being trapped on a freezing winter’s night. And where the chills come in, is the fact that our hooded man isn’t just playing the usual cat-and-mouse slasher games. Now it’s not a hugely festive movie per se, but the isolation of the characters trapped in the booth is magnified by the fact that just beyond the deserted icy car park, you can see Christmas lights strung along the streets. 

ATM presents us with a highly intriguing and increasingly unsettling situation, and I suspect its poor reviews are partly down to the fact that it does not deliver the expected slasher antics and goes down its own individual path instead. Plus I don’t think the unseasonal release date helped either, as this is certainly a movie to watch on the long dark nights before Christmas. It’s a very interesting little movie that’s stark, dark and icy cold, and it will certainly bring a chill to the Yuletide. 

Now November 30th 2012 brought something of an early surprise Christmas present. Although perhaps it wasn’t anything that was high on anybody's Christmas lists! For all of a sudden, the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise suddenly sprang back to life, with a remake of the original! Well, a sort of remake…

In the early 2000s, there had been a screening of the original Silent Night, Deadly Night and in attendance with none other than the original producer Scott Schneid, the man who started it all. And he suggested that perhaps the time was right for a remake. And his thoughts did not fall on deaf ears, for soon a script was in the works. Now screenwriter Jayson Rothwell apparently hadn't seen the original, and he started with his own impressions of Christmas horror movies, but also he took some inspiration from a real life case, the Covina Massacre. In this shocking case, on Christmas Eve in 2008, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo dressed up as Santa and attacked a Christmas Eve party at his ex wife's house, and set the place ablaze, killing nine and shooting himself afterwards. Hey, I told you it was a shocking case! 

Thankfully the movie, directed by Steven C. Miller, and now with the shortened title of just Silent Night, is nowhere near as unpleasant. And while there are many differences to the original,  it does centre around a killer dressed as Santa who is punishing those which he deems to be naughty. However this Santa Claus killer isn’t Billy or any of the multiple Rickys from the original series, rather it is an entirely new character with their own new backstory.  Likewise, rather than going down the making of a maniac route of the original, Rothwell’s script goes back to slasher basics, and instead builds a fun mystery around who the masked Santa slayer is. But let’s have a plot outline before going any further…

In the opening scenes we see the arrival of our mystery maniac, and get straight to the first kill, death by Christmas lights! We learn that we are in the small snowy town of Cryer, Wisconsin, and investigating the gruesome events is Deputy Aubrey Bradimore, played by Jamie King, who soon begins to suspect they might be dealing with a bona fide serial killer. But her boss, Sheriff Cooper, played by Malcolm McDowell no less, is not entirely convinced. However our heroine is correct and the Santa Claus Killer begins working their way through the naughty list…

Now on its first release, Silent Night was met with somewhat mixed reviews, and there was a certain amount of grousing about its departures from the original. But as we have previously discussed in this advent calendar, the original Silent Night, Deadly Night is a somewhat uneven movie, and while it has a part of horror history, that has more to do with the controversy around it than the merits of the movie itself. Furthermore, carping about changes to the original are somewhat redundant as this film did put some distance between itself and the original by changing the name, and it was very much sold as being based on the first film, rather than a straight remake anyway.  

And indeed once people got over the differences, there was a lot to enjoy here. There some ridiculously over the top set piece kills, a well realised snowy small town setting, and the decision to focus on the investigation of the killer made for a far more engaging plot line. Jaime King and Malcolm McDowell spark off each other nicely, and there are some very satisfying twists and turns to the plot as they slowly work out who the maniac in the Santa suit actually is, and why he has chosen the little town of Cryer. Is it the best in the series? Well, it is certainly the best made movie in the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise, although I doubt anything will ever top Eric Freeman’s Ricky in Part 2. However, if you are in the market for a festively themed slasher, Silent Night will fit the bill, plus where else can you see Malcolm McDowell hamming it up in a Christmas movie? 

However after 2012, it all went quiet on the Christmas horror front once again, with the festive fright flick taking a break for three long years. However as we will learn behind our final door, 2015 was a landmark year for seasonal shockers… 

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Door 23: Silent Nights

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HYPNOGORIA 275 - Stigma A Christmas Commentary

It's time for our traditional annual commentary for an episode of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas. This year we have reached 1977, and the penultimate episode in the original run, and the last episode directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. In a departure from the usual format Stigma brings us a brand new tale written especially for the screen by Clive Exton, a dark tale of mysterious megaliths and ancient evils. 

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - HYPNOGORIA 275 - Stigma - A Christmas Commentary

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THE CHRISTMAS HORROR ADVENT CALENDAR - Door 22: You'd Better Watch Out!

So then, after a little flurry of seasonal shockers, after The Children, once again it all went quiet again, with 2009 being another fallow year for Christmas horror. However a new decade would open with not one, but two bad Santa movies. And here I am not talking about maniacs dressed as Father Christmas going on a slasher killing spree. Rather these bad Santas were ancient spirits of Christmas, and in this pair of movies we were presented dark mythologies which revealed the sinister truth about dear old Santa Claus. 

Now it should be noted that around this time, there had been a growing awareness that Santa Claus wasn’t always the same festive figure we know today, and earlier versions had some dark variations. For just as dark and unsettling folk tales were sanitised to become our  modern sweetness-and-light fairy tales, so too various Santa Claus traditions in old Europe had some darker elements which we have forgotten. And in the early years of the 21st century, much of this lore was rediscovered and was rapidly disseminated by the internet, with dozens of articles on Santa’s dark helpers such as Krampus and Black Pete, who punished the wicked while St. Nick handed out presents to the good. Also very popular at the time were various theories - now discredited by the way - that interpreted Santa as a shaman, a pagan god, or a folk horror wild man. 

Now while much of this chatter about old dark Christmases was highly inaccurate, and often historically dubious, this swirl of ideas associating Santa with ancient dark forces certainly inspired today’s two movies, however perhaps very wisely, both opted to create their invented ancient lore. 

First up we have Sint, also known as Saint and St. Nicholas. Having its premiere on Halloween night at the  Razor Reel Fantastic Film Festival in 2010, the movie then went on general release on 10th November, and usually for a Dutch movie, gained an international release as well. It was made by veteran Dutch director Dick Maas who previously had enjoyed success outside the Netherlands with The Lift in 1983, about a high tech elevator which develops a murderous mind of its own, and Amsterdamed in 1988, a horror thriller which was effectively a Dutch giallo. 

However with Sint, Dick Maas crafted a uniquely Dutch Christmas horror.  And before we get to the movie, here’s a quick crash course on the Netherlands' Yuletide traditions. In Holland, while now there are usual Christmas celebrations at the end of December, traditionally the gift giver was St. Nicholas himself - Sinterklaas as he is known there, which is where we get the name Santa Claus. The feast day of St. Nicholas is 6th December, and traditionally Sinterklaas therefore makes his rounds on the night before, on 5th December. Much like our Santa, he comes down chimneys and leaves gifts for the good, but he has a helper, Black Pete, who is so called because he is covered in soot from the chimneys. Also it is Black Pete who carries off the especially naughty children in sacks! And for more on this and other old traditions do check out my In Search of Santa podcast series. 

Sint opens in the year of our lord 1475, a corrupt bishop Niklas is terrorising the land with his band of thugs, sailing in their galleon from place to place and effectively pillaging whole towns.  However on the night of 5th of December, one village - which one day will become Amsterdam - takes revenge. The locals steal out in the dead of night, and by the light of a full moon, and they set fire to Niklas’s galleon burning all aboard to death. 

However that is not the end of it, for there is a dark legend that whispers whenever there is a full moon, the evil Niklas and his horde of Black Petes, now semi-incinerated undead thugs, rise from the grave to murder and pillage in Amsterdam once more. And this year, the moon will be full again, and a police detective, Goert, played by Bert Luppes, knows the legend is true as his own family was murdered when he was a boy when the moon was last full on the eve of St. Nicholas.  Meanwhile two teens Frank, played by Egbert Jan Weeber and his girl friend Lisa, played by Caro Lenssen will also cross paths with Goert and learn the horrific truth behind the legend of Sinterklaas. 

Sint is a terrifically fun movie and a feast of both festive fun and Christmas horror. To begin with Amsterdam, at Christmas time and blanketed in slow falling snow looks fantastic. The undead Niklas, played by Huub Stapel, looks fantastic, in particular as he gallops through a snowy Amsterdoam on his white horse causing all manner of bloody mayhem. Then we have his Black Petes, all burnt zombie pirates who dish out violent and gory deaths galore. However, as well as a generous helping of supernatural mayhem, Dick Maas gives us interesting and engaging characters with their own story arcs, and tells his tale with a good deal of wit and humour. Sint is a wild ride that gleefully dashes through the snow of a Dutch Christmas, merrily lopping off heads as it goes, and here at Hypnogoria Towers, it is now an annual tradition to watch this gem of a movie every 5th December.   

Now Sint in itself would have made 2010 a landmark year for Christmas horror all on its own, but then on 3rd December we got another treat! Now as I alluded to earlier, the Netherlands has an important link to Santa Claus through St. Nicholas, but as every child knows, another country closely associated with the Jolly Old Elf is Lapland, where some say he makes his home. And so drawing on old legends of the lands of the north comes Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale from Finland.

Released on 3rd December 2010, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a movie written and  directed by Jalmari Helander. Now the movie was inspired by two short movies Helander has made previously -  Rare Exports, Inc.  in 2003 and its sequel Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions. Now I can’t really tell you another about either of these festive but darkly humorous shorts as that would involve spoilers for the full feature movie which is perhaps a prequel of sorts to them. And indeed, while they can be found online, I would recommend seeing the full movie first. 

So what of the film itself? Well the story revolves around a young boy, Pietari (played by Onni Tommila) who lives in Korvatunturi in the Finnish region of Lapland, with his father Rauno (played by his real life dad Jorma Tommila). His mother has passed away, and father and son are finding things increasingly hard as Christmas approaches. An American team is excavating the peak of Korvatunturi, and since work has begun, strange things have been happening in the local area. Studying old books, Pietari learns of an old legend that tells of the original Santa, a huge ogre of the man with horns who ravaged the land. The Sami people grew tired of his reign of terror and trapped the ancient monster in ice, which in time became the peaks of Korvatunturi. And our young hero suspects that the excavations there are going to unleash something very old and very dangerous…

Now Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a truly magical movie. It is beautifully shot, immersing you in the glorious wild beauty of Lapland, much like the last Finnish Christmas horror we spoke about, The White Reindeer. However, like Sint, it also draws on traditional local Christmas legends about Santa. There he is known as Joulupukki, the Yule Goat, and was a much more terrifying looking figure, a horned humanoid dressed in furs, before his image was softened and brought more in line with the Santa we know today. Rare Exports draws on these older traditional depictions of Joulupukki, and again like Sint, uses them as springboard to create a new mythological tale revealing ancient and dark origins for our familiar cosy Father Christmas. 

But do be warned, when I said it was a magical movie, I was referring to the magic of old folklore and legends rather than modern fairy tales, for there are some very dark things occurring in Rare Exports. But that said, this is still a proper Christmas tale, there is light as well as the darkness, for at its heart, it is the story of how a young boy sets out to save both his family and Christmas itself as well. And hence despite some unsettling scenes, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale does live up to its full  title, and delivers a finale that will fill you up with the spirit of the season.  

In another of these little Christmas coincidences, once again we got two movies released in the same year that make a perfect festive double bill! And indeed, both are high recommends for any lovers of Christmas horror. 

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