Movie Review: Christmas Evil

As the Christmas season rolls around each year, there are a few certain films that always get watched. I always visit seasonal classics such as Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then there are the action regulars, most notably Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Lethal Weapon. Those are all well and good, but being a horror movie fan, there are the darker holiday films that need to have some time spent with them, this includes the likes of Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Krampus, and Red Christmas. In recent years a new film has come to my attention and has quickly risen through the ranks, Christmas Evil.

Eyes on Christmas: Miracle on 34th Street

It is hard to eleven that Christmas is just about here. When I was thinking about the marathon, I was thinking of doing 3 or 4 movies a week, but I ended up doing one a day and it feels like I just started. Anyway, since the day is so close, I decided to go to a classic holiday film that I have not seen in some time. This is a movie that I am not sure if I have seen this since I was a little kid. Whatever the time was, it was a big enough time gap so that as I watched it, it felt pretty new. I liked that.

Eyes on Christmas: P2

As the Christmas marathon run is starting to wind down I decided to go with a thriller of recent vintage, it is thriller produced by horror director Alexandre Aja and directed by Franck Khalfoun and is a rather delightful little romp through a parking garage. I am not sure you could go so far as to call it a great film, but it certainly is effective and has plenty of Christmassy overtones to fit right in with the season.

Two Eyes on Christmas: Black Christmas and Black X-mas

Last night I decided to treat myself to a double feature Christmas excess. No, I was not about to go overboard with some Rankin and Bass stop motion gloriousness, nor was I about to dive headlong into any collection of holiday sap fests, what I was looking for was something with a little bid of blood, a little tension, perhaps some over the top visual style. I went with a pair of films that are sure to raise the ire of many a film fan, well, at least some of them anyway.

Eyes on Christmas: Christmas Evil

Following the family friendly mediocrity of Santa Claus: The Movie, I felt the need to get back a little bit of my holiday cynicism back. How better to cure a pleasant mood during he holiday than with a little something called Christmas Evil? Well, there probably are better ways, but this one is not a bad route to take. Unlike Thanksgiving, Christmas has a whole host of horror movies centered around it, some good and some really, really bad. This one, originally called You Better Watch Out, is not that bad.

Eyes on Christmas: Santa Claus - The Movie

Dipping back into some seasonal fare has led me to the modestly entertaining Santa Claus: The Movie. This is a product of the 1980's but is in no way, shape, or form in the same league as Die Hard and Gremlins. Of course, this is an actual seasonal film that centers on Santa Claus, duh, and doesn't just use the setting of the season on which to hang its story. It is a movie that does what it needs to and tries to have a heart while it goes about doing it.

Eyes on Christmas: Lethal Weapon

Earlier this week I revisited Die Hard as part of this year's Christmas marathon. What an experience that was. It had been awhile since I had watched it, frankly I do not remember the last time I saw it. Man, what a last, that is a seriously awesome action film that holds up perfectly. Now, after a cheesy animated break, I decided to revisit another classic actioner from the 1980's with a somewhat Christmasy side. It is not so much a Christmas movie so much as it is inexplicably set during the holiday season.

Eyes on Christmas: He-Man, She-Ra, and Mr. Magoo

I decided to take a little break from my live action Christmas spectacular that has been going on for the past week and a half and squeeze in a couple of animated holiday titles. Well, it is not so much by choice as it was a bit of a time squeeze. You see, there are only so many hours in the day and after a long day of work and other obligations, I had only a small window in which to keep the run going. So, I decided on a pair of short specials that aired on television years ago.

Eyes on Christmas: Die Hard

After the debacle that was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, I decided I needed to turn around quick and watch something hat was genuinely worth watching, not just something enjoyed for the camp value. I think I succeeded. Sure, the movie can only be called a Christmas movie based on setting alone, but it is a certifiable classic that holds up beautifully despite closing in on the quarter century mark. Not only that, it is a movie that can be enjoyed, and should be enjoyed any time of the year.

Eyes on Christmas: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Well, I was on a roll, albeit a limited two day run. Much like my Halloween marathon, no sooner do I start to get on a roll of quality movies, I shoot myself in the foot and watch something such questionable quality that it would make you question one's sanity.that someone would be me, of course. I seem to have made a good habit of being inextricable drawn to the low grade oddball titles of pretty much any genre. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does help point out the distinctly higher quality of other films that I subject myself to.

Eyes on Christmas: Rare Exports - A Christmas Tale

Well, hasn't this marathon taken a turn for the awesome. After mediocrity like Call Me Claus, awfulness like A Christmas Too Many, and the utter oddness of Santa Claus (1959), it is nice to sit back with some genuinely awesome holiday films. First there was Gremlins which, let's face it, is a flat out great movie. Not perfect by any stretch, but I is hard not to have a good time with it. Now we have one that was a first time watch for me, I had heard good thins about it, but I was caught off guard by just how great it is. Again, it is not perfect by any stretch, but it is one I can find myself revisiting many times.

Eyes on Christmas: Gremlins

Now, Christmas movies have never been my favorite sort of movie. There is something about the relentless cheer that many of them bring that gets to me. Perhaps it is because so few of them move beyond the feeling of manufactured joy. Still, there are some, and there are even more that set themselves around the holiday without necessarily being of the holiday. This marathon allows me to investigate films on both sides of that line. This latest film in my marathon takes a look at a holiday gift, given with the best intentions, that just goes wrong.

Eyes on Christmas: Friday After Next

While I have certainly subjected myself to some lousy movies. On the plus side, I like the fact that my broad idea for the Christmas movie with regards to this marathon has brought me a rather wide variety of films so far in just the first week. This latest entry is the third film in a series and the first one to be centered around the holidays. It is not really a Christmas movie in the strictest sense, it is more just the setting for them to string their comedic bits along. It is far from a great film, but it is the second best in the run which probably should have stopped after the first.

Eyes on Christmas: Call Me Claus

The fifth movie in my Christmas marathon is probably the most traditional in terms of actually being a Christmas movie. I have watched a scarcely connected horror movie, a surreal Mexican Santa movie, a tale of drugs and commercialism, and a misbegotten story of a dysfunctional family that will bore you to tears. This time around I have a holiday movie that actually has a little bit of the Christmas spirit and is actually easy to watch, it is not exactly the best one around, but it was mildly enjoyable and actually felt like a Christmas movie I could see my family watching.

Eyes on Christmas: A Christmas Too Many

The first week of the Christmas marathon is chugging along, although it is starting to resemble my Halloween marathon. You see, I am not planning this out very well, scrounging for titles, looking for things I haven't seen before, in some cases anyway. Well, this latest viewing is a good example of my poor planning. This has to be one of the worst excuses for a Christmas movie ever, and considering some of the cast members, it certainly should have been at least modestly entertaining. It wasn't

Eyes on Christmas: Dead End

The early days of this year's Christmas marathon have certainly proven to be an odd bunch. You see, this is what happens when you don't give it any hard planning and play it by ear as you go along. Day one featured a film that equated holiday commercialism with drug addiction, day two was an uber bizarre holiday fable from Mexico, and day three has delivered a movie that for intents and purposes should not be considered a Christmas movie. However, I am employing a rather broad definition for a Christmas movie, therefore it counts.

Eyes on Christmas: Santa Claus (1959)

Well, the first day of the Christmas marathon was not all that Christmassy. Sure, the holiday was there, there were some decorations and the need for a present, but it was not your standard jolly holiday fare, it was one that used the season as something of a backdrop. Well, the second movie is much more in line with the season. It is also much more bizarre, strange, quirky, and just plain weird. It is a Mexican film called Santa Claus. I know, imaginative, right?

Eyes on Christmas: R-Xmas

It is hard to believe it is December already. In any case, I decided to do a marathon in conjunction with the oncoming holiday, much like I did with Halloween in October. I have a nice lineup of Christmas movies lined up, although I will say that some of them are not directly Christmas movies, some of them are just set around the holiday through chance or just a backdrop. For example, the first movie I have chosen is not really a Christmas, although it could be seen as a commentary on consumerism.