2022 Holiday Movie Marathon Part III: Holiday Horror

You won't find any romance in this part of the marathon, but all three films I watched had a lot of cheese.

Black Christmas (1974) 🎄🎄🎄
This could have easily been edited down to a 43-minute TV movie and really didn’t have an holiday theme, it was just set at Christmas time. The original Black Christmas was an otherwise enjoyable 70s slasher: Think Halloween + Scream. A sorority house is being terrorized by serial killer, but it takes everyone so long to figure out what’s happening that many of the house’s occupants are killed. There’s an undertone of a feminist theme: How women often go unbelieved because they are accused of easily taking to hysterics and then there’s the big decision by one of the housemates to have an abortion despite the father’s wishes to keep the baby.
The cast was full of familiar-to-me faces such as Andrea Martin who I recognized from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Olivia Hussey from the old Romeo & Juliet movie and John Saxon who I know from Enter the Dragon, but he’s been in so many other movies/TV shows, I’m sure I’ve seen him elsewhere. I found myself down an Internet rabbit hole reading about this movie and found this interesting article about the Call is Coming from Inside the House trope.
Upon further thought and reading, I was fascinated by the 70s-era telephone wiretapping and tracing technology that was featured in the movie. I didn’t really appreciate the quality of this film while I was watching it because I was watching it with a holiday theme in mind. But this film has a lot of the elements that make a great horror movie in my opinion. This might make it onto a future horror movie compilation list.

Production: Standard, 70s slasher: Authentic location and styling. Cheap-looking camerawork. Cheesy acting.
Tropes: Call is Coming from Inside the House • Stalk & Slash
Diversity: If you’re talking about featuring men and women equally in the cast, yes, but no POC.
Production Co: August Films
How’d you watch it: Kanopy

Black Christmas (2006) 🎄
What is similar to the 1974 version is that the story is set in a sorority house during Christmastime. Another similarity is the subplot of an issue of the day: In 2006 one of the sorors discovers that her boyfriend is posting sex videos on the internet. While in 1974, one of the sorors was fighting with her boyfriend about the decision to abort an unwanted pregnancy. The drunk soror character in both films gets murdered using a glass unicorn. Oh! Andrea Martin, who plays one of the sorority sisters in 1974, returns in the 2006 film as the house mom.
Notably different is the inclusion of the story of the killer, Billy, who used to live in the house. Whereas in the 1974 version, the identity of the killer was unknown to the audience. There are flashbacks that reveal Billy’s awful childhood, which include Billy + his mom = incest child, Agnes, storyline (Barf🤮). Depravity: Cannibalism. Incest. An obsession with eyeballs. Beyond that, the 2006 version was full of so many dumb decisions, wrong turns, and nonsensical actions, even more than your typical horror movie.
One positive thing I can say about this movie, is that it looked good, but they lost all cool points because of a story that’s goes too far.

Production: Looked well-funded.
Tropes: Call is Coming from Inside the House • Stalk & Slash • Escaped Mental Patient/Convict
Diversity: Still no.
Production Co: Dimension Films
How’d you watch it: Kanopy

Jack Frost (1997) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A serial killer is being transported to his execution when his transport collides with a tanker full of an experimental acid. His body dissolves and he is reborn as snow, and using the form of a snowman, he goes back to terrorize the small town and sheriff who originally captured him.
This is the perfect B-horror movie and it just so happens to be set around Christmastime. This has been one of my favorite movies for years. I own the VHS which has a fantastic holographic cover. I know you’re just green with envy now.
Fun fact: The town square was filmed on location in Fawnskin, CA, a two-hour drive from Los Angeles.

Production: The perfect blend of authentic and cheesy. There was so little real snow and the fake snow looked funny. Special effects?! Ha!
Tropes: Supernatural Stalk & Slash • Small Town Sheriff- often seen as not being able to handle higher-level crimes
Diversity: Nope.
Production Co: Frost Bite Films Ltd.
How’d you watch it: Amazon Prime

And now its time to settle down for a long winter's nap. The End.