Friday, December 16, 2016

LOOKING FOR A GOOD CHRISTMAS HORROR FILM? THERE AREN'T MANY.

I’ve always loved movies.  There’s never been a time when I couldn’t lose myself in a film – vegging out in front of a movie screen or television, a soda in one hand and pizza/popcorn in the other.  When I was in high school, back in the 1980s in Madison, West Virginia, I used to run around with a group of guys who loved movies almost as much as me.  If we weren’t traveling to the theater, we were renting movies on VHS.  (Movies were a cheap and effective way to escape the monotony of our lives in the southern coal fields, for a little while at the very least.)  I can remember whole weekends devoted to movie marathons.

And our favorite movie genre at that time?  Naturally, horror films.

Well, it’s Christmas time and this time of year has its own specific brand of film.  And I’ll admit, there are some great Christmas movies.  And, I’ll also admit that I watch them all when they hit television.  However, for every film that’s even comparable to the classic It’s a Wonderful Life, you have a hundred that are more akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1996 bomb Jingle All the Way, co-starring Sinbad; or Michael Keaton’s 1988 movie Jack Frost.  Jack Frost is the creepiest story about family bonding ever made.  Why?  Well, because Keaton’s character dies, is resurrected as a snowman and only then does he finally put some effort into getting to know his son.  (You would think Jack Frost would have some kitsch value, based upon that description.  But, no, it doesn’t.)   

Now, there have been more than a few attempts to marry the horror genre and the Christmas holiday.  Sadly, more often than not, they don’t work.  The majority are tone deaf gore-fests without a story, plot or anything memorable to recommend.  (I know there are some out there who will argue the virtues of the 1980s slasher schlockfest known as Silent Night, Deadly Night.  So, let me make short shrift of this – there are none.  The movie is void of virtue.) 

There have only been a couple of movies that successfully mashed horror and Christmas together – like peanut butter and chocolate in a Reese’s cup.  The first that I can remember doing it was Gremlins, back in the 1980s.  No, this isn’t a great film.  But, it was fun and entertaining.  (And that’s all it needs to be.)  But, in Gremlins the fact that the story takes place at Christmas time is superfluous.  You could’ve set the film during almost any other time of year and had the events play out in pretty much the same way.  So, while it did successfully combine horror and Christmas, the end result wasn’t wholly organic.  That outcome isn’t peculiar to Gremlins though.  This is true of almost every other holiday horror film that has been released: the holiday setting isn’t a requirement for the film to work.       

The film that managed the mash-up best is one that came out recently.  What is it you ask?  Why, it’s Krampus, a 2015 movie starring Toni Collette, Adam Scott and David Koechner.  One reason it works so well is that the chief boogey-man in the film springs from Eastern European myth and, like Santa himself, the devilish Krampus is said to only make an appearance once a year – at Christmas time.  Where Sherlock has his Moriarty, Bond has his Blofeld, and Harry Potter has his Tom Riddle (a/k/a Voldemort) – Santa has his Krampus (or the anti-Claus, if you like). And, while Santa rewards the good boys and girls by showering them with gifts, Krampus deals with the bad boys and girls by beating them, kidnapping them and then (after salting lightly) eating them. 


In Krampus, the story focuses on a young boy who, along with the other members of his dysfunctional family, loses sight of what Christmas really means.  Not only has he lost his Christmas cheer, he has also lost faith in Santa.  Things get so bad that the characters turn on one another, allowing their tempers and long festering squabbles to tear apart the connective tissue that makes them a family.  Needless to say, all of this ill will ushers in the Krampus.  Once he makes his entrance, the Krampus and his crew set about punishing the family, one by one, for treating one another so horribly.  (Yes, there is a healthy dose of comedy thrown in so the medicine goes down easy.)    


In the end, Krampus says something about how we ought to treat one another, especially during the Christmas season when we should be making an extra effort to approach our fellow man with good will, compassion and cheer.  And it demonstrates the horrors we face when we don’t treat one another with such kindness and understanding.  That is why this film works so well as not just a horror film, but as a Christmas film.  You don’t get that when you watch something like Silent Night, Deadly Night or Black Christmas. Neither of those film has anything that links them to Christmas except in the most superficial ways.  And, although I have a fondness for the movie as a child of the '80s, I have to admit that not even Gremlins meets the same standards that Krampus does.   


So, if you’re brave enough, you might toss Krampus into your mix of holiday films.


I dare you.  



Wednesday, December 14, 2016

I'VE SIGNED WITH A PUBLISHER

Good news! After years of writing for myself, and the few friends and family members I've forced to read my babbling (I'm soooooo sorry Melinda, Sherry and Scotty), I recently signed with Tell-Tale Publishing and will have a new horror novel coming out titled Love, Death and Other Lies.  

There is no release date, yet. However, I do hope to see a cover coming soon. Once I have that, I'll post it here for everyone. And, don't worry, I'll be sure to post information on the release date once the good folks over at Tell-Tale have finished editing it.


In case you're interested in "Love, Death and Other Lies", here's a brief synopsis:


During an ill-fated girls’ night out, still reeling from the loss of her husband, Liv Bestte meets a mysterious, old woman who promises to return her husband to her – for a price. It isn’t until the reanimated corpse of her late husband has begun terrorizing the hills and hollows around Julian, West Virginia, tearing flesh from bone, that Liv learns the price is her soul.


Now Liv is racing against time to find a way to satisfy this debt without sacrificing herself. And she soon learns that the only way she might escape her grisly fate is by offering up her daughter, Tegan, in her place.


But is it already too late for Liv? Is Liv’s fate sealed by family history? When Liv is about to make an ill-fated decision, it is Liv’s younger sister, Abby, who stands in her way, despite the fact that Abby was the first victim of the resurrected thing that was once Conner Bestte - Liv's late husband.


IN THE MEANTIME . . .you might be interested in another West Virginia author who is also publishing through Tell-Tale: Amanda Summerbell. Her book, Family Sins, is up for sale at the Tell-Tale website as well as through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, etc., etc., etc.


Here's a link, in case you want to check her work out: http://www.wisewordspublishing.com/amanda-summerbell.html.