Christmas Evil, released in 1980 - also known under the title "You Better Watch Out" - tells the story of Harry Stadling, whose childhood discovery of the fact that legend of Santa isn't real - in the worst way - has disastrous consequences later in life. As a young child, Harry crept downstairs when he should have been in bed and saw Saint Nick - aka Dad - in flagrante with Mummy in the midst of the Christmas presents. As an adult, Harry runs the Jolly Dream Toy Store, and suffers the commercialistic attitude to the Yuletide season displayed by his family and co-workers, until he can't take it anymore and snaps.

One Christmas Harry puts on the Santa regalia and sets out into the night to divide the naughty from the nice... which is a great idea, a cool take on the superhero origin story and should be the jump-off point into a great collection of horrifying, comical deaths. But, unfortunately, the movie you actually get starts and ends as a good idea. It's hard to tell if the sudden jumps between comedy and horror are deliberate, and it gives the movie an uneven, sketchy tone that prevents you from getting immersed. Suspension of disbelief can survive a mediocre script and shoddy production values; but an uncertain, shaky directorial hand?

The rest of the movie consists of Harry handing out delights to the nice, to kiddies and the innocent, and slaughtering the guilty, until the townsfolk catch on. When they do, there's a show of the film's kinship with its early horror roots: Harry is chased down the streets by a mob with flaming torches, inappropriate to the film's setting but utterly at home in the scene from James Whales' 1931 Frankenstein, which the scene is a homage to. The film is further marred by a jarringly incongruous happy ending. It's worth checking out for major genre fans only.

With the recent release of Visceral Game's Dead Space 3, many fans felt disappointed with the change in direction that the developers took. What was once a franchise that focused heavily on the horror aspect of the game, has transformed into a franchise that has shifted into focusing more on the action aspect.

The decision to shift towards this style of game was made mainly due to the financial aspect of business. The game developers decided that if they made Dead Space 3 have a lot of action in the game, even at the expense of the horror elements, the game would sell more copies and overall be more successful than if they had just focused entirely on the survival horror aspect. What does this mean for the survival horror games as a whole is up for debate.

Many people need to realize that the survival horror genre has a relatively small fan base when compared to other genres of gaming. Developers have realized that if they want to make a game with survival horror elements they can capture the attention of this small niche of gamers. At the same time, developers can make a game with horror elements, but also have the game contain and even focus more on another more popular genre.

MARCH 11, 2013

GENRE: MAD SCIENTIST, THRILLER
SOURCE: STREAMING (NETFLIX INSTANT)

OK I'm two days past the "weekly" deadline but as promised, Jean Rollin's Night Of The Hunted (French: La nuit des traquées)! It's one of the more commonly requested titles whenever Rollin comes up, so I hope you can all sleep easier now. And it's more proof that some of you guys are trying to fuck with me, because like Gozu and Battle Royale (two other highly requested movies) it's not really horror, at least compared to his other movies. Compared to The Remains of the Day, sure, it's horror, but most of the body count is courtesy of random shootouts, and is closer to Memento than anything else.

But don't let that scare you off - it's a sequentially told story! I suspect Jean Rollin attempting a reverse chronology would be the most batshit confusing movie ever made, since his storylines can be a bit puzzling even in order. No, it's just that our heroine Elizabeth (Brigitte Lahaie) seemingly suffers from a Shelby-esque memory loss where she forgets what she's doing while doing it, can't remember someone moments after meeting them, etc. But she's also got regular amnesia, which makes things even worse (but doesn't stop her from bedding down with the guy who found her wandering in the road) until she is discovered by the people who she was escaping from - a mysterious team who oversees her and several other patients with similar memory issues. They're all in a dark tower in the middle of the city, and the movie is basically about her trying to figure out who they are and why she's there.

Spoiler: she never does. In a puzzling move, the male lead disappears for a good chunk of the movie, only to come back later when she finds a phone and calls him from the tower. And he's the one that the bad guy scientists explain things to, so he's sort of the audience surrogate while also being a random guy we don't care much about. If we stayed with him after she was recaptured and he investigated, maybe it would work, but since we're with her for almost the entire movie, on a narrative level it doesn't quite satisfy that she's pretty much in the same boat (actually a bit worse) at the end as she was when we met her.

However, if you look at it as a tragic love story, it's quite successful in an odd way - the last shot of the two of them actually made me sad, and at the same time I was kind of charmed by oddly sweet it was. I won't spoil the particulars, however - words would fail to describe it accurately anyway. Still, I wish the guy had a little more presence throughout the movie; when she returns to the tower she is reunited with another amnesiac who was apparently very important to her, but after a while that character is written out and replaced with another woman - it's just hard to really get a grasp on anything or get a sense of what's going on, which is fine for a mystery as it does sort of put you in the mindset of someone with memory loss (which Memento did beautifully), as you're constantly seeing new people while others disappear, but there's nothing to "solve" here. We're just kind of hanging out until the sinister doctors decide to tell someone what's going on.

And by hanging out I mean: watching sex scenes. There's a hint of lesbian attraction, but nothing explicit this time - all of the lovemaking we see is "straight", and thus we get a shot or two of a guy's junk to (sort of) balance out all the naked female bodies we see during the film (at least four, and more than once for most). At times it seems like Rollin is suggesting that sex can help slow down the memory loss in some way, but if so that never really comes to fruition (it'd be a hell of an idea, though). And like the end, some of these scenes are kind of sad; Elizabeth is tormented with the notion that she won't be able to remember something that is currently giving her so much joy.

So how is it horror? Well there's certainly a sense of unease and some dread throughout the film, and the really far gone patients act like zombies, but once a few of the pieces start falling into place it's pretty obvious that they're not having their memories wiped to create an army of drone killers or anything genre-specific like that, so it loses a lot of that feel. However there's an extended sequence that seems lifted from a different movie entirely - one of the guards decides to have his way with one of the women (she barely fights him off, and after a minute is seemingly OK with it), when suddenly a guy who looks like Roman Polanski walks over and begins beating him with a hammer, covering the poor girl with his red paint blood.

But that's pretty much it for the full blown genre stuff - I think it's better to approach the movie as a sad drama with some minor thriller elements, and let the occasional bits of horror act as a bonus - if you want a regular horror movie from Rollin, Living Dead Girl or the lesser Zombie Lake would be your best bet. I'd also recommend watching it if you need a Cronenberg fix, since he doesn't do horror anymore. It's not "body horror", but I got a Scanners/Rabid/The Brood vibe at times all the same, which reminded me that I still need to see Shivers! But until then - what Rollin should I watch next, out of the ones that are on Instant (which is most of them, thankfully)? Less than 3 weeks left!

What say you?

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Although it made its motion picture debut in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is still playing in theaters across the country today. It's primarily offered during the weekends as a midnight movie, with a cult following of supporters who dress up as the characters and act out the scenes along with the film.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was made in 1975 as a combination of a comedy, horror movie, and rock opera. Described as a parody of B-movie science fiction and horror movies, the story was adapted as a screenplay from a musical stage production titled The Rocky Horror Show.

There are four main characters that many moviegoers portray in costume. These costumes are perfect for attending a show and playing along with the film, or for any Halloween or costume party!

Columbia Costume - Dress up as the red-headed groupie tap dancer Columbia. The Columbia costume features a sequin tube top with a gold sequin tail coat. It also includes black and white striped shorts with a red sequin bow tie and black top hat. Add your own red wig and black heels, and you're all set.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released in 1975. The movie is based on a United Kingdom play from 1974. The movie has a cult following and still airs in theaters in certain cities. The movie is known for doing something new and the songs. The songs include "Time Warp", "Sweet Transvestite", and others. This movie has a bunch of transvestite characters which makes people assume that it's not for heterosexuals. That is obviously not true. If it was true, there wouldn't be such a huge cult following and the movie wouldn't still be airing in theaters after 35 years.

The plot is about a couple that wants to visit a doctor that they know. Their car breaks down so they walk to the nearest house which just so happens to be the transvestite Dr. Frank-N-Furter's house. They are first introduced to the butler Riff-Raff who guides them into a room in the house. The room is full of people doing a performance of the well known song "Time Warp". After that song, Dr. Frank-N-Furter appears and sings "Sweet Transvestite". The end of the movie parodies science fiction movies. This movie started the beginning of Tim Curry's acting career.

As you can tell by the description, the movie is not meant for kids. This is a movie where you especially have to pay attention to the R rating. Kids may want to see it because it is a cult classic and they may have read great reviews about it, but they shouldn't watch it. This movie is good for older teens and above. Despite the three family friendly songs in the beginning, the rest has sexual undertones.