RAW REVIEW: KRAMPUS

I love Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat and in recent years I've become a teensy bit obsessed with the darker Christmas traditions of our European cousins. From Germany's spider in the tree, to the grotesque Yule Lads and their murderous  ogress mother Gryla of Icelandic yore, I love the mythology that has sprung up around the coldest, darkest time of the year in countries that specialise in cold and dark.

However, THE daddy of dark Christmas myths is undoubtedly Krampus, the Christmas devil. A terrible beast, Krampus is the shadowy cousin to St Nicholas in Alpine folklore. While St Nick delivers gifts to good children, Krampus is the furry, horned monster that visits naughty children, snatching them away.

This is definitely a stronger deterrent to misbehave than the chance of receiving a lump of coal on Christmas morning.

So, imagine my delight upon learning that Dougherty was returning to horror, this time taking on Nöel with a darkly humorous story about the anti-Claus.

It's surprising box office success certainly suggests that it'll provide comfort and joy to genre fans... but would it give me a Blue Christmas?

Read on...

KRAMPUS (2015)

Dir: Michael Dougherty

Starring: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Krista Stadler,  Conchata Ferrell, Maverick Flack, Lolo Owen, Queenie Samuel

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here but continue at your own risk.

Max (Anthony) is a boy that loves Christmas. However, his family have lost the festive spirit — from overworked dad Tom (Scott); to stressed-out mum Sarah (Collette) to sarcastic teen sister Beth (Owen); they all look at the holiday season as something of a chore. This certainly isn't helped by the fact that each Christmas sees them house Sarah's put-upon sister Linda (Tolman), her gun-nut husband Howard (Koechner) and their children: surly, gluttonous Howie Jr (Flack) and tough, spiteful tomboys Stevie (Owen) and Jordan (Samuel).

When they are joined by Sarah's crabby, hard-drinking Aunt Dorothy (Ferrell), this looks like it could be the most unpleasant Christmas yet. At least Max has kindly, caring Austrian grandmother Omi (Stadler) to share his love of Yuletide. However, even she can't prevent the latest catastrophe, when the two girls snatch his letter to Santa and read it aloud at the dinner table, revealing some deeply personal feelings about everybody else present. Finally he grabs the letter, runs upstairs and, in tears, rips it to shreds before scattering the pieces out of the window.

However, this awakens a darker Christmas spirit, and as a freak blizzard blows in, knocking out the town's power, the family find themselves trapped in the house. When Beth decides to make a trip through the snow to see her boyfriend, she is the first to see a shadowy, horned figure perched on the rooftops. 

Beth may be first... but she is not the last of the family to cross paths with the diabolical Krampus, his dark elf helpers or the twisted toys he brings in his sack.

Will the family survive until Christmas morning? And can they learn to appreciate the most wonderful time of the year if they do?

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): My favourite non-horror Christmas films are National Lampoons' Christmas Vacation and Gremlins — Krampus plays out like a wonderful mix of the two.

Picture the more unsavoury members of the Griswold clan besieged by scores of malevolent beasties. 

It has a sweet message at its core, but it also has a dark vein of cynicism running through it. It both pays homage to and ruthlessly skewers the schmaltzy tropes of the likes of Miracle on 34th Street or It's A Wonderful Life.

Perhaps the most important thing, is that Krampus is very funny. The trailers play up the horror elements, but really Krampus is a very dark comedy. The sharp writing allows us to laugh both with and at the characters (even if we might recognise some of the problematic traits in the characters in ourselves and our own families). 

I don't wish to spoil the twists and turns of Todd Casey, Zach Shields and Dougherty's plot, but it takes its time with the scares, layering on atmosphere and plenty of characteristion (more specifically driving home the reasons that each of Max's family deserve the nightmarish fate that Krampus and his malevolent minions have in store for them) before hammering home it's message with an excellent ending.

This characterisation is helped by the extremely strong cast assembled: Parks and Rec vet Scott can handle put-upon comic characters in his sleep, while the bright comedy talents of the always brilliant Koechner and Ferrell make their slightly broader characters the standouts when it comes to laughs.

Everybody knows what an incredible actress Oscar-nominee Collette is, while the talented and prolific Tolman lends excellent support.

The youngsters are all great, especially the charismatic Anthony and extremely polished Owen.

However, it is the most senior member of the cast who steals most of the scenes. Austrian industry veteran Stadler is fantastic, balancing on the fine line between warmly realistic and like something from an old country fairytale. She delivers most of her dialogue in German, but that never stands as a boundary to the emotional meaning behind her lines. She brings a fantastic amount of gravitas to the film and her delivery of exposition (especially during a beautiful animated sequence midway through the film) never becomes dull or trite.

This animated sequence is just one of the visual aspects of the film that look spectacular. Feeling like an Eastern European Tim Burton flick, it is incredibly atmospheric and really captures the mood of the film.

One of the strongest parts of Trick 'r Treat was the way the film dripped with Halloween atmosphere. Krampus reiterates that Dougherty knows how to find the right cinematographer for his visions, because Jules O'Loughlin makes sure the film looks splendid.

The rich greens, reds and sparkling golds that play such a big part of the season provide a strong and striking contrast to the bleached, washed out whites of the blizzard that engulfs Max's home. The power cut that hits the house means that scenes are often lit by firelight, further heightening the campfire horror story feel of the movie. This also provides plenty of deep dark shadows to ratchet up the creepiness... and provide plenty of cover for the Krampus and his vile servants. 

And THIS brings us to arguably the biggest strength of Krampus — the fantastic creature effects. With work from a team that includes the geniuses behind the various beasties of The Lord of the Rings, Weta Workshop, plus scores of visual effects supremos, the creatures of Krampus are wonderfully realised.

The Krampus itself remains largely in shadow, hidden but always unnerving. When it is finally revealed, the face is initially a little underwhelming... until you realise what exactly you're seeing. I urge you all to look a little closer and prepare to be creeped out. 

Yet while Krampus hangs back, making only fleeting but impactful appearances, his twisted toys and helpers are nowhere near so coy. From a savage teddy bear, to a terrifying 'angel' that is best suited to topping the Manson family's tree, via a hacking, slashing toy robot, these horrific envoys all get their chance to shine. I think the best of the bunch is the seriously sinister Jack-in-the-box, a delightfully creepy cross between a porcelain clown and Poltergeist II's tequila-worm demon with the split-mouthed maws of the Reapers from Guillermo del Toro's Blade II. This particular creation is the stuff of nightmares.

What makes these creatures all the more impressive is that they were realised using good, old-fashioned practical effects.

Yes, there's CG here and there to animate certain movements that may have been impossible or to add subtle embellishments such as snake-like tongues, but for the most part they were brought to life using costumes and animatronics, which gives them a realistic quality you might not expect from beasties of this type.

Okay, the Gremlin-like wholly CG gingerbread men are decidedly less convincing but no less entertaining, while the animated Krampus bounding from rooftop to rooftop is actually pretty darn good. At the other end of the spectrum we have the low-fi dark elves, sporting creepy blank wooden masks and portrayed by graceful physical actors. These hauntingly simple monsters really do make the most of their limited screentime and I'd love to see a film which focuses more on them.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): First I'll address an issue I imagine will be a big problem with lots of viewers — despite the message of the film's marketing, Krampus is not a horror film. Nobody is going to be scared by this film, it's remarkably tame. Instead it feels more like the comic creature features of the late Eighties, a Critters or Ghoulies. Krampus is most definitely Trick 'r Treat's more mainstream, family-friendly cousin. If you want frights, look elsewhere.

This seems to have caused some problems with critics, with many having a hard time with the movie tonally. I get this, it's a little too dark to count as just a comedy, but nowhere near creepy enough to entertain the horror crowds.

However, I didn't have this problem, instead looking at the film as a dark fantasy with some nice creatures and lots of laughs along the way. I can appreciate a film like this and, judging by Krampus' spectacular box-office figures, there are plenty more people out there who can too.

The only real problem I had with the film was its very odd pacing. It feels a lot like it may have been snipped and reshuffled in the editing room and as such the story moves along in a rather disjointed manner. The very long characterisation and expository section of the film runs for just a little bit too long, while the climax seems rushed.

Then, to top it off, we get not one, not two, but THREE successive endings piled one on top of the other. It feels a little like test audiences didn't appreciate Dougherty and co's original ending so a little extra footage was glued onto the end.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film but just wish that five minutes could have been excised from a borderline flabby middle section and injected into the climactic hasty action sequence to give us a few more thrills. As for the ending? I personally loved it.

THE VERDICT: It may have a few minor problems, but Dougherty's Krampus is great fun and adds a delightfully dark twist to all our festive favourite films. This is an unabashed creature feature and it serves up a super selection of macabre monsters with its turkey, mince pies, tinsel and eggnog. It's a movie destined to become a Christmas cult classic with genre crowds and I can guarantee that when it receives a home release it'll become an annual tradition here at the House. Highly, highly recommended.

Krampus is showing in UK cinemas now. Check out its Facebook page here for more information.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and Like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House @HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

RAW REVIEW: O'HELLIGE JUL! A.K.A. CHRISTMAS CRUELTY

To most people, Christmas is a time of sweeter than sweet goodwill. It's gaudy decorations, even gaudier jumpers, turkey, presents, mistletoe and the umpteenth viewing of It's A Wonderful Life or Elf.

However, to us horror fans, there's another tradition — the festive horror flick.

Silent Night, Deadly Night; Christmas Evil and Black Christmas — forget Miracle on 34th Street, these are the films we watch while munching mince pies.

This shows no sign of ending either, with the likes of Michael 'Trick 'r Treat' Dougherty's Krampus hitting cinemas this weekend (expect a review VERY soon).

What's more, our friends in Europe (home of all the greatest Christmas traditions) have recently got in on the act with the extremely fun Sint (from Holland) and Rare Exports (a Finnish production).

This week I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Per-Ingvar Tomren and Magne Steinvoll's O'Hellige Jul! (Christmas Cruelty). This Norwegian holiday horror had me intrigued early on when I saw that the DVD cover sported a warning due to extreme content.

'How bad can it be?' I asked myself as I tossed it in the DVD player.

The answer, dear readers, is VERY.

O'HELLIGE JUL! A.K.A. CHRISTMAS CRUELTY (2013)

Dir: Per-Ingvar Tomren and Magne Steinvoll

Starring: Eline Aasheim, Tormod Lien, Per-Ingvar Tomren, Magne Steinvoll, Raymond Talberg, Tone Søyset Døving, Nina-Shanett Arntsen, Olav Kåre Torjuul, Thomas Utgård, Eiric Mubarak Lien, Frans Hulsker

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here, but read on at your own risk.

The film opens in the midst of a brutal attack. A terrified family, battered, bloody and bound are powerless to resist as a driven, determined and remorseless sadistic psychopath (Lien) has his way with them — even their infant child.
Yes, Christmas Cruelty is prepared to go there… and then some.
Afterwards we are introduced to our 'heroes' — a group of small-town kids who are just looking to have a good time. Per-Ingvar (Tomren), who is disabled and spends most of his time confined to a wheelchair; permanently angry and misogynistic Magne (Steinvoll) who spends most of his time insulting the others (especially the long-suffering Per-Ingvar) and Eline (Aasheim), their feisty but caring friend who seems destined to attract the unwanted attention of losers.
We see the three entertaining themselves by discussing the festive customs of the Scandinavian people, creating and donning plaster masks to terrify the townsfolk and creating their own insanely potent mulled wine before wrecking their shabbily decorated Christmas tree. 
However, unbeknownst to them they have become the latest target of the psychopath we saw earlier. A seemingly caring family man and respected Government official, his work at the NAV (an agency that handles benefits for the unemployed, the homeless and the disabled) has brought Eline and her friends to his attention. And now he's plotting a visit from Santa that will deck their halls with blood…

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): The clue is definitely in the name, but if you're after merry and bright, Christmas Cruelty is NOT the film for you. This is a lean, mean, sick and sadistic Grindhouse flick for those who want their horror to horrify.

You want extreme? This is extreme. 

The plot, written by a bumper team of Janner Iren Holseter, Anita Nyhagen, star Aasheim and stars/directors Steinvoll and Tomren, is quite simple, telling a relatively linear story that follows the killer's potential victims and the seriously disturbed serial rapist and murderer as he plans his next attack. What this means is that we get plenty of characterisation after that explosive opening, before a seriously disturbing final act. However, strange as it may sound to say about a film that features sustained torture and a series of gruelling sexual assaults, there's actually quite a lot of black humour in the script.

The permanently furious and abrasive Magner's outbursts lead to some of the most creative obscenities and insults that I've seen in some time, while the interaction between him and co-stars Tomren and Aasheim manages to be both witty and natural. However, there are bleakly humorous moments with Lien's psycho Santa, including some jarringly banal conversations with coworkers and family and an interaction with a salesman at a hardware store that is so awful it really shouldn't be as funny as it is.

However, as funny as these moments are, make no bones about it — this is a vile, hard-hitting horror flick. It is unflinchingly sadistic and will leave you feeling more than a little dirty. When Christmas Cruelty gets bloody, it gets bloody. The film might have a micro-budget (as you can probably tell by the number of different hats that each member of cast and crew needed to don) but the gruesome special effects — many of which were overseen by Tomren — never disappoint, with buckets of blood and gore on display. I don't want to spoil the horrors in store for potential viewers, but suffice to say we get plenty stabbings, slashings and dismemberments before the end credits roll.
Which leads me to another area in which O'Hellige Jul! excels — for as those credits roll it's accompanied by just one of a number of great tracks on the film's awesome soundtrack. What's especially impressive is that actor/director Steinvoll actually performed and recorded most of the extremely rocking, bluesy tracks himself. He's a talented guy and his cool-as-hell music mixed with a selection of traditional Christmas tunes make this one of the finest soundtracks I've ever heard. Think a grittily festive Tarantino flick and you're nearly there.
However, just praising Steinvoll, Tomren and Aasheim for their sterling work behind the camera would be doing their excellent work in front of it a grave disservice. Each of the three is very good indeed, bringing their characters to life in a way that makes them likeable and believable. They aren't silly caricatures, they feel like real people, complete with real problems and very real flaws. I especially liked the work of the charming Aasheim, she's extremely sympathetic and a character that you can't help but root for. She's a talented young actress and I hope to see more of her.
Both Steinvoll and Tomren show some great comic timing, Steinvoll is given a pretty free rein to go as gonzo as he wants, while the surprisingly sweet Tomren does a wonderful job with his character, but undoubtedly the most impressive cast member is the terrifying Lien. Whether he plays the scene with an icy and detached nonchalance or a deranged and devilish glee, he is utterly mesmerising. I understand that Lien is actually best known for his work as the titular Jakob in 2007's Jakob – mannen som elsker Jack Nicholson and Jakob og campinglivets farer. These are family friendly films in Norway, so this is a massive departure. However, if Lien was uncomfortable working in a different niche, this is not evident in his commanding performance. Not many men could manage to interject elements of black humour into an otherwise utterly spine-chilling role this seamlessly, but Lien does it with aplomb. He is absolutely phenomenal.
The writing of his role is handled cleverly, the subtle message behind his profession is an excellent piece of social commentary — this is a social worker employed in a benefits department who can be generous benefactor or a cruel, destructive ruiner of lives. What's more, he is able to maintain his aura of mystery, for while we see what he does and are given hints as to his darker origin, his cruel and vile acts are never explained. 
You want a motive? Find your own.
With a plot that gives us plenty of extreme and shocking acts of depravity, some surprisingly well-crafted laughs and a talented cast, it would be easy to overlook the technical prowess on display in making the film. The fact is that Steinvoll and Tomren are excellent directors, ensuring that the framing of each shot heightens the mood of each scene, be it frivolous or frightful. The grainy looking film stock just adds to the ambience of the film, giving it a gritty Grindhouse feel that works in the film's favour. It's actually a pretty great looking film considering its low budget, something that the co-directors of photography Raymond Volle and Karoline Emilie Folland Sæter should feel extremely proud of. 
Finally, the cast and crew are clearly genre fans and pack the film with references and shoutouts to classic horror movies, so do keep your eyes peeled throughout.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): First off, I'll mention this because I know plenty of readers have issues with subtitles, the dialogue in O'Hellige Jul! is all delivered in Norwegian. If you don't speak the language, you're going to need to use the subtitles. If that's a deal breaker, fair enough, just realise that you're missing out on a hell of a lot of fantastic genre flicks if you aren't prepared to read as well as watch.
Not sure you can handle an extreme horror film? Well keep right on moving, Christmas Cruelty is not a film for the weak of stomach. It's spiteful, degrading, violent, unflinching and unrelenting. This diabolical Santa is not Richard Attenborough's Chris Chringle — think a Scandinavian counterpart to Wolf Creek's Mick Taylor in a bright red suit. It's intense and it will not be for everybody — consider yourself warned.
Bizarrely, another area in which I can see it drawing criticism is its rather erratic pacing.
After that barnstorming opening scene, the film then takes a VERY long break from horror. In fact, if it weren't for the horrors witnessed in the opening 10 minutes, you could well believe that you were watching a slacker comedy. This goes on for a good three-quarters of an hour, before then snapping back into horror with a truly shocking scene of terrible violence.
I quite enjoyed this long mid-movie lull, it gave us a reason to care about the characters before Lien's Serial Santa goes to work on them, plus (and this is quite a rarity) the humour is actually funny. What's more, this more genteel section lulls the audience into a false sense of security, which then actually heightens the horror of the later moments, the visceral violence amplified by the quieter moments that precede it — much like Takashi Miike's Audition. This is something I appreciated, but less patient viewers may find this section drags.
Also, while the film is a tremendous achievement considering it's modest budget, it is worth reiterating that Christmas Cruelty is decidedly rougher around the edges than the polished likes of Ouija, The Gallows or any other number of shiny, teen-friendly Hollywood offerings.
Like I said, I thought this added to the gritty atmosphere, so I don't feel any harm is done, but other opinions may differ.

THE VERDICT: With a level of festive sadism unseen until now, Christmas Cruelty is no John Lewis ad! Its sheer level of brutality and depravity will not be for everyone, but if you've got the stomach for it, and you want your horror gruelling, this twisted Christmas flick delivers plenty to float your boat. 
It's hard-hitting, superbly shot, brilliantly acted and boasts a marvellous soundtrack and some surprisingly funny laughs. O'Hellige Jul! is a nasty little Christmas gift to genre fans that I thoroughly recommend you unwrap as soon as you can.
For more info on how you can do that, check out the film's official Facebook page. Give it a like too, I'm sure the very grateful Tomren, Steinvoll, Aasheim and company would appreciate the recognition for their dark labour of love.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and Like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House @HickeysHorrors

SINISTER SIX: GREAT CHRISTMAS HORRORS

It's a mere fortnight until the most wonderful time of the year, so how about an early present?

Horror films (especially, but not limited to slashers) are often seasonally based, using the time of year as their hook or gimmick. This was obviously made popular with Halloween, but it includes the festive season too. With that in mind, here are six great horror films set at Christmas.

Before we start, I wanted to include Gremlins on this list more than life itself — unfortunately, in the end I felt it should be disqualified as a family-comedy-fantasy film, not truly of our beloved genre. It hurt, but I had to do it. Also I've yet to see the quite fantastic looking Krampus: The Christmas Devil, so I can’t say whether it makes the cut. Maybe next year?

Now let's get to the list!

1: SANTA'S SLAY (2005) 

Okay, first off, this film isn't really any good. It's stupid, it isn't going to frighten anybody and it knows it. What it is however, is hilarious. This is a film that has an opening scene in which former WCW/WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg plays a demonic Santa who proceeds to slaughter an entire family of irritating toffs (played by an eclectic mix of celebs, including James Caan. Yes, THAT Janes Caan). This scene alone warrants inclusion on the list and that's before we even get to the strip club massacre and the game of curling with every human life at stake. 
The film is great fun, helped all the more by the fact that Goldberg plays the role pretty much straight as an arrow, letting the ridiculousness of what is happening onscreen speak for itself. Plus Bill in his Santa’s Slay garb has become the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page profile pic for this month. What a cracker!

2: SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) 

More famous for the tidal wave of controversy it caused upon its release than anything else, Silent Night, Deadly Night sparked serious moral outrage.

The story of Billy, a boy who witnessed his mother brutally molested and murdered by a criminal in a Santa costume, it effectively details his holiday sparked mental breakdown as he is forced to don the same outfit at work. Soon Billy is judging whether people have been naughty or good and offing those who haven’t in gory ways (including one Linnea Quigley, scream queen extraordinaire). As Billy hacks away at his victims with an axe, screaming ‘PUNISH!’ a cult classic is born. 
SN,DN provoked the ire of family and parent groups by completely running with the idea of a murderous Father Christmas — especially in its ad campaign. In fact the backlash was so strong that the film was eventually withdrawn from cinemas — but not before raking in nearly $2,500,000 at the box office. 
The film also spawned one of the most hilarious, so-bad-it’s-good sequels in history — Silent Night, Deadly Night: Part 2 may not have made this list but it was DAMN close. ‘GARBAGE DAY!’

3: CHRISTMAS EVIL A.K.A. YOU BETTER WATCH OUT A.K.A. TERROR IN TOYLAND (1980)

Hilariously, despite the controversy surrounding Silent Night, Deadly Night, it wasn't even the first slasher film to feature a Santa costume clad maniac! 
Beat to the punch by a marvellous segment in Tales From The Crypt in 1972, in which Joan Collins is stalked by an escaped maniac in a Father Christmas outfit, it was also preceded by a feature length psycho santa flick in 1980’s Christmas Evil.
Once again this features a man, Harry, who has been disturbed by a childhood trauma involving his mother and somebody dressed as Santa. Now as he grows up he is pushed to the brink by his odious colleagues at the toy factory in which he works, plus the generally shitty people in his life. He takes to making himself the True Santa, not like the impostor he saw as a boy, wearing the costume all the time while he is at home and drawing up a list of people who have been good and those who have been bad. Finally he snaps, exacting bloody retribution on everybody who has kept him downtrodden for so long.
Christmas Evil is a great film, with a top notch performance by Brandon Maggart as Harry. Certainly not as fun as SN,DN, it’s still entertaining and very bleak. Well worth your time.

4: SINT (2010)

So much of our classic Christmas mythology comes from Europe, with the name Santa Claus itself a bastardisation of Sinterklaas AKA Sint Niklas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas. With that in mind, this great horror film from the Netherlands draws on its nation’s folklore to give us a thoroughly entertaining action horror film. In Holland gifts are given on the eve of St Nicholas’s Day (the eve falling on the 5th of December) and it is this night that the events of Sint (known as Saint Nick in the US) take place on. 
Reimagining Sint Niklas as a rogue bishop who led a gang of thieves, the prologue of the film shows us that the people of Amsterdam finally fought back against his tyrannical reign and killed the gang through burning. Now, whenever the anniversary of his death falls on the night of a full moon, Niklas and his burnt former henchmen, the Zwarte Pieten (or Black Petes, another somewhat controversial festive tradition in Holland) return and slaughter anybody that crosses their path.
This film really rocks with great special effects and Sint Niklas himself an amazing movie monster, using a bladed crozier as a weapon and galloping his spectral horse across the town’s pretty rooftops. I considered adding another European effort, Finland’s Rare Exports: A Christmas Story to this list, which is a great film in its own right, but Sint’s likeable cast, a great conspiracy theory sub-plot and brilliant direction by Dick Maas give it the edge. Check it out!

5: JACK FROST (1997)

Okay, this film is definitely a guilty pleasure. Featuring a serial killer called Jack Frost who, after he is finally apprehended by the sheriff of a small town called Snowmonton, is being sent to his place of execution. However, the truck collides with a lorry transporting toxic waste, causing Frost to be dissolved and his cells to become combined with those of the snow on the ground.
Seriously.
So we get a film with a killer snowman.
Seriously.
Low-budget and played totally for laughs with a slew of  gory, gruesome, winter-themed deaths and bad-taste one-liners, Jack Frost is the epitome of a cult classic, beer and pizza movie. How can a film in which a maniacal snowman rapes American Pie’s Shannon Elizabeth to death with his carrot, then quips ‘Maybe I should send flowers?’ be anything OTHER than gold? Plus look out for The Idiot, one of the finest running jokes I have ever seen in a film. It has a sequel in which Jack heads to a tropical island to exact further revenge. It isn’t as it good as it sound like it is, but this first one is a real gem. Give it a whirl!

6: BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

The grand-daddy of them all. Bob Clark‘s prototypical slasher film isn’t just my favourite Christmas horror film, it’s up there in my top 10 horror films of all time.
Predating Halloween by four years, Clark’s film establishes many of the tropes of the slasher genre (young female victims, a single location, limited to a time of year, point of view shots and red herrings to name but a few).
With a top cast, particularly Margot Kidder as the acidic hard-drinking Barb, Black Christmas is a masterclass in building tension as a maniac — with a subtly implied backstory told over a series of legitimately spine-chilling telephone calls — slowly picks off a house full of sorority sisters one cold and snowy evening. It’s simple but told perfectly, genuinely unnerving at times with a gut-punch of an ending that will haunt you for days.
The film was followed by an inferior remake in 2006. The film did away with most of the original’s subtlety, expressly spelling out the backstory of Billy (and bizarrely making him bright yellow). The film is a fun way to while away a miserable winter evening and boasts some good gory moments and a decent cast of pretty young things, but it doesn't get near the quality of Clark’s film.
If you haven’t seen the sterling original, WATCH IT NOW. If you have, WATCH IT AGAIN! It deserves revisiting every single year.

Ho ho ho.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.