Shudder Saturday: Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

I have been a fan of writer-director Joe Begos for some time now, watching him improve with every film he's made over the past few years, and when I saw the trailer for Christmas Bloody Christmas I assumed that this would be the peak of his career. It is, after all, the tale of a homicidal, axe-wielding, robo-Santa. Considering how much I'd enjoyed VFW, this seemed like it could become a new festive favourite.

The star of the show is Riley Dandy, playing Tori, a record store owner who wants to spend Christmas Eve getting drunk and laid. Unfortunately, she seems to have swiped right on the wrong Tinder profile, as pointed out to her by her employee/friend, Robbie (Sam Delich). Robbie assures her that she can have a much better time in his company. Tori eventually agrees, which leads to the two of them drinking plenty of whisky, arguing over wildly divergent opinions on music and movies, and eventually heading back to Tori's place for an enjoyably hot 'n' heavy time. Meanwhile, an animatronic Santa figure has malfunctioned. After killing various people en route, it is determined to kill Tori, and anyone else who gets in his way.

Because I knew the main premise of the movie, I was being more patient than I otherwise may have been during the opening act. It's a bit of a slog though, with Begos seemingly more interested in filling the script with references than creative kills and bloodshed. The runtime is about 87 minutes, but it feels a bit longer than that, due to the time taken to get things properly started, as well as a finale that slightly outstays its welcome. Things do improve, thankfully, and there's a great 20-30 minutes in the second act of the film that makes it all worthwhile.

It's also worth mentioning that Begos once again shows how well he uses whatever budget is available to him. He has a lo-fi, grunge (although maybe best to say punk), aesthetic throughout, as usual, but that fits in with his sensibilities, making you feel as if you've just discovered this gem in the Horror section of a local VHS store. The colour scheme is the expected mix of green and red throughout, and Begos makes great use of festive lighting to frame and filter a lot of the action. Almost every set-piece is infused with the pulsing glow of lights, whether they're the ones decorating a house or the blue and red bulbs atop a police car.

Dandy and Delich are fun people to spend time with, and the former is set up from the very beginning as a potential final girl well worth rooting for, and Abraham Benrubi is effective as the killer Santa, his plodding and determined movements accompanied by the whirring and ker-chunk noises you'd expect to hear from such a figure. I looked up a dictionary of technical terms, ker-chunk is definitely the correct word there. There's a fleeting appearance from genre stalwart Graham Skipper, and local law enforcement is played by Jeff Daniel Philips and Jeremy Gardner, both as equally familiar and welcome to horror fans as Skipper. Everyone does a good job in the acting department, especially when considering how enjoyably daft the material is.

Begos does give viewers what they will expect from this, it’s just a shame that he didn’t figure out a way to streamline the script a bit more. But when it is fully into the whole Santerminator mode in the third act, including some fantastic vehicular stuntwork, it’s impossible not to enjoy what’s happening onscreen and admire Begos for achieving what he set out to do. And the visuals are accompanied by yet another excellent synth score from Steve Moore (a long-time collaborator with Begos, as well as the man who gave us that superb score for The Guest).

Maybe not the instant holiday horror classic I was hoping for, Christmas Bloody Christmas is still a bloody good time, it’s a nice mix of fun and mean-spiritedness that I can see myself returning to next year, even if only to spot more of the many little references and homages dotted throughout almost every scene.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Alone With You (2021)

In a scenario that many people may struggle to identify with, Alone With You shows a central character who is stuck in an apartment on her own, somehow losing track of time, worrying about what she might be missing from the outside world, and generally losing track of a marble or two. If she had taken some time to make at least one loaf of banana bread then this could have very easily been called Covid Lockdown: The Movie.

Emily Bennett is Charlene, a young woman who is expecting her girlfriend to return home at any moment. Preparing everything for a potential nice evening in together, it soon becomes apparent that something isn't quite right. Nobody is coming to the door, and it's almost as if the world outside has disappeared from view. And the other people that Charlene can get in contact with, including her mother (Barbara Crampton), aren't being very helpful.

As well as starring in the main role, Bennett also co-directed and co-wrote this feature, alongside Justin Brooks. Making behind-the-camera feature debuts, after a number of shorts, they make great use of their circumstances and resources to deliver something that feels both timely and timeless. There are a number of classic touchstones here, with a couple of Polanski movies being the main titles I kept thinking of, but it is also recent events that stay front and centre.

Responsible for carrying 99% of the runtime, Bennett does a very good job in her lead role. She resists the urge to rely on eye-rolling and twitches, convincingly showing someone who is a bit nervous, becomes increasingly uneasy, and eventually looks set to drown in a rising tide of panic. Although there are also small roles for Dora Madison and Meghan Lane, it's Crampton who I feel is the other cast member worth highlighting, playing a mother who may just be a bit tired and sad, or who may be helping to insidiously wear down and stress out someone who is clearly not in the best place.

Starting from a place of relative normality, things quickly spiral into more surreal and strange moments, disconcerting for both the main character and those viewing her plight. Some may not appreciate the lack of logic, the lack of any clear storyline or motivation, but there's enough there to pick up on as things move towards a finale that is both a bit disappointing and yet also seemingly inevitable.

I can see why this might not be the first viewing choice for many, especially when you think of how many of us are still desperately trying to make up for what may be viewed in history as "the lost lockdown year/s", but it's an interesting psychological thriller that benefits from the fact that the film-makers really nail down that mind-clouding feeling of "house arrest" that most of us are now all-too-familiar with.

7/10

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VFW (2019)

Joe Begos has, whether you like them or not, built up an interesting body of work, working within genre boundaries to create specific examples of movies that clearly influenced him. Almost Human got him a good amount of love from the start, The Mind's Eye is referred to by many people as a Scanners sequel that you never knew you wanted, but definitely deserved, and Bliss was a wild ride into the realm of vampirism. Now we have VFW, a siege movie that uses some great genre names in a scenario that is pure exploitation gold.

Society seems quite crumbly, to say the least. Lawlessness abounds, and the streets seem more perilous than ever, thanks to the overwhelming number of criminals and addicts taking over certain areas. The latest drug that the addicts want to get their hands on is known as Hype. None of this ever really affects the veterans who run and populate a small bar in the middle of a potentially dangerous area. Stephen Lang is the bar owner, and it is his birthday, and his main friends and patrons are played by George Wendt, David Patrick Kelly, William Sadler, Martin Kove, and Fred Williamson. They're about to be affected by the situation though, caught up in the middle of things when a young woman runs into the bar with a bag full of stolen hype and some violent baddies right at her back. A merciless dealer will do whatever it takes to get his product back, and he has a multitude of addicts ready to do his bidding in exchange for some free samples.

VFW is what I would best describe as a bruising beast of a film. Begos, working from a script by Max Brallier and Matthew McArdle (their first feature), is clearly in his element, the simple premise allowing him to showcase the cast and move things along at a cracking clip to throw viewers into some scenes of gleefully-depicted violence and bloody carnage. The first act sets everything up with wit and brevity: the camaraderie between the veteran soldiers (VFW stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars, in case you didn't know . . . I didn't), their welcoming of a young returning soldier (Sean, played by Tom Williamson), and the ruthlessness of the big baddie (Boz, played by Travis Hammer). And then comes the fighting. And the death. And the many pointy and heavy things being used to squish body parts. And that just keeps on going all the way up to the last scenes.

There are some times when the low lighting and quick editing of the violence makes this a bit harder to keep track of than I would have liked, but it also helps to keep everything feeling pleasingly down 'n' dirty. I really liked Bliss, but it's hard to see beyond the sheer visceral thrills and fun of this to rank it as anything other than the best thing that Begos has done to date.

A lot of that comes from the cast, no doubt. Every single one of the older tough guys gives the kind of performance that has you immediately wanting to revisit many past gems in their filmographies. Lang seems to have cornered the market over the past decade or so on elderly badasses (despite certain '80s action stars trying to show they can still deliver the kind of thrills they gave us decades ago), Williamson has never lost his cool, Sadler gets most of the best lines, and Kove, Wendt, and Kelly are great fun. Thankfully, the younger cast members aren't left hanging. Sierra McCormick is likably plucky as "Lizard", the woman who starts the ball rolling on the small war, and Williamson earns respect from his elders as he holds his own in the heat of the battle. On the other side, Hammer is a very entertaining villain, someone who won't be negotiated with and has complete confidence in the odds of his victory, and Dora Madison (who featured in Bliss, which also had Wendt in there, as well as Graham Skipper and Josh Ethier, who both have roles in this) is enjoyably badass in the role of Gutter, a character who could have easily crossed over into this movie world from the cinematic madness of Neil Marshall's Doomsday.

If you're a genre fan who also loves a good siege movie (and we can all name many classics off the top of our heads) then I really can't imagine you disliking VFW. The premise, the pacing, the cast, the improvised weaponry, the sheer level of badassery barely contained in each scene. (Rio) Bravo to Begos, and I look forward to whatever he gives us next.

9/10

Order it here.

Shudder Saturday: Bliss (2019)

Dora Madison plays Dezzy, a young artist who isn't really in the best place. She isn't making the progress she hoped to be making on her latest piece, she seems to be saddled with a guy (Clive, played by Jeremy Gardner) who is happy to freeload his way along and coast through life, and she's dropped by her agent. But thank goodness for drugs. Dezzy heads to see Hadrian (Graham Skipper) to purchase some recreational mood-enhancer, and she ends up getting some Bliss, which is not to be taken lightly. What follows is a crazy rollercoaster of sex, unconsciousness, productivity, and blood. Quite a lot of blood.

Written and directed by Joe Begos (who impressed a lot of people with his directorial feature debut, Almost Human), Bliss is a very nice pairing of form and content. Viewers are dragged along with Dezzy as her senses are bombarded, with inventive and varied visuals often paired up with a loud and pounding soundtrack. I liked the full audio-visual experience, although it's easy to see how this could end up putting many people off.

What I liked a little less was the lack of specific points that could have been made. I appreciate that is my own thing, and it's unfair to be too critical of a film because of what it isn't when there's a lot to appreciate about what it is, but it held it back from being as great as I wanted it to be. I kept waiting for Bliss to step up to a higher level, but it always seemed poised to make a leap without ever committing. Having said that, Begos certainly pulls out all the stops in the third act, which certainly takes a step up in terms of the wilder moments, the bloodshed, and gore. There's one moment, just beyond the one hour mark, that is absolutely incredible, and major kudos should go to Begos for getting hold of enough resources/talented people to help him complete his vision.

I try not to focus on negatives when it's a film I am being generally supportive of. It's not good to mistake insults and unnecessary nastiness with constructive criticism. With that in mind, I will say that Madison is slightly uneven in the main role, disappointing in the scenes in which she has to act more "normally" opposite people (it feels very much like her attitude, both to others and to her art, is something that doesn't fit right on her), but fun to watch when getting wild and vicious and bloody. Gardner continues to be as impressive an actor as he is as a director (so I will happily watch anything he does), and he's a highlight here. Tru Collins and Rhys Wakefield are a hedonistic couple who help to start Dezzy on her main journey, Skipper is just fine as your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer, and you get some nice little supporting turns from George Wendt, Abraham Benrubi, and Jesse Merlin, as well as some other familiar faces who have become part of a loose collective of impressive artists within the horror community.

I've yet to check out some more of the offerings from Begos so far, after being one of the few people underwhelmed by Almost Human, but I'll hope to change that soon. He certainly isn't afraid to make some bold decisions, and that helps to freshen up a central concept that doesn't really shake up the subgenre it's working in as much as it could. He deserves credit for this singular vision, as does everyone, from cast to crew, who helped him get it all onscreen.

7/10

You can order the disc here.