Every week I intend to bring back my indie horror movie reviews and maybe this week will be a good starting point. Anyways, I’m changing it up a bit. I’ll highlight a full-length movie or short film by and indie director. When I can I’ll add an interview. Since I’m doing this week’s post at the last minute, here’s a tweet about a short film I happened upon after a quick search on Twitter:
Watch Full Suspenseful Paranormal Short: “One by One”
#indiehorror#ghoststory#hauntedhouse Watch Full Short Film http://ow.ly/bdlHZ
The short is by Kelsey Zukowski and only about 5 minutes long. It’s well written and well worth watching. You’ll especially love the ending you won’t predict! Here’s what it’s about:
One By One is a short suspenseful thriller starring Jordan Baum, Jenny Estes, Brennan Kelleher, Josh Ellis, Laura Nargi, and Cali Zimmerman. It is written by Adam Scott and directed by Cameron Alexander. The film takes place in a haunted mansion with a group of friends. It dives in to a horrid tale of the girl who lived in the house before. She committed suicide and has a habit of messing with the reality of those who enter, driving many to insanity and making other lose themselves.
Night Train Murders is set around the Christmas holiday, but is more a variation of Wes Craven’s, Last House on the Left. Taking place instead on a train, two young girls are terrorized by two young thugs and a depraved proper lady. This is an excellent film and in my opinion, much better than Craven’s film. The build up to the brutal rapes and murders was at a perfect pace despite criticism. The film gave the viewer more of a chance to connect and sympathize with the girls which was necessary considering the plot. Much of the brutality was suggested, which had a better effect psychologically. Macha Meril, the female passenger instigating much of the depravity really stands out in this movie. Her performance gave me chills, especially at the end of the movie when one of the girl’s father gets his revenge. Also notable in this film is the beautiful outdoor scenery, including a scene where one of the girls is thrown from the train. This will be one of my favorites this holiday season and I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 rabid reindeer bites.
By any chance do you remember that The Legend of Hell House is set right before Christmas? I’d forgotten and it wasn’t that long ago I’d re-watched it. I LOVE this film. It is one of the best haunted house movies ever made, so of course it was high on my watch list for this movie marathon. Not much holiday activity going on though, and considering it is a widely viewed film, I’ll just give it 5 out of 5 rabid reindeer bites and move on.
Another children’s film, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians will be on my least favorite list this holiday season. Now I think I’ve established that I’m still a kid at heart and continue to enjoy children’s entertainment, but this movie would have put me to sleep when I was a kid. I couldn’t even enjoy it as a bad B-movie. I guess the first indication came when the children of Mars were only happy while watching Earth television programming for kids. Anyways, you want to know more about how bad this film is, look it up yourself. I give it 1/2 out of 5 rabid reindeer bites.
Santa Claws was horrible. SO SO BAD! I beg of you, don’t watch this film. Let’s just say the murder weapon didn’t have the ability to inflict a scratch on the victims in reality and from there it just gets worse. I have no idea how it even got a 2 star rating on Netflix. Oh yeah, had to be the soft-core porn mixed in. But seriously people, there’s plenty of porn out there. Skip this movie and head for the Internet! This is officially the worst horror movie I have ever wasted an hour and a half of my life watching. 0 out of 5 rabid reindeer bites.
Silent Night was an enjoyable surprise after watching Santa Claws. There are even recognizable actors in this one, so the acting was much much better than the previous two reviews. It’s got an escaped mental patient, haunting old estate, decent storyline, some well done murder scenes and an artsy air to it, all essential ingredients for a good horror movie. Still there was something missing in it for me. Not that I’m saying don’t watch it. I just don’t feel it’s got the quality of a really good 1970s horror film. This might be a better film to watch in the dark, at night, with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of eggnog. Do those two go together? So I gave it 3 out of 5 rabid reindeer bites.
Santa Claus was the first movie I watched because I was curious about it’s 1959 release date. Most of the Christmas horror movies are dated from the 1970s on, considering a religious holiday like Christmas was once off limits except for the scary ghosts in A Christmas Carole and greedy rich men like Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. I never really thought about holiday horror movies being influenced by the Vietnam War, Watergate, Recession Era and further commercialization of the giving season, but there is was, right in front of my face as I put together the list of holiday horror movies for the marathon. It has me wondering how our current times will influence holiday movies.