From: PETERC@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (Peter Correnty)
Subject: Re: CHRISTMAS movies?
Organization: Yale University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 09:13:35 EST

In article <1992Nov4.220638.26276@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
mritchie@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Michael S Ritchie) writes:
 
>
>Several others come to mind, depending in part on your criteria for
>a Christmas movie.  For example, Gremlins and Trading Places take
>place at Christmas, with many scenes of holiday trim and good
>cheer, but most probably wouldn't consider them holiday fare.
>Some more traditional ones include:
>
>An American Christmas Carol  (1979 TV movie w/Henry Winkler)
>Miracle on 34th Street
>The Bishop's Wife (1947, w/Cary Grant as a Christmas angel)
>Scrooge (1970, rather lame musical version w/ Albert Finney, though
>  it does include a bizarre scene of Scrooge in Hell!)
>Scrooge (1935, early British version)
>A Christmas Carol (1951, excellent British version w/ Alistair Sim)
>Bells of St. Mary's (always shown at Christmas, though only
>  tangentially related to the season, much like its prequel,
>  Going My Way)
>Santa Claus (1985, w/Dudley Moore)
>One Magic Christmas (1985, w/Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton)
>Prancer (1989)
>Holiday Affair (1949, Robert Mitchum & Janet Leigh)
>Scrooged (Bill Murray)
>The Holly and the Ivy (British, 1953)
>
>I'm sure there are more; I'm something of a Christmas movie buff
>and these are just off the top of my head.  Most of the above
>are on tape (except Holly and the Ivy) and there are plenty of
>television specials from the past (usually aimed at kids) which
>get released to the bargain video bins every December.
>
>--Michael
 
 
 Here's some titles that I posted to the HORROR network last
year .... These are certainly not your conventional Christmas films
like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, WHITE CHRISTMAS and CHRISTMAS IN
CONNECTICUT.
 
 
Date:         Wed, 18 Dec 91 12:45:40 EDT
From:         Peter Correnty <PETERC@YALEADS>
Subject:      XMAS Horrors
To:           ***********************
 
 
Date:         Wed, 18 Dec 91 11:47:30 EDT
From:         Peter Correnty <PETERC@YALEADS>
Subject:      Christmas Horrors
TO:            ******************************
 
Here are some holiday horrors to get you in the spirit:
 
SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1973) - Incredible film directed by
Theodore Gurschney (sp?) about asylum inmates who revolt against
corrupt doctors and overtake a small NE town.  With an extremely
bloody double axe murder, great camerawork, and sepia-tinted
flashbacks of an inmate revolt that is too weird for description.
 
BLACK CHRISTMAS (aka STRANGER IN THE HOUSE, aka SILENT NIGHT, EVIL
NIGHT) (1973) - Made by the people who produced CHILDREN SHOULDN'T
PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS and DEATHDREAM, this is a scary, nearly
bloodless psycho-in-a-sorority tale that succeeds in being
different from the mundane stalk and slash films.  Margot Kidder
is a nasty sorority sister who becomes the main interest of an
obscene phone caller.  With a great suffocation-in-the-attic
murder and a surprise ending.
 
TO ALL A GOODNIGHT (1980) - Awful slice-n-dice turkey directed by
the heavy from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.  Film features a killer
Santa with the usual horror *cliches*.  It is interesting to note
that while this film was released to cable TV for all to see, at
the same time, the controversial film SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT
was removed from theaters because of public complaints that the
film featured a killer Santa.  Those who complained loudest
hadn't even seen the movie, but complained about the content of the
movie poster!  Meanwhile, their children were probably
watching TAAG on cable, which featured a Santa who not only murdered,
but raped and tortured his victims as well.
 
GHOST STORY (1981?), GREMLINS (1984) - Set during the Christmas season.
 
DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS EVIL - never saw.
 
DEEP RED (aka THE HATCHET MURDERS) (1975) - Remarkable Dario Argento
shocker with graphic killings and a complicated (well, complicated for
Argento) plot.  Opening scene is a visually striking holiday murder.
Unedited version clears up all plot shortcomings.
 
NEW YEAR'S EVIL (1980) - Unintentionally hilarious splatterfest with
Roz Kelly (Pinkie Tuscadaro from TV's "Happy Days") as a hard rock DJ
whose biggest fan is a multiple murderer who must kill someone
every hour at midnight in each time zone.  It turns out to be her
son in drag.  A doctor and a nurse don't have glasses, so they drink
champagne out of specimen cups, and Roz can't recognize her own son's
voice!  With an asylum scene where the patients celebrate the New
Year in a most unusual way.
 
BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS FROM HELL (198?) - Very obscure horror film
set during the holiday season.  Played at drive-ins with THE ONE-
ARMED EXECUTIONER, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, and BLOODSUCKING FREAKS.
One scene is a direct rip-off of Argento's SUSPIRIA.  A horned
demon levitates to the second floor of a building, bursts through
a window, stabs a woman repeatedly until her neck is hanging by a
thread, ties a rope around her foot and tosses her out the
window.  The camera follows her descent until she dangles in mid-
air a few inches from the ground.  And all of this happened in
about three minutes.  A bit too misogynistic for *moi*, but it's
a scene I'm not likely to forget.
 
The rest of the film was pretty standard slasher stuff with a few
gory killings committed by a satansists during the Christmas season.
 
This very weird film was produced by a group of college students
for a graduate project.
 
SCROOGE (1935) - British version ... Faithful adaptation with some
good creepy moments.
 
INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE (1959/62) - Abominable snowman film
with AWESOME fx.  Possibly the only horror film made in Lapland.
 
DAMIEN, OMEN II - set during Christmas season.
 
NIGHT CALLER - Excellent Asain psycho film set during Christams season.
 
SANTA CLAUS VS. THE DEVIL (1959) - Sick flick meant for kids and
imported by K. Gordon Murray from Mexico.  The film was retitled SANTA
CLAUS.  Parents assumed it was a holiday film for children, not
knowing that an evil Devil would appear to counteract Santa's good
influence and try to make children do evil things.  Later all references
to the Devil were removed ... I have the uncut version.  The edited
version must have had a 20 minute running time because the Devil is in
nearly every scene!
 
MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (1934) - Laurel and Hardy.
 
 
-Pete.