Silent Night Deadly Night 2 – (1987)

And with that! we’ve reached the end of another season, and once again we’re revisitng the ‘Silent Night Deadly Night’ franchise with probably the most infamous entry of the entire franchise.

Yes, we’re doing the ‘GARBAGE DAY’ movie. and honestly, this one was really quite the blur from a behind the scenes standpoing on the show, the last 3 months of the year were frankly pretty crazy and (to my admitted shame) this one ended up kind of being bashed out in a bit of a haze while dealing with a load of personal issues around work. Nothing too awful mind…just jarring. it’s something im still kind of dealing with now even, but I’ve gotten a bit of a better grasp on it. for now at least.

Anyway; enough of my problems! Silent Night Deadly Night 2! the film that made me wonder how on EARTH they followed up on this with 3 other movies. and…well, you’ll find out exactly HOW they did in a year or two. because…im not touching those movies again for a while let me tell you now!

Anyway! merry christmas and all that! we’ll be back in february! all my love x

A Wrestling Christmas Miracle – (2020)

Not content with ONE dose of Ken Del Veccio madness in the form of ‘A Karate Christmas Miracle‘ I just HAD to keep digging and eventually wind up watching it’s spiritual sequel. Because of COURSE I did.

What I will say for this film is, across the board, its better than the first film technically. that still doesnt save it from being demented in my opinion.

I really hope they make this duology a trilogy some day, as Id love to get a nice tryptic going with these films. I dunno…maybe ‘A Ballet Christmas Miracle’?, ‘A Golfing Christmas Miracle’? hmm…how about ‘A Kickboxing Christmas Miracle’? that one could have legs (LITERALLY!)

In either case, the madness is over…for now, and I can finally get back to covering other christmas specials like ‘The Christmas Consultant.’ *shudders*

This poster is not as good as ‘A Karate Christmas Miracle’ in my opinion.

Santas Pocket Watch (Santas Time Piece) – (1988)

This films a total enigma, I honestly spent more time researching for it than the runtime of the film, the time it took to write the script, edit the script and edit the video for the review. theres literally almost nothing out there. But…this is the danger of what happens when things fall through the cracks. you end up with releases where theres not even a thread that could open up exploratory options. This films a total dead end and it’s a shame because its curmugeonly and charming in equal measures.

Dont get me wrong, it’s nothing amazing. But I feel it captures a warmth that you just dont see in a lot of contemporary christmas movies. So if you can find a copy (its pretty proliferated) and you can find it cheap, i’d say absolutely go for it!

I find it hilarious that the title of this film has next to NOTHING to do with this film.

Winterbeast – (1992)

Well, its a bit late! but heres the first of our christmas specials, and rather wonderfully, we’re welcoming back George from The Best Little Horror House In Philly to help us take on a stop motion cult classic like you’ve never seen!

The one big thing I can say about this is, I didnt actually pick up on the ‘Twin Peak’ themes and references (to my UTTER shame) until George sent his side of the script over! I was so busy focussing on the execution I totally missed it! but im SO glad George caught it, because as soon as I heard it, suddenly the whole thing took on a completely new life!

It’s kind of a good news/bad news with Winterbeast. the good news is Vinegar syndrome have done a lovely restoration of it on bluray! the bad news is, it’s part of the ‘Home Grown Horrors’ boxset which only has a limited number of copies left! So nab this while you can! and thank you SO much to George for jumping in on this one with me 🙂 he’s awesome and I hope we get to work together agains soon!

I Spit On Your Grave – (1978)

Probably the most surprising film of this season for me, I REALLY wasnt looking forward to talking about this one, it’s a catagory 1 Video Nasty however, so I kind of felt obliged to.

I was expecting over 90 minutes of rape and unpleasent grimness that would leave me feeling uncomfortbale. But instead I actually found the film strangely compelling an empowering. I absolutely dont agree with Siskel and Eberts take that this work is Mysoginistic. I think personally it comes from a place of very careful consideration.

As the credits rolled I actually felt more comfortable with the film that I had expected, and I actually kind of got on with it a bit more than say ‘The New York Ripper’ or ‘Night Train Murders’. This one was Palettable, and is absolutely one i’d watch again.

‘Iconic’ is too small a word.

Camp Blood 2 (2000)

If Nukie is a film that isnt worth your Vitriol. Camp Blood 2 ABSOLUTELY is. my GOD this films dull and incompitent.

…thats all I have to say, Having now seen Camp Blood 3 (within the woods) I can say this is*probably* the most watchable of the 3. But thats REALLY not saying much.

Ugh.

*Sigh*… Nukie (1987)

…Look, whatever I say at this point is VERY likely to be overshadowed by the frankly ludicrous events that Red Letter Media have comitted in January 2022, auctioning off a sealed copy of Nukie for tens (possibly hundreds by the time the auction closes) of dollars after woodchipping 103 OTHER copies.

While I absolutely found tremendous catharsis in seeing that happen (please feel free to destroy as many copies of ‘Nukie’ as can be collected. At the same time, they absolutley havent helped my case here. The entire point of the below review was to basically say ‘Dont put this film on a pedestal. its actual garbage, its beyond boring, its beyond any form of actual critical note, just leave it and let it fall off the radar and into obscurity’

What they’ve done has now meant that that absolutely cant and wont happen, and that, if anything, it’s much more likely than ever to get some kind of Bluray release. I honestly have no further comment to make about this film than what I say in my below review. I wont be selling my copy of ‘Nukie’ to make a quick buck, nor will I be proliferating the “Oh man! it’s SO bad! YOU GOTTA SEE IT!” myth.

I repeat what I said in my review here; Nukie is an unremakrable film that should be forgotten and isnt worth your time. it’s not worth anything close to a ‘status’ and if you want affirmation that what im saying is correct, look at how much time the RLM guys ACTUALLY spent reviewing this movie. it’s THAT unremarkable.

GOD I hate Nukie.

Champagne and Bullets (GETEVEN) – 1993

Champagne and Bullets was another one of those films that kept getting pushed back, missing out on being a part of previous seasons by a hairs Breadth. Originally scheduled for Season 10 it JUST missed out and ended up getting pushed back to Season 11, where it got as far as being recorded and put on the timeline ready to edit, before another film came in (Night of the Demon) that JUST pushed it out once again into this season.

A long time coming, I have kind of mixed feelings ultimately about Champagne and Bullets. I think it definitely has its moments, but on the whole, I can think of ‘entertainingly bad’ movies that appeal to me more. it’s still a good time for the most part and I can absolutely recommend checking it out, if you can ever find a DVD copy (the Bluray copies now long out of print and goes for silly money)

Halloween Night (2006)

And so! another Halloween draws to a close and I chose this one to see us out, ‘Halloween Night’ is a VERY early ‘Asylum’ picture, trying to get a publicity boost off the ‘Halloween’ franchise (itself having a reboot upcoming in the form of the Rob Zombie movies at the time) AND given that this year marked the final part of the EVEN NEWER soft reboot of the Halloween franchise with ‘Halloween Ends’ it made sense to check this one out.

And you know what? it’s actually pretty okay! like…its nothing mindblowing, but of all the films i’ve covered this month, this would be the one i’d feel most comfortable coming back to at some point for a stable watch!

Short but sweet, I liked it! give it a go!

As for next halloween? well, I think it’s going to be a bit of a ‘Trick or treat’ grab bag of titles, I have a few already lined up, but it’s still early days!

That cover haunts my nightmares, I remember seeing TONS of them in film and music stores in the mid 2000’s

Final Scream (Final Stab) – 2001

It wouldnt be a ‘Rip off’ movie month without taking a look at probably the most proliferated ‘knock off’ feature the 1995-2005 window could produce. David Decoteau’s ‘Final Scream’ a picture that looked at ‘Scream 3’ and went ‘Hey! thats been out for 12 months. Lets make an unofficial one of those!’ before being slapped with a lawsuit and being forced to change its name to ‘Final Stab’ (Itself, a reference to the movie series within the scream franchise that retells the scream films…this is…all getting a bit confusing.’

ANYWAY! the reason it’s so well known (at least in the UK) is because back in the VERY early day of DVD distribution, players were often sold bundled with a few packs of ‘Multi film’ box sets, usually containing the cheapest, lowest budget productions ever shot. and 9 out of 10 of those sets, came with ‘Final Scream’ bundled in with them.

All bein said? its not THAT bad of a movie. it has nothing to do with ‘Scream’ in any way shape or form. but it could have turned out a LOT worse than it actually did.

probably one of Decoteau’s better offerings. I’d say if you can get your hands on a copy for this (and it’s not going for stupid money, i’d say a tenner or less) then maybe check it out? just dont go into it expecting a knock off ‘Scream’ movie…it’s really more of a murder mystery haunted house flick than a reference laiden slasher.

This poster is SUCH a rip off. I kind of love it for that.