Your Christmas Movies! Whatcha' Watchin' this Christmas season?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Prancer (1989)

Excellent Christmas family film thankfully lacking any of the usual thick treacle like schmaltz films in this style are generally lumbered with. The story, about a young girl and her father who come across an injured reindeer on a snowy road is fairly slight but is built up with fine characterization which eschews the usual tired villains films of this ilk tend to drag out to add story and tension.

Rebecca Harrell as Jessica, the eight year old star of the film completely rules each and every scene she's in with a very believable performance. When you think she has co-stars such as Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman this is no mean feat.

The reindeer - Prancer - is a real animal, no CGI involved at all. The film's magic comes from it's feel of being 'real' with realistic characters rather than studio creations, making Prancer an enjoyably sincere film that both children and adults can appreciate.

One of those films i thought i might upgrade to Blu-ray but in truth the dvd looks terrific.

[MrBarlow]

Home For The Holidays. 1972.

A ailing man summons his four daughters to come home for Christmas, once there he tells them he thinks his new wife is poisoning him and he wants his daughters to kill her.

Second time seeing this and it's a lot better tan the first viewing, right from the start we meet the older sister, Jessica Walter heading to collect her other sisters, Jill Haworth, Eleanor Parker and Sally Field. Then introduced to the wicked stepmother Julie Harris and father Walter Brennan.

The animosity that the four sisters have for their father and why is created brilliantly as it's told in the story of why there is hatred between father and daughters and stepmother. Nobody is loyal than daddy's little girls and they are given a bombshell, it slowly becomes a mystery as to who is killing the sisters and becomes a good game of hide and seek or cat and mouse. this is a made for tv movie that doesn't have or a need a big budget but certainly does have the right atmosphere for a good chiller.

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[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The Dorm That Dripped Blood.1982.

Four college kids spend their Christmas time cleaning up a dormitory that is due to be demolished, only for them to stalked by a maniac.

Here we go with another crazed killer attacking some teens one being Daphne Zuniga in her first feature film and then we get the plot twist to the end Okay they are college kids but seem to be dim witted or are they just in a state of shock? With this being on the video nastie list we can see why, the kills were done decently but the acting wasn't the greatest, a re-watch will happen again.

This is also known as 'Pranks' and was one of the Non Prosecuted 'Section 2' titles on the DPP list of 72 'video nasties'

[MrBarlow]

The Night They Saved Christmas. 1984.

A oil company is using dynamite to blast their way through the ice in the North Pole, Santa sends his chief elf Ed to enlist a mother who's husband is working on the blasting site to stop otherwise Santa's village will be destroyed and that the oil is in the first site where they began.

Made for T.V movie that seems to be forgotten now yet it was shown a few times in the late 80s. Light hearted family festive film but really doesn't do much for adults and really is aimed for younger kids, here Santa looks really old, tired and sick of hearing Jingle Bells.

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[MrBarlow]

Who Slew Auntie Roo. 1972.

Widow Mrs Forrest opens her house to 10 orphans for Christmas, one of the young girls Katie resembles her deceased daughter, Mrs Forrest plans to keep her there.

This is a strange one and second time seeing it, Shelley Winters plays the reclusive Auntie Roo who opens her house to the nearby orphanage children, Chloe Franks resembles her daughter and shown in flashbacks how her daughter died. Mark Lester plays her brother who can be resourceful in his attempts to rescue her. The first 45-60 minutes builds up some atmosphere then becomes a tale of Hansel and Gretel. Hugh Griffith, Ralph Richarson and Michael Gothard have some good small roles.

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[MrBarlow]

Saint. 2010. (aka Sint)

Saint Niklas, a fallen from grace Bishop murders young children every December 5th when the moon is full throughout the years. Present time, young teen Frank manages to escape Niklas clutches only to be rescued by a policeman who wants revenge for the slaughter of his family 35 years earlier.

Dutch film maker Dick Maas took the urban legend/myth that is still and controversial celebrated of Saint Niklas and his helpers "Black Pietr's" and made it into a decent film. It's one that's not to be taken seriously but has it's enjoyable and entertaining moments along with some good slasher/gore and comical moments in the secret Santa pass outs in school class.

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[nicholasrope]

Jingle All The Way

Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to get the most popular Toy on Christmas Eve. Reasonable stuff for Christmas time but it's totally ridiculous at the end.

Happiest Season

Kristen Stewart's Girlfriend takes her to her Parent's house for Christmas but finds out that she hasn't told them about their relationship. I really like this one, it's enjoyable, it's not sugary like some Family Christmas Films but not a Adult Comedy/Horror either, a nice balance.

A Boy Called Christmas

Maggie Smith tells her Grandchildren a story of how a Boy sort of invented Christmas. A good once a year watch, has Elves, Trolls, Pixies...etc in it and a horrible Aunt (Kristen Wiig) but not in it much.

8-Bit Christmas

Neil Patrick Harris tells his Daughter a story of how he wanted a Nintendo Games System in the 80's. It wasn't bad at the beginning but lost steam half way through.

[MrBarlow]

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings. 2011.

A group of college students get lost in a snow blizzard and take refuge in a abandoned building which was a sanitarium that housed 3 brothers from a inbred cannibalistic family.

This one is a prequel to the 2004 release and does give a back story about the family in a small dose, surely for college kids they should have been smart but not really smart enough, that the decent plan they had was to the end. There are some cringe moments and some good death scenes, but the ending is something we have seen before in a previous horror flick, but this was better than the previous Wrong Turn movie.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I love Wrong Turn 4. My fave of the series but i didn't realise it was set at Christmas. Talk about all these wasted years.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I love Wrong Turn 4. My fave of the series but i didn't realise it was set at Christmas. Talk about all these wasted years.

I looked into it to make sure it was set around this festive time and apparently it's classed as a Christmas movie