- Joined
- Jul 4, 2022
After finally seeing Christmas Bloody Christmas, I feel like the core of a good movie is there but the main thing dragging it down is the writing, which really needed some polishing up. Some thoughts (trying to avoid spoilers):
The Good
* The movie was well-shot and they actually set some shit on fire, which is always points in my book. Also they beat the shit out of a bunch of cars, which you don't see too often in slasher movies outside of the Maniac Cop series. I also respect how even though the movie take a while to get going, it really doesn't let off the gas until the end.
The Rest
* The main character either needed to be toned down by about 100% or the other characters should have been "straight-man" types to counter her aggressive annoyingness. You can have one Franklin from TCM or Shelley from Friday the 13th Part 3, but the whole main friend group being like that is brutal.
*There really weren't any relatable characters at all. Outside of the main character and her shitty friends, there were some utter asshole cops and some random dead meats. The bartender who is irritated by all of them at the beginning should have been the protagonist.
*The whole town in the movie feels weirdly vacant. You never see people on the street and I think the most people we see in one place is at the start of the movie in the main character's combination vinyl/VHS store. This seems like a pretty terrible business model, but stores like this seem to exist in college towns somehow.
*Whole thing really made me appreciate how damn good the remake of The Blob is. The town in that movie feels alive even though I'm pretty sure it was all just sets, and every charcter had something that made them memorable. Kevin Dillon's mullet was also superior to the guy in Christmas Bloody Christmas too.
*The gore effects, while not terrible, are kind of inexcusable these days where something on the level of a Wrong Turn sequel shot for nothing in Bulgaria will still manage some legitimately gross kills. There's also a scene where a guy gets shot in the head that was so awkwardly done that I thought the character was just supposed to be grazed so he could come back later.
*Holy fuck is the ending a drag. It's basically Terminator meets Hardware but goes on way too long. The ending could have used a haircut and that runtime could have been used to up the surprisingly low kill count. There's a bunch of EMS guys that kind of just vanish and if any movie could have used a posse of drunk yokels to hunt the villain and get slaughtered, it was this one.
Overall not a bad movie but one with a lot of potential that it didn't meet.
The Good
* The movie was well-shot and they actually set some shit on fire, which is always points in my book. Also they beat the shit out of a bunch of cars, which you don't see too often in slasher movies outside of the Maniac Cop series. I also respect how even though the movie take a while to get going, it really doesn't let off the gas until the end.
The Rest
* The main character either needed to be toned down by about 100% or the other characters should have been "straight-man" types to counter her aggressive annoyingness. You can have one Franklin from TCM or Shelley from Friday the 13th Part 3, but the whole main friend group being like that is brutal.
*There really weren't any relatable characters at all. Outside of the main character and her shitty friends, there were some utter asshole cops and some random dead meats. The bartender who is irritated by all of them at the beginning should have been the protagonist.
*The whole town in the movie feels weirdly vacant. You never see people on the street and I think the most people we see in one place is at the start of the movie in the main character's combination vinyl/VHS store. This seems like a pretty terrible business model, but stores like this seem to exist in college towns somehow.
*Whole thing really made me appreciate how damn good the remake of The Blob is. The town in that movie feels alive even though I'm pretty sure it was all just sets, and every charcter had something that made them memorable. Kevin Dillon's mullet was also superior to the guy in Christmas Bloody Christmas too.
*The gore effects, while not terrible, are kind of inexcusable these days where something on the level of a Wrong Turn sequel shot for nothing in Bulgaria will still manage some legitimately gross kills. There's also a scene where a guy gets shot in the head that was so awkwardly done that I thought the character was just supposed to be grazed so he could come back later.
*Holy fuck is the ending a drag. It's basically Terminator meets Hardware but goes on way too long. The ending could have used a haircut and that runtime could have been used to up the surprisingly low kill count. There's a bunch of EMS guys that kind of just vanish and if any movie could have used a posse of drunk yokels to hunt the villain and get slaughtered, it was this one.
Overall not a bad movie but one with a lot of potential that it didn't meet.
