Review: Christmas Cruelty!

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Christmas Cruelty! (aka O’Hellige Jul!)
Directed by Per-Ingvar Tomren, with Magne Steinsvoll
Stonewall Productions; Unearthed Films; MVD Visual
96 minutes, 2013 / 2022
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www.unearthedfilms.com
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Norway is known for the fjords, nice people, social equity (though debatable Sami/Indigenous relations), and snow. So much like Canada. Anyway, I have reviewed a few Norwegian films lately, and they were mostly stylish and arty. But there is a dark side, represented by the likes of Krampus Day (December 5), days filled with no or little sunlight, and the Vikings, who were known for their barbarism (among many other things). Note that this film is in Norwegian with English subtitles.

Right from the start, this film lives up to its name with an ultraviolent and transgressive prologue, fading into the backstory. Also, one of the first things the viewer will notice is that the film has a brownish-yellow tint to it.

Krampus masks: Magne Steinsvoll, Per-Ingvar Tomren, Eilne Aasheim

We meet three friends who are making Krampus masks, giving exposition to just who or what the Krampus is and the story behind it, as well as other Christmas fable baddies. There is Eilne (Eilne Aasheim), Magne (Magne Steinsvoll), and Per-Ingvar (director Per-Ingvar Tomren). Per-Ingvar is wheelchair bound and thanks to an accident, not of full mind, but he is kind; Magne is a toxic masculinist asshole who treats Per-Ingvar badly and has nothing positive to say about women. Eilne is the strongest of the three, and personally, I cannot see why she has not dumped Magne as a friend.

Tormond Lein (left0

In another scene, we meet our Santa serial killer (Tormod Lein), a middle-aged and balding office worker and family man. The film shows his fractured personality by very fast (and for me, nauseating) edits. The viewer is also introduced a bit to his mindset, which is full of violence and carnality. His grooming of his young daughter to carry on after him is chilling. Ironically, Lein is a devout Christian, and would not watch the film once it was released, even though he performed all the acts of wanton killing.

In a brief shot of his desk, we see a snow globe that has a frozen Jack Nicholson from The Shining (1980). There are actually a lot of references to many other films throughout, sometimes in images and others in actions, such as Jaws (1975), The Big Lebowski (1998) and Goodfellas (1990), which could be a drinking game.

After the shocking opening, the film, well, it lulls for way too long. Too much talking and lingering on scenes of dialogue that can be considered exposition, but actually do nothing to really advance the story much, and was a chore for this particular viewer. But it did not build tension and I really fought the desire to skip ahead, though since there were subtitles, I did occasionally go to double speed, especially during an extended drunken scene between the three friends. Honestly, this film could have been a good 20 minutes shorter and have been just as effective.

Tomren, Aasheim

Both our trio of – whatever they are – and the nameless killer are seen preparing for Christmas, but in wholeheartedly different ways, though all will end up at the same party, for better or mostly worse.

Once the unnamed madman starts on his rampage, though, which comes quite unexpectedly even though it is predictable that it will happen at some point, the sheer velocity of it makes the third act ramp up to 12, never mind 11. It is actually hard to look away, though perhaps for others, they might have the opposite reaction. The SFX sometimes looks cartoonish, but the actions themselves are so brutal that it actually overrides that. I would say if you watch the film, and want to view it a second time as I did, I watched the first 10 minutes and then skipped to the 1-hour mark.

Steinsvoll

Now, as for the bonus material. Unearthed Films tends to overload the Blu-rays with features, which is kinda cool in my opinion. It starts with a full-length commentary with Per-Ingvar Tomren and producer/cinematographer Raymond Volle. For some reason, the volume was quite low and even turning it way up, I had trouble hearing it; could be my age, seeing bands like the Ramones too many times, or they were just too far from the damn microphone. Again, I watched the first 10 and final 30 minutes with the commentary on, which was interesting. Next is yet another full-length commentary titled “Watch-a-long with Flesh Wound Horror,” where Tomren talks with, well, the person behind FWH. He was mic’d fine, but Tomren, again, was too far from the recorder, so I did the same 10/30 spiel.

One of the major additions is the “How Cruelty Changed Our Lives” featurette, which is broken up into three parts. Sorry, I just did not have the patience to watch all of them. Over the opening credits of the film proper, there is a scene at a bar and the band the Last Rebels are playing on stage. Here we get the music video for their song, “Endless Highway” (not a C&W song). “Interview with Morten Haagensen” (7 min), who runs the Rama Skrik film fest in Norway, follows as he discusses this film playing there in 2013, including the reaction of the audience. It makes sense what comes next is a “Press Conference” (23 min), also in 2013. It consists of most of the major cast, the directors, cinematographer, SFX, etc. Again, the sound is a bit low, but that is okay here as it is held in Norwegian with English subtitles.

“The Blooper Reel” (7 min) is amusing in parts, and then there are the Teaser Trailer and Photo Gallery. The final is a short film, “Tradisjon” (Tradition) (2013; 6 min), directed by Severin Eskeland. It is also holiday themed, and my mouth watered a bit when during the credits they show some krumkake, but I digress… I was not quite sure where this was going, and it certainly didn’t go where I thought it would, but I just loved it.

If you are a gorehound, you really do need to see Christmas Cruelty! at least once, because the violence is both gruesome and beautiful at the same time. If your idea of extreme is the Marvel Universe, however, yeah, step back and take a breather on this one.

IMDB listing HERE

Review: Malignant

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet

Malignant

Written and directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley
Moderncine / Avenet Images Productions / Black Butterflies / MVD Visual
89 minutes, 2013 / 2015
www.malignantmovie.com
www.moderncine.com
www.mvdvisual.com

Here’s the thing: as much as I like horror and gore, medical stories make me antsy going in because I have three Achilles’ heels, with one being scalpels, the second is needles, and the third is anything having to do with the eyes (have you seen Luis Bunuel’s 1929 Un Chien Andalou [An Andalusian Dog])? Stories about insane doctors, especially genre films, tend to dwell into these, and all three cases are true here. But I soldier on…

Allex (Gary Cairns) is in his 30s, and his life has turned to shit. Seven months earlier his beloved wife died of cancer, he is in a dead-end cubical job with a mean boss, and he’s become a depressed and desperate alcoholic. The Man (Brad Dourif), who is never identified by name, offers a solution to which Allex may (or may not) have agreed to, but it will definitely change his life forever.

A self-described “scientist,” The Man (rather than “The Doctor” or “The Technologist”) is a sociopath who believes he’s doing good for the world, much in the way Jigsaw rationalized what he was doing to people was to help point out their flaws to society in Saw (2004). But The Man’s methods lay closer to Stephen King’s short story “Quitter’s Inc.” (from his 1978 collection Night Shift), whereas any measure is worthwhile for the final outcome.

As Allex and The Man figuratively dance around getting Allex off of his dependence on the sauce, it becomes like a whirlpool, spiraling down in more complex rings of violence, mind control, and punishment. And there’s that huge hypodermic with a thick and even longer needle (shudder).

Cairns is very suited as an everyman, in a Ryan Gosling kind of way, and he brings his character to the table. He plays the tension well, and the calm determination of retribution feels natural. Dourif, as always, is superb. After years of seeing him playing crazy and weird psycho- and sociopaths in films like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, as Wormtongue) and Dune (1984, as Piter De Vries) – and let us not forget and bow down that he is the only one to date who has ever voiced the world’s favorite murderous and foul mouthed doll, Chucky – it’s interesting to see how well he plays normal crazy, with dialog that isn’t squeezed between cackling and cracking wise. He certainly lives up to the legend, and shows that he can genuinely act, rather than ham.

And here is an interesting career note for Dourif: his first credited role was as Billy Babbit in the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), where he was abused as a mental patient, and now he’s the one abusing mentally challenged “patients.” Should we call him Brad Ratchett? Even back in ’75, if you watch One Flew, Dourif is a standout.

From the very first shots of the film, I thought perhaps the story would follow along the lines of the Richard Matheson short story “Button, Button” from 1970, but I was happier with the way this played out instead.

Well written and deftly paced, the tension does nothing but build until its harsh ending. The conclusion did leave some open questions to me, but that did not deter from a story that will definitely keep the viewer riveted, or if you’re like me, even when I had to occasionally turn away because of the three things discussed in the first paragraph (you wanna call me a mama’s boy, you go right ahead; just like everyone has a price, everybody also has a weakness).

The only two extras are the trailer (which arguably gives away too much) and 38-minute making of documentary called “Surgery for the Soul,” which kept my interest throughout.

If you enjoy medical mayhem, or a compelling story that goes beyond the needles and occasional gore, this is still worth it. It’s definitely a dark film, but an adrenaline one that will keep you glued.

 

Review: The Rise and Fall of an American Scumbag

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018

Images from the Internet

The Rise and Fall of an American Scumbag

Written, cinematography, directed and edited by Dakota Bailey

R.A. Productions

38 minutes, 2018

https://Dakotabaileydirectorfilmmaker.wordpress.com

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Here is the generalized truth about evil people: they do not realize they are terrible citizens. Those who bomb abortion clinics, marched in Charlottesville, the person coming into your home and stealing your goods to sell for drugs? They rationalize that the ends justify their means, or that they are doing what they believe is necessary, or they just think that you are the evil one for letting women vote, letting darker skinned people into the country, or not bending down to idolize whomever they idolize in however way they idolize their idol (more on this later). This includes the Westboro Baptist Church, the mufti of wherever calling for jihad, or even what has become known as the Taylor Swift Army.

Dakota Bailey

Lower class whites in poor neighborhoods and ghettos, the drug addicted, murderous, lecherous, down and out folk who will do anything to not live, but merely survive, are the focus of director and actor Dakota Bailey’s stories and lens. He calls himself an auteur, and he certainly is one of the few who could actually be covered by that term in its truer and literal sense. Not counting his short films, this is his fourth full length release made with non-pro actors who know how to get the job done. Sometimes I wonder where the stories start and the people end. And in Bailey’s stories, a lot of people “end.”

This is a sequel to American Scumbags, released in 2016 (reviewed by me HERE). It brings back some of the characters who actually managed to survive the first blood-splattered collection of three intertwining stories. The remainders are mostly a viscous nutjob control freak named Billy (Darien Fawkes), and Johnny (director Bailey), a hitman who kills for his drug needs.

Once again we visit the still ironically named city of Sunnydale (filmed in Denver), where it seems like it may be the location of a Dante-eske Purgatory or even the other place. The five interlocking stories could be the overlapping rings of Hell and each member lives in their own mind-world, often connected by cell phone more than the physical; they are often in motion through foot, wheelchair or pick-up truck, and hats and wigs often seem of play an indirect part in separating the head from the space they occupy, as a shield or barrier.

Darien Fawkes

While Bailey’s films have all followed the auteur’s path, including title cards and persons descriptors (e.g., “Billy: Sadistic Sociopath”) in a similar font, monochrome tinting of the visuals, and using friends as the characters. However, he still finds room to grow. For example, in this release, we often hear what characters are thinking, which is a much better touch than just hearing them speak on cell phones to gather what is their motivation. Bailey’s editing skill is also improving; with more fluid scenes and less jump cuts, making the film’s pacing easier and less jarring, allowing us to focus on the content more than the form.

There is also a lot of both Christian and Satanic imagery, in both blatant and subtle forms. For example, there is a “666” written inside a file cabinet drawer or a Devil graffiti, but there is also the Novena candles that line the sides of the road (my fave is one of Jesus holding two guns in his folded arms), or Christmas decorations, many of which get mashed. However, this is the first Bailey release I can remember where Satan himself doesn’t make an appearance directly.

Marla Rose

So, what I’m saying is that there are two ways one can look at this specific aspect of how the film looks at religion: one is that it is totally against the totalitarianism of the Religious Right (or, as I once heard it called, Political Christianity) and how that helps destroy societies. The other is from the perspective of a hyper-Christian, who probably sees that being a non-Christian leads to drugs, murder and Satanism. I’m quite sure this leans towards the former, but the latter should be acknowledged. If you read my reviews regularly, you know where I stand (just ask).

The main character of the film is the aforementioned Billy, who is also the most interesting to me. Fawkes’ drawl, missing front teef, knee-length black coat and black hat make him both hateful and interesting at the same time. He’s out to score some money by any means necessary, and drugs for his very cute girlfriend, Candy (Marla Rose). Mind you, this is pretty much the norm as nearly everyone is seen doing some kind of substance abuse throughout. Bailey is also drug-addled as a hitman on his way up, and his vicious no-compromise dealer is Pat (Alaskan Cinder). Other characters float in and out of these stories, but most either are blown away or do the slaying, though they are key turning points in the storyline. As none of these are “professional” actors, the level of skill is variant, but some such as Fawkes definitely hold their own.

One lesson learned from this film is if you are going to be a drug dealer (and I am certainly not recommending that as I’m pretty strait-edge), don’t also be a user because it clouds your judgment; of course, being a dealer is not a great judge of judgment either. Another lesson to be had is taking heroin and thinking it’s cocaine is not a good thing.

Alaskan Cinder

The five chapters are kind of superfluous as the stories are so intertwined they flow as one narrative, but I like that it’s broken up that way, with titles like “Drugged Up & Dead to the World,” “Ghosts of Addiction,” and “The American Dream is a Fucking Lie.” Yeah, it’s quite nihilistic, but that’s the world Bailey is putting under the microscope. Many of the “larger” films focus on the crime world, but Bailey’s releases feel like you’re right there. Also, while most mainstream films tend to present this types as characters as African-American, Latino or some other form of Other, Bailey uses White actors that put it right in your neighborhood. That’s one of the things I like about his films, and each gets better stylistically and story-wise.

The music is loud and blaring, by the hardcore death metal Skullcrack, which fits the film well. It may be a bit on the short side, but there is no padding whatsoever, so you get as much action in this amount of time as in most 80-90 minutes releases.