ButterTart's Christmas Horror Film Countdown

[COB]

DO do this though!

 

[ButterTart]

Are you going to arrange a sync watch of your number 1?

If it's available on streaming then definitely. Hadn't even thought of that

 

[jivafox]

Ooh that’s a fab idea

 

[ButterTart]

If people have Prime membership, then my number one is on there. I'll try to work towards a set date to end this on, I'll have a look at the lockdown calendar.

 

[ButterTart]

How about next Wednesday (the 9th)?

 

[vespertine]

If people have Prime membership, then my number one is on there.

Christmas Evil as #1 confirmed!

 

[ButterTart]

64. Last Stop on the Night Train (1975)

​

On a sleeper train from Germany to Italy on Christmas eve, two teenage girls are terrorised by a trio of sadistic criminals.

AKA L'ultimo treno della notte. Nasty, spiteful and black-hearted, this is Italian horror at its absolute grimiest. It suckers you in with the most comically appalling theme music ever recorded, and sedates you with charming snapshots of Christmas in West Germany. The two leads, Margaret and Lisa (Irene Miracle and Laura D'Angelo are likeable enough and there's a palpable excitement about their trip to Italy. When they leave the safety of a crowded train to board a desolate sleeper, the tone shifts dramatically. The criminals who hold them prisoner are vile pieces of shit who seem to surprise themselves with their escalating cruelty. It's a hard watch, the lack of sympathy it shows for the two terrified girls is at odds with the cosiness of the first half and their eventual fate is out-and-out vicious. Luckily, the film decides it wants to be Last House on the Left in its final act and the criminals are unwittingly invited into the home of Lisa's parents, who slowly realise what these people have done to their daughter and exact suitable vengeance. It's a decent film, all told, but I can't place it any higher because it crosses the line into sleaze once too often for comfort.

Best bit: The parents' revenge, brutalising one with medical equipment then chasing the other down before shooting him point blank. It's immensely satisfying to watch the tormentors become the tormented.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[Ellie]

Christmas Evil as #1 confirmed!

I think you’ll find it’s actually THE QUACKY SLASHER

 

[ButterTart]

63. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
​

Ryan (Chris J Murray), Emily (Brit Shaw) and their daughter Leila (Ivy George) take in Ryan’s brother Mike (Dan Gill) and his paedo ‘tache after he splits up with his girlfriend in the run-up to Christmas. They find a mysterious video camera and a load of old tapes, and pretty soon spookiness abounds.

For the benefit of future filmmakers, I’ve compiled an exhaustive list of things that should never, ever be in a found footage movie.

1. 3D
2. Digital effects

This completes the list portion of the review.

Honestly, I found this watchable (hence the generous placing on the list), but I’m not about to pretend I found it GOOD. There’s literally no reason to keep filming the way these characters do, there’s very little in amongst the cheap jump scares and precious haunted children that you could mistake for actual originality, and the digital effects are about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. I commend them for trying to take the franchise in a different direction, but they’d do well to remember that the simplicity of the original film is what made it work.

Best bit: The brothers watch a video of a young girl in a trance from two decades prior, and realise that she is responding to the thing they're saying. It's probably the only genuinely freaky moment in the film.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

62. To All a Goodnight (1980)
​

Five teenage girls in their late thirties throw a sexy party at their finishing school after everyone else goes home for Christmas. Astonishingly, they start to fall victim to a masked killer.

Okay, this film is CACK, there’s no denying it. It’s also brainless fun which - as long as you can put aside your preconceptions about logic and normal human behaviour - is an entertaining watch. We get the world’s most expedited prologue (Run, balcony, splat, gosh!, CREDITS, all in the blink of an eye) and then we’re straight in to the action where our venerable leading ladies, including sassy English Moopy-bait Trisha (Angela Bath), host a rubbish party which some posh lads literally FLY in for. There’s knockers aplenty, all of the characters are imbeciles and we’re treated to scenes where they’re told they ‘shouldn’t be out here at night’ despite it being quite clearly daylight. This is pure early-80s slasher stupidity with some ridiculous deaths and a mystery killer who might as well have pranced around in a t-shirt saying ‘It’s Me’ for most of the film.

Best bit: Sam (Denise Stearns) and Blake (Jeff Butts) decide to knock boots because the party’s so crap they’ve nothing else to do, leading to their swift executing by crossbow and good old decapitation.

Weihnachtstische out of ten: The chap at the end is Sleigh Gay, Weihnachtstisch's dear pal who visits minor dance singers on Christmas Eve and gapes wonderingly through their windows. He's worth half a point.

 

[ButterTart]

61. Jack Frost (1997)
​

No, not the sinister one with Michael Keaton, the daft, unscary one which predates it by a year, where a chemically mutated snowman goes on a killing spree in Snowmanton, a town full of simpletons which includes simpleton-in-chief Shannon Elizabeth.

I’d be very surprised if anyone DOESN’T know this one, even if they’ve not seen it. Jack Frost is trampy fun, made on a budget so low even @Diddy couldn’t limbo under it without needing corrective surgery. Jack rarely actually moves, as that would require money and serviceable effects, so most of the heavy lifting is done by Scott MacDonald’s demented voice acting. There’s that problematic bath scene (which cost it a fair few points in this rate), Shannon Elizabeth withholding her norks as if she’s just taken holy orders, and everyone taking far too long to realise anti-freeze might work on a creature primarily made of snow (and only then because a kid put it in his Dad’s oatmeal to keep him warm while at work – such a tender moment of attempted patricide). Top drawer stuff.

Best bit: A horribly mean-spirited homicide in which grieving mother Sally (Kelly Jean Peters) is garrotted with fairy lights, has baubles shoved into her mouth and is then crucified against the Christmas tree. It’s played for laughs.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[COB]

simpleton-in-chief Shannon Elizabeth

!

 

[ButterTart]

60. Wind Chill (2007)
​

A girl (Emily Blunt) accepts a lift to Delaware from her classmate (Ashton Holmes). After an accident on an isolated road in sub-zero temperatures, they find themselves trapped and at the mercy of spooky ghosts.

Honestly, this movie would be higher up the list were it not for the supernatural element. The interplay between the two nameless protagonists is good fun, moving from awkwardness, to hostility, to co-dependence. It functions far better as a character based-thriller than it does as a ghost story, especially after the guy reveals he isn’t actually from Delaware and the whole trip was just an effort to get closer to the girl. The film kind of wants you to find this romantic, but it’s not. It’s creepy and I for one welcome him slowly freezing to death. With so much of the action taking place in the middle of the night in an unlit car, the whole film is ridiculously dark – seriously, just contrive a reason for them to have a torch or a couple of candles next time. The ghost stuff is formulaic and I don’t care for it, so I won’t go into it.

Best bit: The film is a real slow burn and there aren’t any definite set pieces. Even though I don’t like the paranormal aspect, I do like the leitmotif of Jingle Bell Rock playing on the radio whenever the ghost is near.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

59. Black Christmas (2019)
​

Sorority girls (one of whom is played by the hilariously named Imogen Poots) fall foul of a patriarchal, misogynistic cult linked to the founder of their college.

It’s the woke, patriarchy-smashing remake of Black Christmas you never knew you didn’t need! I actually think a lot less of this BECAUSE it’s a remake; there’s enough here that it could quite easily have functioned as a standalone film but, as it stands, it pales in comparison to the first two and, despite its intentions, is easily the least feminist. It goes in heavy on male entitlement (a theme tackled much more successfully by other films further up this list) and makes the unusual decision to have absolutely NO redeemable male characters, so these women are left being smart and sassy in a vacuum which kind of nullifies their power. It’s actually quite off-putting in how unsubtle it is in its desperation to put message before plot. Word is that the script was written in menstrual blood on the sleeve liner for Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves.

All of the above is a shame, since the makers clearly have an eye for horror. There’s an amazing reference to the nurse’s station scene in The Exorcist III and an inventive spoof of the creepy phone calls from the original Black Christmas. The slasher element and the fightback the girls mount in the sorority house (before the woefully atrocious final act) show that, with a sharper, subtler script, they had the skill to make a far better film.

Best bit: Riley (Imogen Poots) and Kris (Aleyse Shannon) kill two attackers – one with keys between knuckles and the other with a plastic bag. This whole sequence tells us more about the characters than all of the sermonising and I really wish they’d gone down the home invasion route to tell this story.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

58. Bloodbeat (1982)
​

A family getting together for Christmas in rural Wisconsin are attacked by a spectral samurai.

A samurai slasher set in Wisconsin featuring a family with telekinetic abilities? One for you, our @COB. I was really looking forward to this one and, while it doesn’t live up to the lofty expectations I had of it, Bloodbeat is so off its tits you’ve no choice but to stan. Sarah (Claudia Peyton) is the young woman being introduced to her boyfriend’s family for the first time, and a great first impression she makes with all that running around screaming and forging telepathic links with her would-be mother-in-law. The family go out hunting at one point, which I always think is weird. I can’t imagine a British film where people going out to kill animals for sport would be the heroes of the piece.

Considering the premise, the deaths are actually pretty underwhelming. In all honesty, they’re window dressing anyway, something to break up the light shows, levitations and general lunacy of the rest of the film.

Best bit: A telekinetic maelstrom involving a melting telephone and Gary (Terry Brown) being clubbed into unconsciousness by flying household goods in an ingenious bit of product placement.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

57. Sole Survivor (1984)
​

The only survivor of a plane crash, ad exec Denise (Anita Skinner) begins to suspect that she should have died and that death is coming to correct its mistake.

This is a nice little find; I’d not even heard of it until recently. It operates like a proto-Final Destination except without killer buses or that awesome bit in the fifth one when the gymnast snaps in half, and there are shades of It Follows with creepy figures watching Denise (or ‘DeeDee’, as people keep calling her) wherever she goes. There are some decent jump scares and a creditable effort to explore survivors guilt, but the pace is GLACIAL at times and it can tend to get a bit daft, especially in scenes involving clairvoyant actress Carla (Caren Larkey). Still, I’d recommend seeking this one out (It’s free on YouTube as of this writing) and I can well imagine it sneaking up the chart the more familiar I get with it.

Best bit: Not an individual scene, but the use of the silent, staring figures throughout the film is excellent. The horror is compounded by the subplot involving a coroner trying to work out why the blood in his corpses has collected in their feet, as if they’ve been standing up after death…

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

56. The Blackout (2009)
​

When the power goes out in the Ravenwood apartment complex, the residents must fight for survival as unearthly creatures begin to emerge from the basement.

First of all, stop trying to make ‘Christmas classic set in L.A’ happen. It ain’t gonna happen. We want snow, unrealistic sledging scenes and women warming their frostbitten hands inside their oversized muffs. The main selling point of The Blackout is how much it accomplishes on a low budget – it’s rough around the edges, definitely, but makes great use of its location and delivers some pretty effective monsters (Sort of middle-of-Lidl Xenomorphs, but still quite impressive). The characters here are uniformly dull and are quite the bunch of chatty Cathies, but the atmosphere builds nicely nonetheless and the movie is wisely unsentimental about its cast, picking them off in various nasty ways they’ve done nothing to deserve. The ending’s also a bit of a kick in the tits for them and you do feel like they’ve been put through the wringer by the time the credits roll.

Best bit: Sent to the basement on an errand, little Kyle (Tyler Armstrong) becomes the first victim of the creatures. This is what I mean about being unsentimental; having a child character chased down and killed in abject terror is a baller move that has my full support.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

55. Home For the Holidays (1972)
​

An elderly man (Walter Brennan) summons his three beautiful daughters, as well as his other daughter Sally Field, to protect him from the new wife he believes is trying to kill him.

As far into melodrama as its possible to lean without having to request permission from Barbara Cartland’s estate, the main selling points here are a fabulous cast, as well as other cast member Sally Field, and some whip-smart dialogue. The four, recently reunited sisters (who all, for some reason, have boys’ names) come under attack by a killer in wellies and a sou’wester, predating my debut feature The Springwatch Slasher by a good forty years. The deaths are bloodless on account of this being a made-for-TV affair, and it all wafts along at its own, languorous pace. To its immense credit, it stars Jessica Walter as substance abusing middle sister Freddie.

Best bit: This touching exchange, in which Jo (Jill Haworth) is slut-shamed by her Dad, is a great example of the barbed interactions throughout the film.

“I stopped counting the husbands after the third”

“So did I as soon as I found out you didn’t have to marry them to sleep with them”

“As I remember it, you found that out in junior high…”

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[COB]

POOR Sally Field

 

[Suomi]

I’m watching this thread through a hole between my fingers. Reading your reviews is the closest I could probably actually get to watching one of these because my mind just doesn’t need more scary scenarios

 

[ButterTart]

I’m watching this thread through a hole between my fingers. Reading your reviews is the closest I could probably actually get to watching one of these because my mind just doesn’t need more scary scenarios

Oh believe me, the majority of these are about as scary as Rosemary & Thyme.

 

[ButterTart]

54. New Year’s Evil (1980)
​

While hosting a televised new year’s eve party, radio host Blaze (Roz Kelly) receives phone calls from a man threatening to kill someone at the stroke of midnight in every time zone in the USA.

New Year is the disappointing sequel to Christmas, so it’s good and correct that I include films about it. This one is a proper early 80s affair, replete with a black character dying first and party scenes where everyone dances like they’re being instructed to do so at gunpoint. The kills are mostly offscreen and the voice the killer uses to make his calls is all sorts of (‘Eeeeviiiiiiiiil’), but it’s pretty tense and the third act twist is effective in that, even if you guessed it, it still doesn’t dampen the entertainment factor of it all. The characters are especially well rounded, since the film allows us to get to know each victim before their inevitable demise. The obvious standout is Blaze, who’s fierce, a bit self-absorbed, and seems a lot older than the actress’s 37 years.

Best bit: At midnight central time, loveable, chipper Sally (Louisa Moritz) is suffocated with a plastic bag. Her friend Lisa (Anita Crane), following a trail of her possessions, opens a dumpster to see the killer smiling at her from inside. It’s a genuinely creepy scene made all the more effective by how nice these characters are.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

Sync watch of the number 1 film now added to the lockdown schedule. I'll aim to reveal the top 5 on Tuesday, so you'll have 24 hours to decide whether you're washing your hair and can't make it.

 

[Debbie Jellinsky]

Oooh, finally some films that I've seen! Bless you ButterTart for sitting through all of these Z-movies, I don't know how you did it.
Jack Frost - I had been very curious about this for years and finally watched it last year. I didn't like it, it does feel super cheap and the humour is very And that carrot rape scene... well you wouldn't get away with it these days - thank God.
Wind Chill - Boring. Sorry Emily.
Black Christmas '19 - I watched about 15 minutes of it and it just felt tedious and annoying. Might give it another go this year.

 

[Ellie]

I’m also astounded at how many of these you’ve sat through - and paid enough attention to write a review!

 

[ButterTart]

I’m also astounded at how many of these you’ve sat through - and paid enough attention to write a review!

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, in fairness. There were a TON of really good Christmas horrors released this decade (and some absolute shite, see most of the list thus far) and I wanted to get the word out!

 

[ButterTart]

Oooh, finally some films that I've seen! Bless you ButterTart for sitting through all of these Z-movies, I don't know how you did it.
Jack Frost - I had been very curious about this for years and finally watched it last year. I didn't like it, it does feel super cheap and the humour is very And that carrot rape scene... well you wouldn't get away with it these days - thank God.
Wind Chill - Boring. Sorry Emily.
Black Christmas '19 - I watched about 15 minutes of it and it just felt tedious and annoying. Might give it another go this year.

If you can ignore the heavy-handedness of it all, Black Christmas is a decent horror. Just switch off before the last ten minutes because it’s so bad it’s embarrassing.

 

[ButterTart]

53. Antisocial (2013)
​

University friends get together to celebrate New Years’ Eve as a pandemic unfolds outside which may be connected to social media site The Social Redroom.

Like regular reader @vespertine Antisocial is Canadian, and @dUb was interviewed under caution for writing a suggestive song about it. This bears the timely, original message that social media is awful and we should all abandon it to pursue more traditional pastimes like crochet and masturbation. Despite a small cast of characters and most of the action taking place in a single location, this manages to convey the scale of what’s happening pretty well. Characterisation isn’t much to write home about but you learn enough about them to get suitably enraged at their poor decision making. There’s some bad science afoot and a zombie element to the final act that would have been best left behind in the edit, but it’s surprisingly tense and increasingly bleak as the enormity of the situation becomes apparent.

Best bit: Brian (Eitan Shalmon) communicates with the group by video call throughout, from the dorm room he’s trapped in alone. His journey is the most compelling part of the film and I honestly believe it could have made for an effective feature in its own right.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

52. Night Visitors (1987)
​

The Whitmore family are taken hostage in their own home by a crazed gang on Christmas Eve. Their leader, Travis (Daniel Hirsch), believes he has a higher purpose which the family are destined to help him fulfil.

I mean… What? What on… I don’t…

Words honestly fail me with this one, other than that I believe @COB will love it and may have had a hand in making it. Much more a surrealist comedy than anything resembling horror, the Whitmores are a kitsch, 50s pastiche family who are equal parts nebbish and twee, and the daughter (Jeralyn Fabre) has a face so angular she looks like she removes her make-up with a lathe. The gang, led by Ryan Reynolds lookalike Travis, are bumbling goons who never pose that much of a threat.

The most important thing I need you to understand about this film is that it’s absolute BATSHIT. I mean; certifiable, wouldn’t let it near a children’s play area MENTAL. It’s a horror where nothing and everything happens at once and literally everyone goes home happy. I love it but I’m acutely aware that other people may find it intolerable.

Best bit: Picking an individual moment to highlight seems such a primitive concept for a film this demented, so I’ll just say that Travis has charisma for days and the scene where he introduces himself and his gang (complete with fake names) to the family is a riot.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[COB]

I want to watch this!

 

[ButterTart]

I want to watch this!

Free on YouTube. I honestly don’t know how to even describe it.

 

[ButterTart]

51. Killer Christmas (2017)
​

College kids wander around an abandoned hotel, presumably because they want to get murdered. Luckily, a random psychopath is knocking around and is more than willing to help them achieve their goal.

I have no idea why this is so high up the list. I really like it but I don’t know if I have any justification to. The pre-credits kill involves a jogger coming under attack and deciding her best chance of safety is to run into the woods as opposed to the brightly lit housing estate she’s JUST come from, and that’s one of the smarter decisions on offer here. For some reason, the characters treat chopping down a Christmas tree as if it’s a party and decide they just HAVE to explore the derelict hotel in the distance, just like nobody ever would in real life. The hotel itself is an excellent location and the histrionics are entertaining, even if unintentionally (“There is a hobo, serial killer rapist… IN HERE”). There’s nothing to like about most of these kids, so their deaths are welcome, if nothing to write home about.

If I’ve made it sound like a steaming bag of shite, that’s because it is. For some reason, though, I go back to it time and again.

Best bit: Margo (Freya Lund) is cornered and stabbed to death in the most affecting death of the film. There’s a hilarious bit moments before where she tries to fend off her attacker by throwing PAPER at him.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[vespertine]

I've just randomly and inexplicably remembered the PARKING GARAGE HORROR P2 and wonder where it'll place on the list.

 

[ButterTart]

I've just randomly and inexplicably remembered the PARKING GARAGE HORROR P2 and wonder where it'll place on the list.

Oh, it's a-coming.

 

[ButterTart]

Before we crack on with the top 50, let's pay our respects to the fallen:

51. Killer Christmas (2017)
52. Night Visitors (1987)
53. Antisocial (2013)
54. New Year’s Evil (1980)
55. Home For the Holidays (1972)
56. The Blackout (2009)
57. Sole Survivor (1984)
58. Bloodbeat (1982)
59. Black Christmas (2019)
60. Wind Chill (2007)
61. Jack Frost (1997)
62. To All a Goodnight (1980)
63. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
64. Last Stop on the Night Train (1975)
65. The Traveller (2010)
66. Mother Krampus (2017)
67. The Nights Before Christmas (2019)
68. Dismembering Christmas (2015)
69. Christmas Slay (2015)
70. All Through the House (2015)
71. Mrs Claus (2018)
72. American Exorcist (2018)
73. The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982)
74. Holiday Hell (2019)
75. I Trapped the Devil (2019)
76. Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)
77. Mother Krampus 2: Slay Ride (2018)
78. Slay Belles (2018)
79. Unholy Night (2019)
80. Krampus Unleashed (2016)
81. Secret Santa (2015)
82. ATM (2012)
83. Krampus: The Reckoning (2015)
84. Stalled (2013)
85. The Elf (2017)
86. Dead by Christmas (2018)
87. Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming (2013)
88. The Damned Within the Shadows (2001)
89. Cruel Peter (2019)
90. Krampus: The Christmas Devil (2014)
91. Two Front Teeth (2006)
92. One Hell of a Christmas (2002)
93. Ugly Sweater Party (2018)
94. Evil Elves (2018)
95. Family Reunion (1989)
96. Elves (1989)
97. Krampus Origins (2018)
98. Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987)
99. Sick For Toys (2018)
100. Let's Kill Grandpa (2017)

 

[ButterTart]

50. Mr Corbett’s Ghost (1987)
​

On New Year’s Eve in 1767, Benjamin (Mark Farmer) makes a deal with a mysterious man (John Huston in his final role) to kill Mr Corbett (Paul Scofield), his seemingly cruel boss.

This is another one set at New Year, but it’s a British period movie and so is by default festive as all Hell. Seriously, they could make a film called A Very Edwardian Luau and I’d still watch it with a glass of Advocaat. This is actually pretty dark and sinister considering it was made for TV, as Benjamin finds himself haunted by the ghost of his deceased employer. His efforts to conceal the body and absolve himself of guilt drag him ever further into a nightmare of his own making and there’s a real sense of claustrophobia as his situation becomes increasingly hopeless. It does lag a bit at times but, overall, is a good watch.

Benjamin’s mum is played by Lili ‘I’ve got one question for you love – where’s my clint?’ Roughley.

Best bit: Benjamin and Mr Corbett wander into a new year’s party at an inn. The revellers realise they’re in the presence of a g-g-g-ghost and turn against Benjamin in a great example of the claustrophobia I mentioned above.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[Lucille]

Reading through this with FRYSTI STORMUR on in the background for extra MOODINESS!

 

[ButterTart]

49. Body (2015)
​

Home for the Christmas break, Cali (Alexandra Turshen) invites her friends Holly (Helen Rogers) and Mel (Lauren Molina) to hang out at an empty house she claims belongs to her uncle…

Smashing little high-stakes, low-budget thriller, this. The first half introduces us to the three girls and does a great job of establishing their relationship; it’s perfectly believable that these three individuals would be close friends. It soon becomes clear that the house isn’t what Cali claims it is and, after a kindly neighbour is pushed downstairs, the tone shifts dramatically. It’s at this point that the film starts to fray a bit around the edges and some of the character work of the first half is undone, as the girls bicker and panic over what to do about the dying man in the house they’ve entered unlawfully. The three leads are all solid, and the plans they devise to escape the situation are dark and exceptionally callous. To me, it just needed a clearer sense of direction in the second half and a firm decision on whether these girls are the heroes or villains of the piece.

Best bit: Cali’s plan to claim they pushed the man in self-defence because he was trying to rape them. It’s the bleakest moment of the film and unnerving in how prepared she is to drag an innocent man’s reputation through the gutter.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[ButterTart]

48. Night of the Comet (1984)
​

Earth passes through the tail of a comet which wipes out almost all life. Two sisters (Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney) have to contend with zombified victims and a load of nutcase survivors.

Despite the horribly bleak premise, this is actually a fairly chipper horror comedy set 11 days before Christmas, and its leads are two teenagers so impossibly 80s you can almost smell the cocaine off them. Main character Reggie is proper feisty – good in a scrap and a believable heroine for the film. Ditzy, mouthy Sam was apparently a major influence for Joss Whedon when writing his version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and there are obvious similarities looking back. The pacing is a bit frantic and you never know if you’re coming or going, like wanking on the toilet, but the film settles into a groove by the third act and the characters are likeable enough that it's easy to be invested in their survival. There are some genuinely cool shots of the deserted city, an eerie red sky which persists throughout the movie, and a brilliantly off-brand version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (If it was titled ‘Females Simply Like to Enjoy Themselves’ I’d not be surprised). Totally RAD!

Best bit: The creepy scientists who appear throughout the movie are revealed to have been taking in survivors and switching off their brain functions in order to use them as living blood banks.

Weihnachtstische out of ten:

 

[COB]

I LOVE Night of the Comet! Also starring Robert Beltran of Star Trek Voyager fame (and also of openly mocking and complaining about Star Trek Voyager while he was still in it fame )