Even though it's only the fourth day of October, our sponsor already has a white Christmas planned out in his mind.
Alonso Duralde is not only a top notch film West Coast film critic, he has established himself as an authority on Christmas films thanks to the essential tome
Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas! And this year Alonso is one of four co-writers for
I'll Be Home For Christmas Movies, the unofficial guide to Hallmark Christmas Movies that also serves to help you throw your own holiday film watching party! Alonso is representing
The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank!
When I asked Alonso to formally join my murder's row of Horrorfest curators, he not surprisingly chose a horror movie with a Christmas theme to it--namely 1972's obscurity Silent Night, Bloody Night...
The Butler House has stood unoccupied but meticulously maintained since its builder, Wilfred Butler, accidentally burned himself to death twenty two years prior. Jeffrey Butler (Nick Cave lookalike James Patterson, who died shortly after production was completed), Wilfred's grandson, wants to sell the estate to generate some quick cash, and sends his lawyer John Carter (top billed Patrick O' Neal) to close out the deal with the mayor of the town it sits in and the three people that serve as its unofficial chamber of commerce. But some pretty horrific murders throws the town into a tizzy. Does it have something to do with the mental patient that escaped from a nearby asylum...or from something the chamber of commerce has been covering up, something that ties into the fate of Wilfred's daughter Marianne?
Throughout previous Horrorfests and elsewhere, I've talked about the handful of films that provided a bridge between giallo and slasher films. Here--a pretty much home-grown independent feature that was shot on Long Island even though the narration from female lead Diane (the enthralling national treasure that is Mary Woronov) places the goings on as taking place in Massachusetts--is one of those films that build that bridge, and one I don't understand why it's so obscure. Director/co-writer Theodore Gershuny is obviously patterning this thing after giallo, but there are other elements that will become slasher mainstays...starting with the Janet Leighing of two characters we've been led to believe are the heroes and continuing with the killer POV tracking shots.
And speaking of those killer-cam sequences....there are strong echoes of Bob Clark's
Black Christmas, even though this was made two years prior. A large portion of the first act makes its scares work for the same reason Clark's film does--namely that we are aware of someone in Butler House while our two (at least in this act) leads go about things thoroughly unaware. Plus there's the fact that the killer makes disturbing phone calls to our character and you wonder if Clark saw this film...
I rather liked the cast, which are pretty much local actors with some exceptions. Outside of O'Neal, who was brought in as a ringer, and Woronov, who would not gain cult fame until later, the biggest name here is John Carradine, who plays a (mostly) mute newspaperman in a rather interesting turn. There's also a number of actors from Andy Warhol's Factory, like Candy Darling and Odine, in smallish roles. And to be totally honest, Gershuny manages a couple of striking sequences beginning right at the start with Wilford Butler bursting from his house on fire and sliding right on through to the sepia toned back story in the third act. There are a number of low-budget and homegrown production goofs (the ADR is really obvious throughout), but this is really effective in its way. I suspect the fact that it fell into public domain blunted its impact on the general public, but it I really feel it deserves a little more attention than it gets. At the very least, it should be talked about when talking about other Christmas horrors. If you have not seen this (and I don't see why you can't, as its public domain status means it's easily accessible on YouTube), I recommend that you do.
Tomorrow it's time to usher in Ratapalooza with our sponsor, who is a major figure in West New York filmmaking and has a new film, Guns of Eden, in post-production. Join me and the one and only Greg Lamberson to witness the slow descent into insanity of proto-Yuppie Peter Weller as his big-ass-we-know-it's-supposed-to-be-New-York-but-it's-really-Toronto luxury house is invaded by a small, four footed, scaly-tailed intruder Of Unknown Origin! Greg represents The American Diabetes Association.
There are presently fourteen open slots for this year's festival, and if you'd like to be included, there are four ways to get your share of the spotlight:
1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level. Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!
2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi. Suggested donation is $3
3) You can make a donation to Queens Community House Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Campaign. Suggested donation is $10. Please forward your receipt to me as proof.
4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.
It is not necessary to choose a rat-based horror film. However, if you do, I will forward you a special Ratapalooza banner you can display on your website.
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