Christmas Evil (though I think You Better Watch Out better suits the film)
A blind buy for me, and decided to read through the booklet on the train home. Interesting reading the director’s introduction, where he sort of dismisses Kim Newman’s ‘sober’ piece, saying he subscribes more to John Waters ironic, campy attitude towards his film. So going into the film I think I was expecting some kind of camp ‘so bad it’s good’ trash fest. Pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t that at all, but a largely well-handled character piece. Reminded me a little of Don’t Go In the House and Dan Grimaldi’s sympathetic performance, eschewing the one-note psychopath route for something with a little more depth. Sure there were some enjoyably trashy moments and silliness (flaming torch wielding villagers straight out of Frankenstein!), but on the whole the film appeared to me to be playing it fairly straight (in a good way!). I’m interested to hear the commentary now. Hope Waters and Jackson don’t just spend it mocking the film. It’s much better than that . . .
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