2024’s #31DaysofBlackXmas
A horror film for each day in December
The journey:
- Enys Men (2023), dir. Mark Jenkin
- The Car (1977), dir. Elliot Silverstein
- The Eternal Daughter (2022), dir. Joanna Hogg
- Dracula (1958), dir. Terence Fisher
- Gothic (1986), dir. Ken Russell
- The Phantom of the Opera (1998), dir. Dario Argento
- Sleepless (2001), dir. Dario Argento
- The Card Player (2004), dir. Dario Argento
- Red Rooms (2024), dir. Pascal Plante
- I Saw the TV Glow (2024), dir. Jane Schoenbrun
- The Appointment (1982), dir. Lindsey C. Vickers
- The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), dir. Roman Polanski
- The Day of the Beast (1995), dir. Álex de la Iglesia
- Saint Maud (2019), dir. Rose Glass
- Violent Night (2022), dir. Timmy Wirkola
- Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022), dir. Joe Begos
- Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), dir. Charles E. Seller Jr
- Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), dir. John McPhail
- In a Violent Nature (2024), dir. Chris Nash
- Nightmare City (1980), dir. Umberto Lenzi
- Maniac Cop (1988), dir. William Lustig
- Mother of Tears (2007), dir. Dario Argento
- Giallo (2009), dir. Dario Argento
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), dir. Terence Fisher
- MadS (2024), dir. David Moreau
- Argento’s Dracula (2012), dir. Dario Argento
- Dark Glasses (2022), dir. Dario Argento
- Cuckoo (2024), dir. Tilman Singer
- Dario Argento: Panico (2024), dir. Dario Argento
- The House with Laughing Windows (1976), dir. Pupi Avati
- Black Christmas (1974), dir. Bob Clark
Enys Men
A woman in a bright red coat walks the barren landscape of an island somewhere off the coast of Cornwall. She’s a volunteer monitoring wildlife, in particular a clutch of white flowers of which she records the soil temperature at their roots every day.
The Car
Deputy Wade Parent is raising two daughters alone after the death of his wife and policing the usually peaceful small town of Santa Ynez—until a black car with darkened windows drives out of the Utah desert and runs two cyclists off a bridge into a ravine.
The Eternal Daughter
Julie, an artist and photographer, takes her mother to a luxurious country hotel for her birthday, but is unsettled by strange noises and half-seen figures. The hotel was once her mother’s family home, and the visit unearths unexpected memories.
31DaysofBlackXmas2024 DarioArgento SeenRead 31DaysofHorror2023 DavidLynch 31DaysofHorror2021
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Dracula
Christopher Lee’s Dracula is iconic. He’s tall, his face carries an animalistic quality when in vampire mode, he’s sometimes slow and imposing, but then he strides up castle stairs three at a time. Beneath his civility is a barely held in check hunger. It’s wonderful to watch.
Gothic
I love Ken Russell. He’s not afraid to be weird, sexual, gloopy and violent. Byron, Godwin, Shelley and Polidori whip each other into a fervour as a metaphor for the artists creative process and the courage required in the face of all the imagery and emotions that can fly around while making art.
The Phantom of the Opera
A baby is put in a basket and released into the sewer where rats pull it to safety and raise it as one of their own. Argento’s Phantom is the king of the rats, but also a hunky blonde stud in Julian Sands, beautiful, charming, with no mask in sight.
Sleepless
Young Giacomo watches a hidden figure stab his mother to death with a flute. Police Chief Moretti promises the boy he will catch the killer, and he does, but seventeen years later the killings begin again. The retired Moretti teams up with adult Giacomo to catch the Dwarf Killer who seems to be back from the dead.
The Card Player
Rome detective Anna Mari pairs up with rogue Irish cop John Brennan to find a gambling serial killer who challenges the police to games of online poker to save the lives of kidnapped women. Twists and turns (but not that many) ensue.
Red Rooms
Kelly-Anne turns up every day at the trial of a high profile alleged serial killer who is charged with broadcasting on the dark web the torture and murder of three teenage girls. She meets a groupie of the suspect who believes he is innocent, but Kelly-Anne’s motives remain elusive.
I Saw the TV Glow
Nostalgia is both comforting and soul crushing. Owen bonds with Maddy over a TV show she’s obsessed with, The Pink Opaque. Maddy is miserable in her life, and decides to run away from home, giving Owen a choice that will affect the rest of his life.
The Appointment
The shocking opening death of a schoolgirl becomes a realistic family drama, then a woozy nightmare of attacking dogs, car crashes and things in the woods.
The Fearless Vampire Killers
I wanted something light. I remembered not enjoying this a few years back but loving it as a kid, so I gave it another go. It’s a farce based on a mixture of Hammer horror and Universal Monster films.
The Day of the Beast
A real horror comedy to repair the damage of Polanski’s vampire farce. And a Christmas movie! A priest thinks he has solved the puzzle of when the Antichrist will be born, and goes to Madrid to stop it which involves giving his soul to the devil.
Saint Maud
Maud, a private nurse from a Catholic care agency, starts a new job looking after acclaimed dancer Amanda Kohl who has Stage 4 cancer and is close to death. Amanda lives a hedonistic and drama-filled life which clashes with Maud’s newfound faith.
Violent Night
Santa Claus is drunk in a bar, despairing of children’s greed, and thinking about giving it all up. While delivering presents to a rural mansion, he interrupts a robbery, and to save good girl Trudy he has to call on his skills as a Viking warrior.
Christmas Bloody Christmas
A grimy, low budget, fun-but-annoying mashup of Terminator, every sleazy slasher ever, a hangout movie, Texas Chain Saw Massacre and... First Blood?
Silent Night, Deadly Night
On the way home from visiting his grandfather on Christmas Eve, young Billy Chapman watches his parents slain by a robber dressed as Santa Claus. Years later, grown-up Billy gets triggered into violence when he has to be Santa Claus himself.
Anna and the Apocalypse
Staying festive, a Scottish zombie musical that captures the longing to escape a small town, the tricky relationships we navigate as teenagers, with peers, parents and teachers, and the power of musical theatre to kill the undead.
In a Violent Nature
It’s rare a film comes along in the horror space and asks questions about the form. Cabin in the Woods did it back in 2011, and this does it with the slasher genre, subverting its conventions in pointed and interesting ways.
Nightmare City
A radiation incident is reported in an anonymous Italian city moments before a military plane lands at the civilian airport. Mutant humans pour out and begin a city-wide massacre, killing indiscriminately, drinking victims blood, and infecting everyone who manages to survive.
Maniac Cop
The VHS cover for Maniac Cop was iconic to video shop-haunting teens like me. Tom Atkins plays Tom Atkins as the detective, Frank McCrae, hunting a mysterious police officer who’s killing innocent people on the streets of New York. Also - Bruce Campbell!
Mother of Tears
A grave containing a rune-covered box is discovered outside a churchyard in Rome. Art restoration student Sarah Landy helps her tutor open the box, which contains magical artifacts including a tunic that bestows great power to the still-alive medieval witch Mater Lachrymarum.
Giallo
Inspector Enzo Avolfi specialises in finding serial killers. In Turin, someone is cutting up and killing beautiful young women, and when model Celine fails to arrive to meet her sister, Linda, Avolfi has to help her search the city before Celine becomes another victim.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
This was a dose of good cheer after watching Dario Argento’s Giallo. A Hammer Studios production, Peter Cushing, André Morell and Christoper Lee, as well as a supporting cast of luminaries, play off each other beautifully. Fisher made this not long after Dracula, and the sets and costumes are similarly lush.
MadS
Romain tries a new drug from his dealer before going to a house party in the suburbs of a French city. He picks up an injured woman who might have escaped from a nearby military facility. From there things get progressively darker—what is real and what might be a bad trip?
Argento’s Dracula
There’s a moment when Rutger Hauer’s Van Helsing arrives two-thirds in and my spirits lifted because perhaps the film could be saved, but the moment he started to say his lines, I knew it was actually a stake through my heart.
Dark Glasses
Diana, a sex worker, is chased by an unknown assailant, leading to a car accident that kills the parents of a young boy and leaves her blind. She slowly adapts to her new life and temporarily takes in the orphaned boy, but the killer returns to finish the job.
Cuckoo
After her mother dies, Gretchen moves with her estranged father’s family to a resort in the German Alps. To stave off boredom, Gretchen takes a job at the resort reception, where she notices the odd behaviour of the residents and of her boss, Herr König.
Dario Argento: Panico
This is the documentary that gave me the idea to watch all of Dario Argento’s films this year, and it was interesting to watch it again at the end of the project.
The House with Laughing Windows
Stefano arrives in a half-empty Italian town at the behest of the mayor to restore a fresco inside a local church. An impeccably crafted but scuzzy Italian folk horror. The final fifteen minutes are wild.
Black Christmas
In the days before the Christmas break, a killer breaks into a sorority house and begins to pick off the girls one by one. The girls are also being plagued by obscene phone calls from someone who calls himself Billy. It’s a richly layered film with plenty of political meat on its bones for what could have been a cheap thriller for teens.