A Christmas Horror Story

01/06/18 • 60 min

2 Guys And A Chainsaw - A Horror Movie Review Podcast

Better late than never! We kick off 2018 with a brief look back and Christmas with the EXCELLENT and supremely overlooked A Christmas Horror Story – starring William Shatner, among others!

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

Episode 110, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd,

Craig: and I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, we finish off 2017 with, as promised, one last Christmas horror movie. And this one, unlike most of the others we’ve done, actually has the word Christmas in the title. Yes. This this one, couldn’t be more Christmassy. This is a Christmas horror story, which I think was titled a holiday horror story for the sensitive Walmart crowd apparently. Go figure. This is a 2015 film, so it’s about 2 years old. And I was a little surprised by this because I think I might have seen it on Netflix like come up in my list or something, but I kind of skipped right over it because to be honest, it looked like one of those super low budget kind of crappy movies

Craig: from the

Todd: artwork and the fact that’s called a Christmas horror story, and I really didn’t see anything of it. Did this make a did this get a theatrical release?

Craig: I don’t know. I don’t know if it did or not. I gosh. I I’m hesitant to even speculate because I really didn’t read about it, but I felt the same way that you did. This is one of the ones that I saw like on the shelves at Walmart, and it kind of looked like one of those cheap Kompass knock offs that came out around this time. And so I didn’t really pay much attention to it either, until I think it became available on Netflix. I don’t know, maybe sometime before, maybe Redbox or something, I don’t know. But I decided to check it out and, I was actually really, really pleasantly surprised.

Todd: I actually think that this is

Craig: a really good anthology movie. Honestly, this

Todd: is kind of to Christmas as, maybe I’m going too far here, but this is to Christmas as I feel like trick or treat is to Halloween.

Craig: Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Now I don’t know if it’s exactly on par, I don’t know if it’s quite as good, but it’s really darn close, and very similar in feeling. It’s fun and dark and, you know, I thought it did a really good job. Okay, so there are several different segments. What I think is interesting and unique about this particular anthology is that it’s unlike some of the anthologies that we’ve watched and talked about, in that a lot of those you kind of have stand alone segments, with some sort of wrap around or something tying them together. And this one’s a little bit different in that the segments all play out concurrently and you keep kind of jumping back and forth between them. And, I’ve now seen this, I think, three times. I’m pretty sure that I watched it last Christmas and I watched it again this Christmas forgetting that you and I had already planned to talk about it. And so then when we were preparing to talk about it, I sat down and watched it again. And each time that I’ve watched it, I’ve noticed different little connections between all of the stories. The characters Craig paths at different points in all of them. And I didn’t notice that the first couple times around. But so having seen it several times now, I I can really appreciate that they really wove these together in a very kind of natural way.

Todd: I picked out 1 or 2. I can’t wait to hear about more of them from a person who’s watched it multiple times. I I think that you could have played this movie, you know, with the segments back to back like you would in a traditional anthology, and it wouldn’t have changed it too much, I think. It would have changed the overall feel of the movie. I guess, I should say the emotional ride that you take through the film is one of slowly building tension, Whereas in an anthology story, you’re getting these little bite sized nuggets, so each story, you’re getting these little bite sized nuggets. Whereas in an anthology store, you’re getting these little bite sized nuggets, so each story you’re going up and down, and up and down, and up and down. In this one, you really gotta hold a lot in your head.

Craig: Yeah. That’s true.

Todd: As it goes along, and it’s at times, I felt it was maybe a little overbearing because we jump back to another story, and I’d be like, oh, where do we leave off with this? And then when everything’s, you know,...

Better late than never! We kick off 2018 with a brief look back and Christmas with the EXCELLENT and supremely overlooked A Christmas Horror Story – starring William Shatner, among others!

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

Episode 110, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd,

Craig: and I’m Craig.

Craig: from the

Todd: artwork and the fact that’s called a Christmas horror story, and I really didn’t see anything of it. Did this make a did this get a theatrical release?

Todd: I actually think that this is

Craig: a really good anthology movie. Honestly, this

Todd: is kind of to Christmas as, maybe I’m going too far here, but this is to Christmas as I feel like trick or treat is to Halloween.

Craig: Yeah. That’s true.

Previous Episode

Better Watch Out

Season’s Greetings! We absolutely loved unwrapping this holiday package. But we can’t say much more about it, since this Christmas-themed horror flick has more twists than a candy cane. So go check it out now on your favorite streaming service and come back here for the full report.

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

Better Watch Out (2017)

Episode 109, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, ’tis the season once again, and this time, we have a straight out Christmas horror film. We don’t get too many of those each year, although they do seem to be increasing with a little bit of frequency. Craig and I were able to find better watch out, which I think was released this year, 6th October. And this is a film directed by Chris Peckover and written by Zach Kahn. For both of them, this is well, this isn’t the first thing Zach Kahn has written. He’s written some TV episodes. Looks like he he wrote for Mad TV. Chris Peckover, this is, Todd all intents and purposes, it seems like this is his very first film. And, you know, it doesn’t show. It’s really well done. This movie is probably the most of Christmas horror films I’ve ever seen, almost to the point where it, like, it makes a point of throwing a sprig of holly or a Christmas light or something in every single frame.

Craig: And if they can’t

Todd: do that, then they got the Christmas music playing. What did you think of this film, Craig? This was your suggestion. What made you decide to Todd pick this one?

Craig: I had just heard of it. Like you said, it gets kinda slim pickings after a while when you’re doing holiday movies. But it seems like this year and I don’t know if it has to do anything with, Krampus, doing pretty well last year or whenever it was that we did that when it came out. But it it seems like there were several new Christmas horror movies this year and I heard about this one when it was being made and it just, I don’t know, it looked intriguing, so I thought we’d give it a shot, and I’m glad we did. It was I don’t know, it’s an interesting little movie. I was really surprised. It’s kind of a coincidence that we just recently reviewed The Babysitter, because this movie has a lot in common with that movie, but, ultimately, they’re quite different too. I think that we should probably say early on that, if you haven’t seen this movie and you’re planning on it, turn this off. You you should you should go watch the movie first because this is a movie that relies pretty heavily on some big plot twists, and of course, we’re going to spoil those. You can find it on most platforms. I think it’s on Netflix now and and Amazon, so it’s it’s pretty widely available. So, take we’ll wait. Go ahead. Go out and watch it and then and then Oh, you’re back.

Todd: Okay. Yeah. Alright. I hope you enjoyed this. Can we have some of that leftover popcorn? But this movie is through in and throughout a completely a Christmas horror film.

Craig: Yeah. It is. And but it’s funny because it doesn’t it doesn’t have to be. No. We don’t. Like, it it could take place anywhere, anytime, but they it’s it’s festive. Everybody’s wearing fun Christmas sweaters and going to Christmas parties, and there’s, you know, Santa’s everywhere. There’s Christmas music. So, Todd definitely entrenches itself in the holiday, but, ultimately, the plot doesn’t really have much to do with Christmas. But That’s true.

Todd: That’s fun nonetheless. It’s not a killer Santa movie or or, you know, rabid reindeer or anything like that.

Craig: Right. Right.

Todd: But but the warmth of this movie, like, I feel like the movie intentionally took kind of a home alone approach in some ways to how it was shot. It really evokes that that feeling just in the colors and the tones, the use of music, and even even a lot of the camerawork in it. It just if there weren’t so many disturbing things happening in this movie, you you feel like you’re cuddling up to a fire on Christmas Eve, you know, with this with this one, I think. It’s good that way.

Craig: It jumps right into it. I mean, it when it opens up, the opening credits are in kind of, you know, this very Christmassy scroll. You know, it’s very reminiscent of, like, a Christmas story or something like that. You know, the very first scene is of a snowman and joy to the world is playing, but then right off the bat, you also get a sense of what the tone of the movie is gonna be because the snowman ge...

Next Episode

Get Out

Jordan Peele made an unlikely turn from comedy to horror with this surprise hit that pushed all the right buttons. It’s a suspenseful, timely, well-made, and absolutely chilling story of a black man who goes to meet his white girlfriend’s family for the first time.

For this episode, once again we are joined by regular guest, Jordyn, to discuss the social and racial overtones and undertones as any good English major can.

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

Get Out (2017)

Episode 111, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Craig: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Craig.

Todd: And I’m Todd.

Craig: And Todd, we have a special guest, Jordan. Jordan is with us this week. She is on her winter break from school, and, we’ve been trying to get her back on the podcast for while now, and, we finally were able to hook up. This movie, I I guess, Jordan, you didn’t technically pick this movie, but this is one of the ones that you requested we do, so I figured it would be suiting for, us to do it when you were on the show. Why why this movie? What the movie we’re doing is 2000 seventeen’s Get Out, by the way.

Jordan: I watched it a couple weeks ago. In my sociology class, we had to do, like, a film review and then analyze it, like, sociologically. So I was just bored at work one night, and I was like, oh, like, now is a good time to do this. So I watched so I was just like, I’ll pick any movie. I’m like, I haven’t seen Get Out in a while. So I watched it at work, and I was, like, looking at it from, like, a sociological lens. And, originally, when I watched it, I didn’t think it was that scary. Like, there were some, like, jump scares, but then, like, in the grand scheme of horror, it’s not exactly, you know, saw or hostile or anything like that. Right.

Clip: And but then I

Jordan: was analyzing it sociologically. I’m like, oh, like, this is actually kind of scary. Like Yeah. If you really think about it. And so I was like, you know, like, Todd and Craig should review this, and I’m really glad you guys asked me to review it with you.

Craig: Well, we’re glad you’re here. It’s interesting that you say that you were asked to watch it for a class because I was just reading trivia about it, and apparently that’s a big thing now. You know, there are entire courses being set, or being, taught, on this movie and the issues that it addresses, which are primarily, racism and white privilege and, cultural appropriation and all kinds of things of that nature. And interestingly enough, I read that Jordan Peele, who is the writer and director of the movie, who’s really, you know, been around in Hollywood for a long time, but has been known for his comedic work. He was inspired to write this during the first during Obama’s first term when a lot of people were saying that, racism was dead, and it wasn’t it was a thing of the past. And, obviously, he didn’t believe that to be true, and so he was inspired to write this movie. But he was afraid that it wouldn’t be well received because people would not take it seriously because they they didn’t still see racism as being an issue in America. And so, it wasn’t until, late in Obama’s second term when things just started to go to the shithouse, that, that, this movie became very much appropriate again, and it was just timely in its release. And, that’s why it did very well. I mean, it was one of the highest grossing, films of 2017. It was filmed on a $5,000,000 budget. In the USA, it made 175,000,000 and worldwide, so far, it’s made 250,000,000. So this is a hugely successful horror movie, and, you know, I think rightfully so. You had seen it before. I had seen it before. Todd, this was your first time seeing it, wasn’t it?

Todd: Yeah. It was. It was and and that’s just because I live in China. These guys we’re pretty limited in the fare that we get here in the theaters. It’s usually latest Hollywood blockbuster that’s generally very safe, you know? And even those, get edited a little bit for the the market over here. So, like, I didn’t even go see a alien, the latest alien movie, which I heard isn’t that great anyway. It came to the theater here, and, I didn’t even go see it because I heard that there are a couple scenes that were edited out, and the alien was trimmed, and I don’t know. They they tried to cut the violence out of a little bit, I guess. But, anyway, tangent. The yeah. No. I didn’t get to see Get Out. So, this was my first time, and I don’t know. I’m pretty jealous both you, and Jordan seem to have a pretty cool work environment where you guys are just sitting around watching movies all da...