The Nights Before Christmas Review!
Christmas Horror Review:
Paul Tanter is one of those blokes who can make something out of nothing. He can take a low straight to video budget, write up a script, and direct what turns out to usually be a watchable entertaining pick it up cheap on the shelf flick.
I first discovered Paul Tanter via Jack Falls, part of the trilogy of UK crime nutters he wrote many years back, then chancing upon him whilst watching He Who Dares one and two, then of course his jolly Santa gem, Once Upon a Time at Christmas (see review for One Upon a Time at Christmas here). This time around we have The Nights Before Christmas.
So there are two Nights Before Christmas, one is a gentle book of short season kids stories, however, Paul’s is the sequel to his totally insane X-Mas slasher, Once Upon a Time at Christmas from 2017 and believe me, I’ve anxiously waited these years for this promised arrival in my bloody stocking.
Co-writer, Simon Phillips returns in the central role and he’s a regular player in Paul’s creations. It’s worth noting for any overseas or UK based readers who don’t know the name just how prolific on my shores this guy is. His CV is crammed with gangster movies like Just For the Record, Bonded by Blood, the whole before mentioned Jack trilogy, The Fall of the Essex Boys, action movies like the He Who Dares duo, and horrors such as The Last Seven, Gehenna, and the Age of the Living Dead series. He’s been nurtured for the role he takes on here for the second time (soon to be a third time by the way).
Simon is joined once again by Sayla de Goede, his ever brutal and vicious Harlequin knock off, Mrs. Claus. It’s worth having a sail through the link to my review of the first to get a feel for this world if you haven’t seen it because, though it’s a more standalone story, it does help checking something out before seeing it. Either way it opens with a “Four Years Earlier” recap showing how they both originally broke out of their hospital in a blaze of fire, screams, and telling a doctor to call him by a more Christmas themed name.
After that festive introduction, we’re into a diner and a lengthy character introduction of a young lady still traumatized with visions of Mr. Claus, before her father is brutally dispatched on a snow laden night road whilst saying “I’ll never tell you where she is.” to the scarred and burnt faced Claus. The hulking Santa wants to “…bring the family together” then decides the next best thing to bring a family together is a funeral.
Enter FBI agent, Natalie Parker and her colleagues who decide to stomp all over the local authorities within the small community. Their interest is due to the fact the young lady we saw is in fact Courtney, survivor of an earlier massacre. Being that her father has been killed so close to Christmas, they are thinking shizz is on again. Local cops at first think it’s just a drunken accident, but Natalie really has a hunch. She hopes she’s wrong, but…
Meeting Courtney’s psychiatrist, we see via another flashback how she was tending to Nicholas (Mr. Claus) before his escape. We see first-hand his degeneration, from one moment begging to see his family, to screaming as she calls him by his name.
The police who are still searching the area where Courtney’s dad was found, come across an axe embedded in a tree, and the word NAUGHTY created by blood in the snow on a field. “They’re back.” states Natalie, as her entourage look on with concerned expressions on their faces. She orders a total media blackout as a new game begins.
Dr. Mudd, the psychiatrist is next in the crosshairs. We see how Mrs. Claus came to be, when our Harlequin knock-off was once upon a time simply called, Michelle. “She wants out!” yells the girl, to which Dr. Mudd states Mrs. Claus isn’t real. “This is what happens when you don’t face your demons.” she says. Our duo of Anti-Santas take out Mudd’s immediate family because the daughter and her boyfriend were about to do the nasty. “I couldn’t decide if you two were about to be really naughty, or really nice,” says Mr. Claus as he holds the teenager by her throat, “But you’re not on my list! You’re a deviant, aren’t ya?”
The day of the funeral arrives, and there’s a setup which allows Mr. Claus to be alone with the preacher. We then realise that there’s reasons behind their carnage and they are weaning out some people. “See, I made a list, and I checked it way more than twice…” Not that it makes much difference to the FBI, Courtney, Mr. Claus’s daughter, Jennifer, or anyone else wrapped into this tightening web. Natalie decides to take her investigations back to where it all began in a hope of finding some way of stopping Mr. & Mrs. Claus…
The Nights Before Christmas goes way beyond its predecessor in plot, atmosphere, action and just about everything you could think of. Our red wearing couple of psychos have been fleshed out with backgrounds and are far better for it. It is never dull, just constantly amping up the fun and switching on the gory decorations.
The Nights Before Christmas is a throwback to those old school thrill shocking X-mas horrors we all remember from the ‘80s, but with a modern style attached. You simply cannot take it seriously and you aren’t supposed to. It’s a pudding full of funny razor blades, it’s Christmas trees full of severed heads, it’s a perfect horror for after dinner.
Paul Tanter has left things wide open for a third and it is stated on IMDb as official. I’ll be honest and say I hope he leaves it as a trilogy, as this was fantastic and if it goes out next time with an absolute blast then the trio will become a cult fave.
AKA: Twice Upon a Time at Christmas, Once Upon a Time at Christmas 2
Directed by: Paul Tanter | Written by: Paul Tanter, Simon Phillips | Produced by: Paul Tanter, Simon Phillips, Mem Ferda, Ken Bressers | Cinematography by: Jamie Bailey, Julian Garofalo | Editing by: Robert Gajec | Music by: Mateo Palmisano, Chandra Bulucon | Special Effects by: Cory Lynn Bercovitch | Cast: Simon Phillips, Sayla de Goede, Kate Schroder, Keegan Chambers, Michael Thompson, Shannon Cotter, Barry Kennedy, Jennifer Willis. | Year: 2020 | Country: USA/UK | Language: English | Colour: Colour | Runtime: 1h 44min
Studio: Dystopian Films
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The Nights Before Christmas
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