It’s Christmas in (almost) July! But no matter the season, Matthew C. DuPée’s A Scary Little Christmas is the book fans of holiday horror have been waiting years for.
Subtitled A History of Yuletide Horror Films, 1972-2020, the book groups some 200 movies (including sci-fi entries, despite the title) across such subgenres as slashers, anthologies, zombies, hauntings, elves, Krampus, sharks — even killer trees!
Fittingly, a deep dive into the Silent Night, Deadly Night pentalogy — and its reboot — kicks off the contents. It’s an ideal start, allowing DuPée to showcase everything his book does well in one spot: interviews with cast and crew, historical context, thoughtful commentary, God-honest criticism and — oh, yeah — fun! His introductory note of actively avoiding an academic approach isn’t just talk.
All the movies you’d expect are here — Black Christmas, Christmas Evil, Gremlins (which a disproportionate amount of filmmakers cite as an influence and/or inspiration) — but also the ones you don’t. That means recent indies like Ugly Sweater Party get their fair share of ink, because nothing celebrates the birth of the Christ child quite like “genital-ripping, baseball bat beatings and violent diarrhea explosions.”
That also means movies that aren’t explicitly festive get their due. Falling into this category are the overlooked thrillers ATM, P2 and While She Was Out; their inclusion cements DuPée’s book as essential. The appendix allows him to go even further with capsule reviews of additional titles that didn’t make the initial cut, such as Sheitan and The Lodge.
Errors number few (the most glaring suggests the Oscars are awarded for TV shows) because the book is near-exhaustively researched. While the interviews with cast and crew members could be trimmed of redundancy, they are enlightening — and often unguarded and candid. DuPée navigates his cinematic sleigh ride with good taste and no blinders, willing to give anything a fair shot. He’s unafraid to call out the crap (“a cascade of subpar independent horror schlock”), yet also acknowledges “sometimes you need some cheese with your wine.”
Where else are you going to get four pages of behind-the-scenes stories of Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys? —Rod Lott