Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)

0:00 Present from the people who brought you Friday at thirteenth. Now come, don't open. Oh, President homicidal maniac is loose at Christmas. His target is Santa Claus. No one dressed as Santa Claus is safe. His death toys are a spear, a gun as a chaser, a dagger, or a garatte execution by any means. Don't open till Christmas. Don't open till Christmas with special guest star Carolyn Monroe. Un till Christmas. Don't open till Christmas.

0:54 If you do, you may not see in the new year. In a world where podcasts reign supreme, two Friends dare to ask, do you even? Movie? Hosted by filmmaker Enrique Kuto and movie aficionado David de Noyer. Spoiler alert, Hey, my friends, and I suppose happy holidays everybody, honest time for the December months. Yes, here at do you even?

1:51 Movie? And if you're not listening to them around that holiday season, then you're a hateful person and we don't stand by you whatsoever. I am your host, Enrique Kuto here with my good buddy and co host David de Noie esquireson's greetings. That's not words and happy holidays once again? Oh look stealing my lines? Lines? All right, Well, we have quite quite a gift for you here tonight, as we are going to be talking about one of the most batshit crazy holiday films that probably has ever been made. Yeah. I don't know if I can think of another holiday film that's as nuts. There might be this one. There might be a few, but I don't think any have the notoriety and the tie to our friendship as much as this has notoriety. I mean, Joe Bob showed it last year.

2:44 That what Joe Bob showed it last year? On the Christmas He's shows like one hundred and twenty movies or something already. I just feel like this since since the release of this on Blue ray, I feel like it's getting a little bit of a bigger audio. I don't know what, what do you want me to say that no one knows that. I'm just saying. I don't know if no variety is the right statement for it. I feel like this is an infamous little ditty. Yeah. So in the world of Christmas horror, and that's where we're going tonight. We're heading into Christmas horror in the world of Christmas horror. You have your obvious stuff like your Silent Night, Deadly Night. But then if you dive in to the more the less mainstream movies, the ones that you would see late at night on cable or on a weird, questionable streaming app, that's when you get into stuff like you get your Silent Night, Bloody Nights, and you get your Don't Open Until Christmas is who for all intensive purposes. Don't Op Until Christmas is public domain as far as we could tell. Yeah, because it's available everywhere.

3:45 I mean, anywhere you watch movies is probably going to have some iteration. But this new Blu ray looks amazing, incredible. So that's one of the reasons we've been re enjoying it, is that we've been able to actually see the detail, to see the magic that is magic. He says. This film is something Okay, that is we're gonna dive into. Don't Open Until Christmas. Also, this is one of those foreign production movies where you're just watching it. As you're watching it, you're like, Okay, how did we get here? Yeah, but that's actually kind of one of the big charming elements of Don't Open Until Christmas. The first time I saw Don't Open Until Christmas was on a fifty pack of movies that I bought it like best buy, and I saw that title Christmas, so I put that on and there you have it. So what about you double show? So do you remember? I think it was back in the tail end of December for twenty thirteen, probably, if not twenty twelve, when Anchor Bay finally re released Silent at Deadly Night double pack of one and two together, of course coincide with the release of Silent Night the remake at the time. That was when I kind of went into a Christmas tail spin, and I was I was a manager at the store I worked at at the time, which was a media store, and I had access to special orders because of that. So I just kind of went down a barrage list of Christmas horror that I hadn't seen and don't know, a barrage list. Yes, that's not a thing

5:19 I don't know. Just don't you listen to me? All right? Never, So I went down, I went down a rabbit hole at Christmas titles, and one of the one of the peak ones was Don't Up Until Christmas because it had been released on Blu ray Or on DVD by Monda Micabro for at least like five maybe a little longer than that, years before something like that. Yeah, And as to my knowledge, I was under the impression it was out of print. And this was kind of before I really had insight into Amazon and being able to like really dive deep into what was out of print and what was just harder to find, I guess is the best way to put so special orders went onto it. There was the Mondo Micabre release of Don't U until Christmas, so it was on back order. So I just would hit order on those because you know, either they came in or they didn't. And one year it came in and I watched it, and I remember I was leaving my uncle's house at the time, and he came down right at the ending and he's like, is this don't open until Christmas? And I was like, there's a reason I live with you.

6:12 But it was just one of those movies that I immediately latched onto because I'm a huge slasher fan. You know this, and we've watched many a slasher films on your screen, and I just I'm such a sucker for Christmas horror and there's so much more bad than there is good that it's kind of nice to get one right now, Christmas horror. There's more bad than there is good. This is news to me, everybody, literally all my memories today. It popped up that like six or seven years ago, you and I today were watching Mother Crampis and Red Christmas. Wow. Yeah, that was quite a double feature. That was quite a double feature. Indeed. Yeah, yeah, it's no don't open until Christmas. No, no it's not. But so don't up until Christmas. This was made in nineteen eighty four, or it was released in nineteen eighty four. Yeah, we're gonna get into some of the interesting elements of it, of its production and distribution.

7:04 But why don't you run down the pertinent deep? All right, so we're talking about Don't until Christmas, the release date of nineteen eighty four, eighty six minute runtime with an R rating and a hard R rating at that too. The director, it'd say hard R does not say. But no, this film is interesting because you're gonna hear me say this now. This film technically has three directors. But our first director is Edmund Purdam, And if you might know that name, it's either because you're either a Pieces fan or one of want favorites from Jodamato Absurd. The man was a huge he was famous before that. Huge. Yeah, I know, but our audience, our audience particular, maybe yeah, but no, I mean he was a huge Hollywood actor Julius Caesar in nineteen fifty three Diary of Ann Frank and fifty nine, It Takes a Thief in sixty nine, The Fifth Cord in seventy one, Beyond the Door in seventy four, Absurd in eighty one, Invaders of the Lost Gold, and Pieces in nineteen eighty two Invaders the Law School, the only film where I was promised cannibals and did not get any cannibals.

8:05 So Severin put out Invaders the Lost Gold about a year ago with a it was a combo release. Was it Joe Demano or who is it that did Strike Strike Commando? Strike Commando? That sounds like Demodol, Yeah, Demtto, I think did Strike Commando and Strike Commando two. And they coincided that release with Invaders of Lost Gold, which was a basic loose remake of the Treasure of Sierra Madre that was done in the Philippines and you had Edmund Purdam in it, and it was directed by the second director on this, which is Alan Berkshaw. But anyway, the reason Enrique brings that up is because for some reason when I when I got that title, I decided that there were cannibals in it something I have read that. It was not on the box cover or anything. No, it was just somehow it got into David's mind. It was probably just because of the fact that there are tribal warriors in it in the opening, and I just kind of linked those two together because Joe Tomato did those cannibal films as well. Quite the realist, isn't he. Perdam also did twenty nineteen and after the Fall of New York He was in Titanic The Legend Goes On in two thousand, that cartoon with the Titanic that John tru And the writer on this film and second director is Derek Ford. He was the director and writer on a film called Swappers in nineteen seventy, Keep It Up Jack in seventy four, Diversions in seventy six, and then back to Alan Berkshaw. He is our final and third director and writer on the film. He did Killer's Moon in nineteen seventy eight, Invaders the Last Gold in eighty two, Don't Have until Christmas in eighty four.

9:31 He was the director of the House of Usher in eighty nine, that the one that you and Morgan watched in South Africa. Yeah. Ok. And he also did quite a film, yeah, Mask of the Red Death in eighty nine as well. So he did both of both of those. Those are actually not bad. One of them, which one that frank stallone I think of that mask? Yeah, mask. And then finally, the name that we're going to talk in regards to production is our producer, Dick Randall. And Dick Randall, boy was he Randall? Dick Randall is the epitome of of an old Hollywood type. He is featured on the disc in a making of segment called making a Horror Film that I'll talk a little bit more towards the end. But he was a big Hollywood type, big producer. He director, produced such films, directed and produced such films as Frankenstein's Castle Freaks in nineteen seventy four, The Girl in Room two A and seventy four, as well The Real Bruce Lee in seventy seven, which did not feature the real person, not whatsoever. Escape from Women's Prison in seventy eight, The Clones of Bruce Lee in nineteen eighty. That one also did not feature any semblance of a real Bruce lay Pieces in eighty two, and vad Is the Lost Gold in eighty two, and one of my personal favorites Slutter High and nineteen eighty six, Baby, don't worry, future episode. I'll make sure that happens that will not be happening. But anyway. Randall is credited for bringing kung fu movies to the West. He was a big time producer. He produced over sixty films in his lifetime. And everybody has nothing but nice things to say about him. Not me. I have a lot of bad things to say about that, let me tell y'all. But no, a lot of interesting characters behind the film, but the film itself so

11:05 Enrique. Here is the synopsis on the back of the Vinegar Syndrome blu Ray. It says, it is just days before Christmas in London, but not everyone is full of good cheer. As a maniac with a pathological hatred of Santa Claus stalks the streets butchering any man that's unlikely enough to be wandering around dressed as old say. That's what it says. Unlucky enough. Nope, you're right. Not restricting himself to any one method of murder, this twisted killer dishes out stabbings, gunshots, a castration, and even burns the face of one poor Sanna on his own roasting chestnuts. As the bodies of slaughtered father Christmas pile up, Chief Inspector Harris finds himself under increasing pressure to crack the case before the holiday is canceled for good. My synopsis, the serial killer is killing Santa Claus is in London and Christmas time. I mean, I feel like you could have done it in less words, somehow you've been like, uh, Santa Death. And before before we get really into this movie, you can, as we do, have to spoil basically everything about this movie in order to talk about it. Spoil everything. That's the whole point of the show exactly, So spoiler alert there. So this movie is currently available on streaming. In particular, you can find it on Shutter, but also you can get a DVD or Blu ray available on Amazon pretty readily available, and you can check your multi horror packs if you have those, because Lesa Enriquez said, this is public domain, so it is featured in a lot of those sets as well. So this movie, I mean, where where do we start, Well, we could start at the beginning.

12:33 We'll start the beginning, all right, So let's talk about our casting. So we already mentioned per Dom. He is. He's just a namesake in regards of old Hollywood, and he did a lot of horror films. Toward the tail of his career, he was kind of chased out of Hollywood because he unfortunately had an affair with a big Hollywood producer. He felt it was unfortunately. I don't think he was upset about it. I think I do not think so. But this film had a lot of troubled production with per Dom in my and that starts with him taking over the He started the production in nineteen eighty two. And if you watch the Making of a Horror Movie, which is like a fifty two minute little extra on the Vincent disc that was also on the Macabre disc as well, you can kind of see and they even Berkshaw even says it in his interview on the disc as well.

13:16 Perdam was really well rounded in regards to his Hollywood knowledge and just being able to do stuff behind the camera as well as in front of But by this point in his career he had kind of gotten a little bit of a god complex. Well he had been kind of expelled from Hollywood. Yeah, and now he was a big fish in a very small pond. Again, of course he had family in Europe, I believe is why he wound up out that way. That's correct. Was Pieces the first one they roped him into. I believe so, because Pieces wasn't eighty two, so that would have been following this, so it would have been the no, well no Pieces, Pieces was eighty two. Don't until Christmas is eighty four tech, oh please, So he finishes Pieces, but before that is Absurd in eighty one, and then Invaders the Lost Gold in eighty two. So Pieces in Invaders law School, it starts the saying your production as don't open til Christmas as well. So it wasn't uncommon for these international productions to snap up a name talent because they needed every edge they could get. So hearing a guy like him, even if as you're listening to this you're thinking, I don't know who Edmund Pardome is, the fact that anybody knew who he was was a huge victory for these small overseas productions. Absolutely, so it makes sense that they'd snap him up and they'd cast him in a bunch of stuff. They'd pay him as much as they could afford. In the in these days, it was very common to make a film, an Italian film especially, and try to sell it as an American film, because American films sold better, not only in America but everywhere else. Everybody wanted American movies because the understanding

14:48 was that's where you go to get great films, you go to America. So they work with Edmond Perdome multiple times and now as don't open until Christmas is coming along, they're dangling the carrot in his face of hey, you can be the director. Yeah, And that is not an uncommon carrot to dangle in front of an actor, especially one that you can't afford to pay a lot of money too. You give, and also directors tend to get a bigger piece of profit sharing, if there is any. They tend to be more respected. So in a way I think that that was an ego play. I would totally agree because also on top of that information, when they talked to Birkinshaw on the disc. He does mention that while he was not first hand involved with donutphent Till Christmas from its initial concept, he did bring one of the main actors, Blenda Maine, onto it, and he did have some insight into what was going on production wise, and he mentioned that in regards to Dick Randall's office, it was not uncommon for per Doom to go down there a lot and basically like try to find more work.

15:50 And so when he kind of begged him to step into don uptil Christmas, originally it was to be the lead and then per Dom at this point, like I said, the god complex, He's like, well, if I'm gonna to be the actor, I would also like to direct. And after you know, a couple back and forth, Randall agreed to that as well. So well, and it makes sense though, I mean, you're solidifying a star and you're solidifying a director. Yeah. Now, had he directed anything before this? Do you know only directorial? Is this okay? So? But but you know, he'd been around movies for a really long time. So and on top of that, they probably thought like how bad could he possibly mess this up? Yeah? Absolutely, And in a way he messed it up really bad. But in a way he didn't. He just did what he understood. Yeah, and I mean his his vision of the film. At one point in that behind the scenes, they're filming a scene that we'll talk about in a little more detail, where it was the scene in the Peep Show where they killed the Santa per Dom even says on camera when they they don't get the shot right and like some blood doesn't get seen.

16:44 He's like, well, I'm not intending for this movie to be very bloody, and Randall even behind the scenes is like he's like, yeah, we we we decided to reshoot the scene. And then by that point we also had a new director. Yeah, and that kind of thing happens. Yeah, I mean I've done deep dives. I mean, as I have firsthand experience fixing movies like that. Being hired is what they call the hatchet man, and it's a it's a thankless job. This was back in the day when the people involved were actually a little naive, because nowadays, when a movie has so many problems, you need to hire somebody to come in and fix it. Yeah, you don't credit them because when you credit another writer and another director in this film. I remember the opening credit said additional scenes by directed by That signals to the distributors and to the audience that the film is troubled and that they should assume it's going to suck. And I know that's being very direct about it, like assuming it's gonna suck, But that's the truth. I hatchet man this one flick, and I put more time into that film than I think the original director and editor did combined.

17:56 Not I mean, I got a producer credit somewhere on it, but but there was no way because I had, actually I had actually fight over the fact that they were crediting like four writers before I even got involved. I was like, you got you gotta contact these writers and see if anybody's okay with just getting a story credit or whatever. Now we're not in the Union so we could do stuff like that. But I was like, we got it. We cannot have four writers. If we have four writers, everybody's gonna know this movie's a mess before they start watching it. And perception is everything. I cannot overstate that I've I've literally shown short films that I directed to film experts, film professionals, you know, air quote shit. I've showed it to film professionals and they've been like, Wow, that was really great, and then when they find out how cheaply and quickly it was done magically magically, it becomes far less impressive. Perception is such a massive element of the film business, and people often are in denial of that because it's really unromantic. It's not fun that perception is everything. But perception is everything.

18:59 Well, And going back to that, when the regards to having too many names in one spot, I remember when you and I went to go see Hellfest and immediately when those six writers popped up on screen, Oh, this film had trouble. Yeah. And that doesn't mean it's going to be bad. It does mean it was trouble. Yeah. And it's the same thing about going back with directors in their names. The one I always think of is Alan Smithy in regards to Maniac Cop three. Well, that's a famous name people used to take their names off of them, but it's also kind of a middle finger to the movie itself. It's like, I've always wondered why studios let the directors change it to Alan smith because it's it's a part of the union. Yeah, that they can do that. But it's like that's like me doing a project for a producer and then being mad, so I changed my name to sucky Suckerson or like this movie sucks smith you know, Like I feel like it's an unfair thing to have the audience get a pre a preface that this movie won't be good. It's like, you know, it's like uh B Productions. It's like it's like you're you're you're burning the bridge on your out to make sure nobody else can enjoy it.

20:02 Yeah, so I always kind of was bummed by that, although in their defense, most of the people who throw Alan Smithy on something, it's not because they're not happy with their performance. It's because they're unhappy with the way they were managed and the way their film was taken from them. Yeah. So I'm not trying to like crap on any filmmakers out there who were like I don't want to put up with you know, my name being on whatever. But that's a big thing, especially when you have low budget movies. Perception is such a massive element of everything. So that's why it's like I always get nervous when I see like multiple right, Like when I see The worst isn't when you see when you have like three writers. It's when you have three teams of writers. Yeah, you have so and so, amper sand so and so and then another name, and then another name, and the word and and another name. That's a lot of writing teams. That's troublesome, indeed. Yeah. So. But now going back to the production of this, So, the main story that we have in in Donut until Christmas is basically a police procedural where we are following a killer that's going around killing Santa Clauses. And then we are with Edwin Purdahm who's Inspector Harris and his partner Pal and they're basically trying to solve the crime, of course, and in doing so we meet our characters who the first one that we have, uh is we have Belinda Mayn's character who's Kate, and her boyfriend is what is his name? I want to mention real quick, calling don't open until Christmas like a police procedural is like calling is like calling Wizard of Oz, like a like a murder mystery. That's fair, I mean, that's

21:32 fair. It is one hundred percent of police procedural. It's meant to be a police procedural. Yeah, it does not turn out as well. It just not no, it just not so. Yeah. We have Kate who's played by Belinda Maine, and we have her boyfriend Cliff, who is played by Jerry Sungwist, and they are at a Christmas party and Kate's father is a dressed his father Christmas and he is called out onto the stage and he's, you know, working with the crowd and everything, and then all of a sudden, a spear comes out of nowhere kills him, goes to the back of his head while he has an always maker or I can't remember what is that what they're calling it's the little thing goes yeah out of your mouth and that that kicks off essentially the events of Don'no's So Christmas, because then Perdam is called onto the case with Harris or with a Pow and they are trying to figure out what is going on, and then we have more.

22:18 The body count just keeps going progressively as the movie well, it keeps going. Also a strong word there's almost no rhyme or reason really like because in the beginning, the kills are so stacked that it's confusing, Like there's one scene after a kill one scene right, and they're like, oh, we have to find out who killed them, and then it's just nighttime. In another stand is just like existing outside and gets murdered. Yep, that is exactly. But that was something that I actually found really amusing on this most recent watch was I was like, it's not Pacete. Well, it's just it just happens really fast. It's well, it's not paste. Well. The sound design is probably the worst thing about this movie. Now, before we go further into this, yes, is this film good boy? No?

23:03 Is this film great? Yes? Oh yes, So I want to make that extremely abundantly clear. This film is so much fun. It is absolutely worth your time for the w t F factor that it is. I mean that alone. And there are a few movies that Dave and I both love that are w t F factor alone, movies like Nightmare City. In fact, they're mostly European. They usually have some strong ties to Italian film or Spanish film or what have you. But this is the only one that's about Christmas one. And when we were when we were when we were watching it earlier and we were talking about that, you had mentioned like, I feel like I remember everything about this movie, like almost feel like we don't have to watch it. I didn't say we alway we don't have to watch it. I do not say that you felt it we almost didn't, not that we didn't have to. We weren't arguing. You were just sharing your opinion, which is off and wrong, wrong, But no, you were saying, like, I feel like we almost don't need to watch this because we know it's so well. And I told you something that now I think needs to be on the record. I coined the term absurd What was absurdity fatigue as fatigue when you have a movie that is as batshit as don't open until Christmas, or Nightmare City or Hell of the Hell of the Living Dead or one of those films. Rats a Terror, Rats a Night of Terror is another good one. I sincerely believe that the human brain gets this thing

24:34 that I'm calling absurdity fatigue, where you're so overwhelmed by the absurd scene, absurd scene, absurd scene, absurd scene that you remember the whole film is absurd, but you forget some of them because you just can't. So you're like, oh, yeah, well the music box explodes, man, it's crazy and it's like, but do you remember Piccadilly Circus and the and the wax Museum and you're like, oh, man to London Dungeon. It's literally the movie is so full of insanity, yeah, that you won't remember it all it is. So that's my point. That's my point is that, Yeah, it's that you'll sit there and be like, well, remember when the guy get stabbed with the peep show blah blah blah blah. It's like, what about when he falls off the tower the tower and you're like, oh, yeah, that parts you like, you're forgetting crazy thing. That's how insane this movie really is. Yeah, And I mean and that and that goes back again to the fact that they essentially so pro Dom's version of the film, Birkinshaw said, was basically like seven sixty seventy percent done, and then he introduced Birkinshaw did the character of Giles Harrison, who was played by Alan Lake. Alan Lake was in Love Story in sixty four, he was on The Avengers in sixty eight, he was in Madigan in seventy two Doctor Hugh and seventy eight Heart to Heart. This guy was a little bit everywhere. He is our red herring, but also not I mean a red herring. I mean, no, he can't be a red herring. No, he's just badly hidden. I get. Yeah, I guess then produn the red herring. No, per Dome is a massive red herring. Yeah.

26:03 Uh spoiler alert. I think that. I think that in this film, I think they kind of based some of per Dome being the red herring on Pieces. I could definitely see that because spoiler on that. But like, you know, he's the bad guy and he's a killer in Pieces. Yeah, and sorry, you had thirty fucking years to watch it forty uh, but like, but I think that's why they keep like kind of hinting that per Dome is the killer. Yeah, is because he's the biggest name in the movie. He's the guy that everybody notices when you watch the film. Yeah, it's I mean and even today, like you'll be watching a TV show or a movie or something and you'll see somebody like I'm just random use but like you're like, hey, Edward Norton's in this. I didn't realize he was in this, And then like twenty is you're like, oh, he's the killer. Oh he's killing because this family. I did the one that was like, oh, Jimmy Smits, Jimmy Smitz, switch Jimmy Smiths. But yeah, Alan Lake. He plays Giles Harrison, who is supposedly working for a newspaper. And you'll notice when you watch the film that Giles shows up a meately and and and like Enrique said, you're like, oh, well there's the killer, Like there there is no hig. It doesn't help that he looks batshit insane from the moment you see him. You're waiting for him to ask about fava beans and a fine fiancee. No, I mean, he seriously shows me. He's like, hello, Yes, I'm Giles. I work for the news, for the newspaper murders. I don't know anything. Hm, why didn't it be nice to solve these murders?

27:30 I mean, so we have Giles Harrison introduced, and right off the bat you can just tell he is and in doing so, with that, Birkenshaw's creation of him into the story makes it to that all his scenes completely put him, usually not with another character. If it's only for the one police investigator, he really doesn't interact with anybody else except for the chick at the peep show. Yeah, he he is. He interacts with the chick at the peep show, he interacts with the cops. Yeah, but never never predome obviously never predom well, and they make it, but they make a reason for that, so it does. It's not a cheap thing. The reason he never interacts with per Dome. So yeah, he's just kind of in the periphery. But honestly, it works. As much as it doesn't work as a mystery, it does work as a storytelling purpose because he doesn't need to be around all the time. He's sprinkled throughout. And I think, honestly, what goes into the fact that I love this movie so much, besides from its batshitness is it is it's one hundred percent of Christmas slasher film. We're in London at Christmas time. We see Christmas decoration, well, we see weird, not quite right English decorations. The how I love Christmas. I love all of its iterations England. It's it's they're just enough not like us that it's weird. Like you'll look at the Christmas outfits and they'll have a hood and you're like, ah, Sanna has a hood, or they'll be like you know, have some sherry it's Christmas. You're like, what the fuck is sherry? You know? Or or they'll be uh, they'll where they wear paper hats on Christmas and I'm like, that's

29:02 a New Year's thing. Why are they doing that. I remember the first time I noticed English Christmas is weird was in the first Tales from the Crypto Amicist movie Yeah, from like nineteen seventy something seventy two. Yeah, because that one and all through the house there's this whole part where they're sitting there with their little cups of sherry and they have their paper hats on, and I'm like, what is going on here? Like I don't understand. This isn't right but no, but it's it's super Christmas. Yeah, there's tons of decor. Obviously, there's a lot of people dressed like Santa Claus aka the cannon Fodder. Yes, because what it really comes down to is this is a film about a man killing people dressed like Santa Claus. Yeah, and more importantly the fact that, for whatever reason, in all of London no one ever got the memo because people are just friggin stopping around the streets of the UK in their Santa Claus go ahead like called out here, isn't it? On Father Christmas? I fall the Christmas? And then and then they're like what they get murdered? Yeah and uh. And going into that, we have one beautiful segment that I do want to discuss because you may think, like, oh, the fact he's targeting men, well that's sexist.

30:15 Don't worry. There is. At one point, we do have a scare where a woman who is dressed in just a Santa robe is outside and the killer finds her, threatens her with the straight razor and runs away. That's not true. She's also wearing a pair of black pants, pair of black plan's excuse me, stop lying to our audience. But no, So Kate and Jerry or not Jerry. Kate and Cliff are out like out because Cliff is a flute player for panhandling, so he's just like getting money in the square sometimes and they're out. Yeah, and they're out playing one day and his old buddy Jerry comes up, who's a photographer, and he decides that he wants to offer them the chance to have a photo shoot for Christmas because his two other models canceled. So to keep in mind, on this Kate's father has just been murdered, like what two days ago in that in front of her and everyone, So any site of a Santa anything is just triggering to her. So they get to Jerry's photo shoot, which is in his apartment and he's dealing with this one chick and he pulls out this Christmas robe and of course it upsets her and she runs off. So then Cliff is with this chick and they decide that they're gonna do some shots and it gets to the point where they have to go outside. They end up getting locked out. Cliff runs off, leaving her, and then that's when the killer runs up. But the reason he runs off is because there's two cops that are walking the streets and he has his arms around the chick and he's like, he's like, oh, she's hitting on him. Yeah, And he sees this. He sees the cops and notices her in the Santa robe and you can't really tell that she's a one from the back, so he gets panicked that he thinks that they're they're gonna be a couple of gazes, he said, and he's like, they're gonna think we're a couple of gaze

31:45 and runs off, leaving her well, then she's just naked in the Santa robe in black panties, so she runs off down the street to try and hide from the cops and in doing so runs into the killer. Nothing happens, and she ends up going home and is almost arrested for or is rested for a decent exposure, but he gets to go home, and then that's when Dome goes to see her the next day, and we have one of my all time favorite lines, which is per Dome walks in the apartment and he's like, you know, you you should have been more careful. It was only the circumstance that you got here, you arrested for indecent exposure, and she goes, indecent, I'm a professional, and it just shows her. Yeah, so uh no, no, And that's and that's a good example of how completely batshit yeah this movie is, is that you could forget that there's a whole scene with a nude model under a Santa robe that that gets basically threatened with a straight razor yeah, in the first fifteen minutes, but then gets released. Yeah, and uh, the whole uh indecent, I'm a professional it's like, no one's trying. That's all I got.

32:47 No one's trying to make the sleeves make sense. Before that too, Perdome and and uh and Poal also go to her apartment and again like this is the day after her dad's been murdered, and she has the line of my father's just been murdered. I can't concentrate. There are so many one liners that are just so great. So from there we get into the Santa Kills, and I mean, just to run down the list we've got, like I said, a spear through the head in one of them, one shot is a guy that's dressed in a Santa suit, smoking a cigarette, roasting some chestnuts. And then lo and behold gets he has he has a chestnut cart, so he's roasting chestnuts to sell on the street, dressed as Santa. And it's only been three days of Santa Claus is being murdered. So got you gotta make a living. It's Christmas to make a lot of reference to people putting themselves at risk because they want to go back to work.

33:36 Yes, so I don't know if they were I don't know if that's bad riding or if they were trying to say something about the economics of London. Yeah, but uh, but a lot of people are like, well, there's a murderer and they're gonna want to kill you. And it's like, well, I could go back to work though, right, and all the jobs are public facing jobs. Yes, It's not like I want to go back towards my office. It's like I'm gonna go back to work working at like the Peep Show on the corner and ninety at night too for the most part, like a lot, like I think most of the murders are at night, so well, day and knight are just at will in this movie. Basically it is just night when it needs to be seriod. So he's selling his chestnuts. The guy walks up and I think he stabs him once and then puts his head onto the chestnut cart. So yes, his skin just completely starts melting away, and then the whole corpse just catches fire.

34:16 Well, he pulls his face off and he's covered in burns and then he just flops the body onto the cart and it just bursts into flames. Yea. And going back to the production of this movie, that poor bastard that had his face decked out with the black makeup for the Chestnut Murder. He had to take that off for like three days. They had to scrub his face to get that all it took. It took days and days to get the makeup off. For like a twenty second wondering what the hell they used to fix it, I mean they had. They show it. They show the whole process in that making of a horror movie. And Dick Randall even says that his agent called him pissed. I mean, the irony is that, as you described to me some of the the trivia of this film, that that Santa had an agent, but later one of the Santa was just a drunken a bar apparently. Yeah, so we have one Santa that's just stumbling down the street drunk, and then all of a sudden he ends up walking up to the killer who just puts the gun barrel in his mouth and then blows his brains, shoots his frigging brains out. So, if you're not keeping tracked by this point, that's five deaths in under like the first twenty minutes of this movie. And some of the deaths have like a build up in suspense, and then others are just I'm a Santa Claus gun in your mouth, bang, brains are all over the place, like it really is, Bonker, It really really is, and there really is. There's a lot of moments in the movie where I can tell that someone simply wanted the film done. Oh yeah, because oh yeah. There are multiple kill scenes where the sound effects just aren't just start there, like when the guy catches on fire on top of the chestnut thing, there's no fire sound at all, there's no like anything. To my knowledge, per Dom shot the

35:51 chestnut roasting, because they show him on the making of that. He shot the Santa that gets killed with the gun, and the I believe the spear was also him too, So there could be those pickups that Berkshaw did, But from my understanding, Berkshaw mainly put Giles into it as much as he could for the story and also flushed out a little bit more of there's a romantic story in this with Kate and per Dom that's kind of more towards the end, and then just kind of gets sighted and absolutely forced in every way. Yeah. I mean not just not just because the actors are clearly I have no chemistry, but I mean, like, for story wise. Yeah, it's just like and they're into each other. Why not, I don't know, they've seen each other twice, right, Yeah, So following the gunshot, we go then to a peep show where we meet our essential final girl who is Her name is Sharon, but she's she's credited as experienced girl on IMDb. That checks out, and her only other her only other resume was slaughter high mind you two. Uh, I'm gonna get it on the show this day someday. Don't worry, don't you worry. But anyway, so she works at a peep show. Her name's Kelly Baker and she's Sharon in the film. She's working at a peep show and one of the Santa's ends up stumbling down the stairs to the peep show and she starts talking to him, and then that's when the killer comes out and hits him in the neck and kills him and the blood sprays onto the glass. She runs off, and now she's the witness that we're going to follow essentially the rest of the movie. Yeah, yeah, Well, which is like maybe thirty minutes thirty minutes, yeah, While cutting back and forth between per Dome being weird, yes, and Giles being weird weirder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I actually that was one of the things I was mentioning when we were watching

37:22 it too. I sincerely want to know when did the filmmaker. When did the filmmaker think that the audience figured out Giles was the killer? Because it feels like they thought we didn't know until the creepy scene where they just show him kill a girl. Yeah, but we knew like the moment he says Hi, I mean i'll give you, I'll give you a break, and say the second scene he was in the second scene, he was in best case scenario. That was when people figured it out. So I don't know, I'm really curious when they thought people figured out. And I mean, for the record, two Giles is unveiled with like twenty minutes a movie left. Still Yeah, yeah, no, they definitely well but see, there's one thing I'll say though. Okay, so there's one thing for the the I don't know why. I'm not going to give you a schooling about film storytelling, but it's about friggid don't open until Christmas. But no, there's an important thing to keep in mind about suspense. Suspense is all about what you know and what the characters don't. So having Giles revealed as the killer to us could then amplify the suspense when he's in scenes with other characters.

38:36 They did not do that. He's only with the people he's already planning to kill by then. Yeah, but oftentimes that is the goal. When you reveal a killer with like twenty minutes left, is that then the killer is around somebody? Yeah, I mean heck. In Babysitter Masca, the movie I directed, I literally my opinion, the moment you really know who the killer is is a character. I don't want to spoil it because that movie's not forty years old. Yeah, but there's a moment where a character folds their arms and you realize they're wearing the gloves and the shirts. Yes, of the killer. It's a great reveal. Thank you. Well, some people don't catch it, so then they don't catch it until the literal unmasking. That's kind of why I love watching Babysitter Masker in a theater is because sometimes you can audibly hear when people have this yeah, oh when they see the gloves, or they won't until he pulls the mask off. But no, so I mean, then you know any other time you like the moment he folds his hands, about half the audience is going shit, shit, shit, shit shit because they know what's coming. Yeah. So but that being said, not really done here. No, I would say that the film about a third of the film attempts to create suspense, Yeah, and then it just says that fuck it. I think honestly, the suspense is best created by the set piece, is one of which will get to now, which is the London dungeon scene. Yeah, yeah, that that seems fine, it's fine, but like I think what I love about it most is that you you know what's coming, but like you get to use all all these great set pieces and kind of fake it out because there's just wax figures of corpses and torture and everywhere. So essentially what happens is there's a

40:07 Santa that again a drunk. He comes out of the bar. Almost all of these Santas are drunk. They are, which I guess checks out. So he comes out of the pub, he gets on his bicycle and he rides past these punks who really aren't harassing him. They're like, hey, Santa, what's going on? And like he flips them off, and then then they go after him. He crashes his bike, he goes onto the run and then he like hides from them and he finds the London Dungeon because he sees the killers like starting to tail him, so he runs back into the London Dungeon and that's when he knocks over the secretary of the dungeon and he goes off into the dungeon to kind of hide. Secretary runs, gets her glasses knocked off, they get stopped on by the killer. The killer comes in and then it's basically, like I would say, about a five minute not even chase sequence, but just hiding sequence of him going through the dungeon, the killer picking up various stabbing implements. Yeah, no, it is. It is mostly just the character goof the killer, goofing around.

40:59 Yeah, so much that when we see the corpse of the secretary, you don't even realize it's her at first, because it's just kind of a set piece of the dungeon at that point. Well, and because like who would have had the time to string and hang her upside down from the ceiling. They talked to her on making a horror movie and she said that that was a shoot that she was not very fond of because she was hanging there for like forty minutes while they got the shot ready. Oh cry about it, tell your union rep. But no. The London Dungeon scene is also very relevant because it was the one and only time that a film was ever allowed to shoot the London Dungeon. After that, no film cruise further allowed to shoot inside there. I think it's adorable that we're believing they had permission. That's that's also. Yeah, So from that point on, that Santa gets killed. And one thing that Enrique and I realized while watching this is some of the kills are decent to lazy or just I mean, what would you write? There are a few good ones. The ones that had that attempted suspense, I think it worked really well. Yeah, the Chestnuts one had suspense, yep. The London Dungeon one had a decent amount of suspense, but it was also kind of thrown together and cobbled together a bit. Uh.

42:07 But it's not hard to tell which ones they attempted because the ones they don't attempt it's just here's a Santa stab stab stab stab. It's like one we have at the circus agin the Piccadilly Circus going on, and we go inside the circus with some eighty r that's clearly not the Santa Claus is talking and stolen shots mind she was hold on and then the Santa's leave the circus tint they go outside. One gets kicked in the nuts by a boot knife and then the other one gets stabbed with a bottle and then gets stabbed with the bottle again to where the eye just pops out with no sound effects. Yeah, yeah, he sticks the bottle in his eye, but it's silent. It's like here you go, buddy. And then following that, we have the as you as you heard in the trailer for the show, we have starring Carolyn Monroe herself except what two minutes well, and all she's doing is performing a song from I'm guessing her upcoming music career it was, Yeah, it was her music career at the time. She performs Warrior of Love.

43:00 So essentially what happens in this scene is a Sanna, a drunk Santa wanders into a theater because he thinks that it's where the party is and he has to run away from the stage guy. And then the killer ends up following him back into it. So then he runs down into the basement where the stage is and he's running around. Up top, Cara mon Rowe and her band are going into Warrior of Love and meanwhile down below the Santa still being stocked. Now, this is where we also don't get the kill on screen, which happens pretty often too. Yeah, that's very true because what happens is and this was also another question that brought us when we were watching. This is Carol Monroe's performing, and then you see the sound guy like, okay, trapdoor, go ahead, and they raise this trap door and there's the dead Santa guy with the axe in his face. What were they putting on that trap door to begin with? I don't know, it's possible.

43:44 I guess that the trap door could have been to take her off stage. M But then why not just have it already waiting for her, Like, yeah, why would you have it come up so that she could step on it and lower down? I'll tell you something. Let me tell you something else about showpasines. Okay, did she write that song? Yeah, she was a part writer on it, that's what she says, right right. So here's the thing. So you hire her for affordable day rate for a day, you make her look glamorous and awesome as a singer, and you have her sing her own song. That song is registered with either ASSCAP or b M I or yeah, and I might have said the wrong name.

44:24 Whatever a CAP I think is right. Well, ASKAP is definitely right. No, it's BMI b right, And I've done this so I know this. When you register, I register ASKAP. When the film plays places, the song is listed on the Q sheet. So if it ever airs on television or gets licensed for something or whatever, you get residuals. Okay, that's why it's a good deal for her, because it promoted her song. Yeah, if it airs on television, she gets residuals. And that's a real thing. And it airs on regular television, you get residuals. It may not be a lot, but back then it was a lot. More so, it's really just kind of a perfect like little Well. And she's a grab at this point for a name, which is why, of course she's featured in the trailer, because by this point nineteen sixty seven is Casino Royale. The Abominable Doctor fives in seventy one, Doctor fives Rises again in seventy two, Captain Cronos A Vampire Hunter in seventy four, The Spy You Loved Me in seventy seven, Star Crash in seventy eight, Maniac in eighty, The Last Horror Film in eighty two, Slaughter High in eighty six, Faceless in eighty eight, and The Black Cat in eighty nine. So I mean even before Slaughter High and Faceless, she was still a big name at this she was definitely declining if she did this film and then Slaughter High, so she was definitely on her way out. I'm just saying, So this is the same year as a last horror film, which is one that you and I watch recently as well, and that actually kind of was her tail end to horror to where she basically just did bit rolls from that point.

45:46 That was quite quite a thing, a filmless, quite an experience. Yeah, Severn just released it. If you haven't seen last horror film aka Maniac two AKAA fanatic, highly recommend, really really fun movie just for the con the cons film Festival star. Yeah, but no can can can so we have that happened with Carol Monroe. Then we get probably one of the most famous murders in the film, which is we have an apartment store Santa that's finished up his shift. He's shopping. He goes down to use the lavatory and then the killer sneaks in and just hacks off his dick as he's taken a pit and just it's just one fluid motion and then he peeces blood. And much like at the beginning of the film, people don't scream when they're being murdered in London, which makes me wonder just what the blitz Creak did to those people, because in in the beginning when when the spear goes through the guy's head, yeah and he dies it for everybody, they all literally they go like oh oh. They react like you shit yourself in front of them. They don't react like you've been murdered. There's no screaming, there's no fame. Well you even said, you're like, why are they wincing? Yeah, They're all just like oh Lord. Like one person looked like they were like oh great. Like one person like put their hand on their head and like turned down. I was like like when Pranam was directing that scene, was He's just like okay, and now you found out your cat has diabetes. Cut hrint, I'm drunk it is, And that's the final Santa kill of the movie because then we basically get the reveal of what

47:20 is going on. And spoiler alert once again. Giles is actually the brother of Perdam's character. He had a very traumatic incident when they were kids to where he got a They do a flashback where you see he gets a nice little Swiss army knife for Christmas and he's celebrating. Father Christmas brings it and he's just stabbing the air with it and playing with the corks kids, dude, and then his mom sends him off to bed. He goes up to the bedroom and finds his brother still or his father still dressed, his father Christmas having an affair with another woman. The mother comes up. He shoves the mother down the steps, so we assume that she dies because she screams and then doesn't move again. And then he also like shoves Giles side capacitated her so that she couldn't stop him from killing his father. Yeah, and so consort, Yeah, I love that term. Consort consort. And Giles is just standing on the staircase playing with like just holding this knife and just angrily, and then it cuts to Perdome waking up. So what you find out is Giles is the brother of Perdome. He was sent to a sanitarium.

48:17 Shortly after that he got out. Prodome's been visiting him for years and years and years out of guilt, and now he's secretly posing as this newspaper guy. But he's the killer who's killing off Santa's because he wants Predomed to have this case that he basically can't solve. And it's never explained if he's actually somebody who works for the newspaper. Yeah, because there's a part of the same we called and they don't know anything about you. But then he shows him a newspaper and his name is on an article. So but that name is his real name because they have that whole part where it turns out Harris changed his name to Harry Harrison from Harrison. Yeah. So but uh, But before we get into the needy, gritty, thrilling conclusion of don't open until Christmas, I want to mention I feel like we glossed over to two quickly the Peep Show killed Oh okay, okay, because this is one of the this is like to me, this is the scene that defines the film. We see a department store, Santa Claus not drunk, not drunk, No, there is just British, just British. We see us a department store, Santa Claus go into a peep show and he picks up the phone and this girl starts talking to him. The dialogue in this scene is super offbeat. It is, and I mean that with love. Yeah.

49:28 Like he comes in and he's like, I've never been to a place like this before. She's like me neither, It's completely new to me. And you know, she's lie. She's like, well, you know, their job is to create a fantasy. So then he's like you know, he's like, I live with my mother and work at the you know whatever. And she's like, oh, I live with my mother too, And he's like, well, you know, how does she feel about you doing? Does you know what you do for a living? And she's like she owns the place. She's just making stuff up to make the guy go like whoa you know. And so as they're starting to heat things up, and she's saying like drop another five and I'll take off my top and there's a plexan Yeah, blast between them. Yeah. Uh. Then all of a sudden, he gets stabbed and blood sprays all over race. Now she is established as a character that we get to follow the rest of the movie, which is not long as we said, It was about thirty minutes away from the ending. So then she goes to the police department. The police are like, hey, you saw the killer's face. He's gonna come back for you.

50:23 So, which is weird because it's like, why did he come back? I didn't he just kill her? Then, but he's like, they're gonna he's gonna come back for you. And she's like, oh, I just want to go to work. Can I go to work? And they're like, no, no, because the killer's gonna come for you. Yeah. So then what does she do. She goes back to work. Whip, She goes back to work, and the killer comes for her at the work and it just so the killer breaks through the glass kidnaps her. So now it breaks very easily through the ground. You put it out because he just like puts his hands through it and it just shatters. Yeah. Yeah, it was like Jason Voorhe's in part three. But so now she's she's been kidnapped. Yeah, and by the guy who we all know is but apparently we're not supposed to know he's Giles and only showing his mouth, even though he does not do anything to hide his voices. So then when she is captive and they reveal its Giles and then he's interacting with her, even then the interactions are weird. She does not seem to understand he's going to kill her, even though she says it well, and she's confused by even though she's she's literally watched him murder someone. What is like, you know, uh uh, you saw me murder someone? You saw my face?

51:29 Oh god, what are you gonna do? I'm knighting, Madam lieber Stock, Like, like, what what did you think was gonna happen? He's gonna freaking off you? And why is he keeping you? Probably because he's a pervert, but you know, I'm not here to make assumption. But even when he kidnaps her, he even says it's because she sells her body, that she doesn't have respect. He saw my face, yes, the big one, but yeah, but then he says, like, you're just like all of all of them, all the women. You sell your body, you sell it, you sell piece by piece, he has a whole monologue that's honestly pretty well delivered. The guy who plays Giles is good, Yeah, Alan Allen Lake is phenomenal. He's good. So but but I just want to mention that. So then when if she escapes, yeah, okay, well let's back out, ye okay, okay. So the whole movie, Kate is trying to figure out obviously what's going on, and she knows that something is up with Perdam's character, like she knows that Inspector Harris just has something involved, and this that he's sexy. So they end up sharing a nice Christmas dinner together because she finds out that he's been going to Parkland, which is a sanitarium. She goes to visit it. We don't see any of that except her going into it sitting, and then that's it.

52:36 So we're kind of left as viewers of what's going on. So then she goes to this nice dinner with per Doom and not really anything happens except Cliff catches them and goes off angrily. She goes back to her apartment and Giles has broken in, and he's still given the whole thing of oh well, I work for the newspaper and I'm just here to ask questions. Well, then she realizes that he's the brother, because she's put two and two together. At this point, she knows that he's changed his name from Harrison. She knows that Pardum has a brother. So then the phone goes to ring because Pal's calling her. So Giles just straights up, strangles her, then kills her, and then that strangles then kill he'll strangles her and then stabs stabs her brutal, yea, so very brutally. So then Powell goes to her apartment because she doesn't pick up the phone, finds the body. He calls the rest of the inspectors because they've been supposed to watch for Dome and they're like, well, he hasn't left his apartment all night, which is bullshit because they went to dinner. So that's a lie. Yeah, so bad writing could have been a lie, yes, So so then Paull decides that he's going to tail Giles, so he find he tails him to this auto yard and he's trying to get after him, and then Giles ends up ringing this card that he's searching to shock and kill Powell. So Pal dies from electrocution. Giles goes back to and a pretty big cop out of it. Yeah, a lot of sparks, a lot of sparks and Giles.

53:51 So he goes back to Sharon and he's like, you know, I'm gonna kill you at Christmas time. And she's trying to, like, you know, get him to warm up to the idea of Christmas and bringing back memory, and in doing so, distracts him, grabs a board, hits him, And this is our prostitute hero who just starts saying Christmas goose and I'm pudding and fairy lights and he's just stop stop it, which which I love because it doesn't make any sense why she would know that Christmas ephemera makes him so angry. She doesn't. She just starts rattling us off. Now maybe she noticed the way he reacted to one thing, so she just kept saying him, I'm gonna give the benefit of the doubt with a doubt. But yeah, So now she hits him with a board, gets out and runs up these stairs and John because he's unchained her so she can eat her food, Yes, he brings her repair. Yes, how can I forget?

54:40 Yeah? Yeah, so the unchains her. She hits him with the board, runs out the door, and he is Look, she doesn't the door locked? Oh the doors? Yeah, because she says, I need the key to the door. Key. She's either she's either yelling just in general, or she's asking him for the like asking him where the key is? I mean she he does say where is the key? Turns around and looks at him, and he pulls it out of his pocket, like, Oh, here it is. I've had it this entire time. Oh this key. How did I know you had the key? I guess because you live here something. She runs up to him, gets the key, hits him again, gets out the door, and then they're in the basement of like this three story building. So they just go running up the steps. Giles is knocking the chain against the railing tailing her. They get to the top of the steps, he's cornered her where there's no place to run, and then she he swings the chain over the railing. She grabs it, pulls the chain and launches Giles off this three story staircase to the bottom.

55:36 Yeah, and I know what you're thinking, clearly Giles is dead. Well. She returns to Giles's body for some fucking reason which I still don't understand. I mean, I guess you would want to confirm the killer's dead. I guess, yeah. But she had to pass by him to go down the stairs out the door though. So Giles comes back to screaming, and then we cut to Perdome, who's having trouble sleeping in bed. He has the dream that is the flashback of Giles catching his father Tree eating and killing the mother, and then per Dome goes out to his living room and this is the ending scene of the film. He lights a cigarette, and the beginning of the film, he received a package that said don't open till Christmas. We see a mail carrier bring it to him, and then we just see the package sit the rest of the movie. So he picks it up. He sees a note that says from your loving brother. He opens it up. It's a music box that has a Santa spinning and playing jingle, and so he goes to light a cigarette. He's sitting down. The music box finishes and then blows up. It just on his mantle. It explodes massively, and the way the scene is shown is the best part. It explodes and he just kind of goes and sees some makeup because apparently when they blew up the thing, he didn't turn the way he was supposed to, so he falls over. And before he's even done falling over to the ground, the credits just fade in. It's like, we're done, guys, we're done. The movie's over. That's Christmas, so that, my friends is don't open until Christmas from nineteen eighty four, And I mean, wow,

57:07 I just I love this movie. No, it's so much fun. And I know we spent a lot of time picking on the film, but it's because of these massive, glaring, unrelenting flaws that I love this movie and watch it almost every Christmas. Yeah. Well, and there's just there's just those little cheeky moments, like we we forgot to mention that Giles before he unchained Sharon. He's like, you're not going to scape, are you? And she's like, I won't, and then the camera just has to show her she crosses her fingers. She's an adult woman lying to save her life and she has to cross her fingers. It's and this is see but this is guys, this is absurdity. For me. We can't we just guys, we just watched this film, like we just we just shut the movie off and came in here and recorded. Yes, we did, and we were forgetting ridiculous details because that's how outrageous. Don't open until Christmas is and I mean it goes without showing that. Like we said, this movie was a trouble production. And I feel like I have a lot of charm for trouble productions because it's just a charm for trouble production. I mean, I just I find them charming in regards of the fact we still get the movie. Yeah. No, I agree. There are a few good examples.

58:21 Devil's Time Devil times five, Yes, is a really good example of a troubled movie that turned out really fun. Yeah, And there are big mainstream examples too. I can't think of any off the top of my head. I mean, I just did a podcast with our good buddy Birdman over this week in Geek on the Maniac Cop series, and Maniac Cop three is one of the most I think infamous troubled productions for Yeah. Yeah, So, I mean, it's just the fact that we have this movie. We have a great release of it now too, with a bunch of bonus features and I mean it's a perfect holiday slasher film if you're looking for one that's just pure entertainment. I mean I would say you don't want to watch it by yourself, and you want to watch it with a group of friends so you could have a laugh. But yeah, yeah, I agree. In final thoughts, I just I'm gonna give this a stream it rating. We have three ratings on dou even movie. We have stream it, rent it, or buy it. I'm gonna give this a stream it because I think it's just one that unless this is in your wheelhouse of holiday slashers or just slashers in general, I don't really think it's gonna be one you just want to go out and buy it immediately. Yeah, I would have to agree with that. If I was going to give it a rating, it would be a stream it as well. Yeah, with a caveat that if you are a big movie nerd weirdo who likes to watch offbeat things every year, you know, if you if you're somebody who you know watches Silent Night Deadly Night every year like I do, then you probably want to own it.

59:39 Yes, But that being said, I mean with the ease you can stream it, you may as well stream it absolutely, so that's my opinion too. And if you want an extra recommendation, if don't know until Christmas is enough isn't enough for you, I do have one that I'm gonna bring to the table and get ready, Enrique, Oh no, I know what it's gonna be. To All a Good Night nineteen eighty directed by David Hess of Last House on the Left and House on the Edge of the Park. This is a film about a group of girls at a finishing school that are planning a party during Christmas break at their house, but their past comes back to haunt them in the form of a killer dressed is Santa Claus. It's a fun one. I am glad I actually could see it, Yeah, because the first time I watched it, all the night scenes were too dark to make out what was happening. The blu ray that came out, you can actually tell what's happening anymore. But I think it's a perfect pairing. Well, yeah, the only problem with that movie, or not problem. Even one of the things I like the most about about an all through the House or there was that tow algan Night to all the Night. Yeah, confusion.

1:00:42 One of my favorite things about TWA All A Good Night is that it is so recklessly and shamelessly derivative. It is just like ripping off Happy Birthday, to be wrapping off April Fool's Day, ripping off just any slasher movie, but weirdly none of the successful ones. No, it's like ripping off the ones that people like. Now. I don't know why, but but that is. That is the experience you get with that film. Yeah, it's not as outrageous. Honestly. The funniest thing in that whole movie for me is that two of the guys are supposed to be in high school and they look like they're like forty five or not. To mention when you recognize that those couple of porn stars that appeared, well, I mean they're like Jamie Gillis and stuff. I mean's and Harry reims Is Harry reams. Yeah, yep. So no, I think that's a decent recommendation. I would also recommend Silent Night, Bloody Night, Yes, because it is. It's it's a pretty good movie, but it's it's it's available everywhere. It's pretty christmas y. Yeah, very low budget, but it has a charm to it that I think works, but there I don't know if there is a Christmas movie this insane other than like Silent Night, Deadly Night too. And I think to piggyback off you in regards the Silent I Bloody Knight. I love the gothic nature of it with the big house speA. It does Gothic elements super Oh so that's a fun one. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think that is what I've got to say. Final thoughts on the tone of Christmas? Do you have any sir? Uh? I guess

1:02:13 my final thought on don up until Christmas is, no matter how many bear breasts you can pay for, no matter how many explosions and squibs you could throw at the audience, when you just truly lack an understanding of the human mind the way these people did. Like it's like when people watch The Room and they're like, it feels like it was written by somebody from another planet. That's how see sometimes how these movies feel. They feel like they were assembled by an alien race. Yeah, that only understands us from like watching The Flintstones. Yeah, so that's my final thought. Other than that, I think it's totally worth watching at least once in your holiday viewing easily to find right now. Like we said, the Blu Ray is available from Vincent and it's available lots of places in the stream. You can find it just about anywhere anywhere. So yeah, make sure you check out. It was on Christmas nineteen eighty four, directed by Edmund Perdom and Alan Bergshaw appsbolutely and that is our first Christmas recommendation and we have many more to come. Oh there's always more, my DearS. So but before we get out of here, I want to say thank you to everybody who checked out our first two episodes This Looks Good Kill and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. They were really fun episodes to do. And thank you to our Patreon backers. If you want to support the show on Patreon, just go to doooevenmovie dot com and click on Patreon. For three dollars a month, you get video episodes of the show without any commercials and a day early. Yes, and you can also follow us on Facebook at do you Eve and movie Podcast as well as Instagram at do you even movie Pod? Yeah, we would love to have

1:03:44 you around us or something. You can also email us at Doeevenmoviepod at gmail dot com or contact us at the website. And next week's show, we're going to be covering a film that we discovered that I feel like not enough other people have discovered Cold Mercer see Christmas. Yes, it is a indie movie for I think twenty seventeen, seventeen, and it is a it's a strange one, it's a fun one, and I wish more people had seen it. I think it barely has sixty reviews on Amazon. It deserves a lot more attention. Yes, so we're going to tell you all about it next week, But until then, all of you be well, stay whatever, and don't dress as Santa Claus in line forgot. Let me just take the Santa head off. We'll see you guys next week. You next leg