Most holiday films don’t hinge their plots on involuntary manslaughter, but most holiday films aren’t as inadvertently grim as The Santa Clause. Instead of a heart-warming tale of what it would be like if your father was Santa, this film presents a world where Santa is a role much like Death. If you kill him,…
Merry Scary Christmas: Bob’s Burgers’ “Christmas in the Car”
“You know what? Who needs a nice cozy, warm, comfortable home? We can have our Christmas right here in the car!” “Yeah, until it runs out of gas and we freeze to death.” “Yeah.” It’s perhaps surprising that a show as gentle and warmhearted as Bob’s Burgers gives its holiday episodes a dark, maniacal edge. “Dawn…
Merry Scary Christmas: The Horror of Love Actually
Love Actually is a popular romantic Christmas film that I can’t honestly believe is meant to be taken as sincere. If this series is meant to talk about Christmas horror movies, then Love Actually is a horror film in disguise, in that we have elevated a film full of terrible men to the status of romcom…