31 Days of Halloween - Day 11: Black X-Mas

For the last few years I always do a 31 days of Halloween month. The past few years I re-read all the original Goosebumps books and before that I'd watch 31 horror movies. However I realized every single time I watched 31 Horror movies I exclusively picked ones I enjoyed. I decided to do something slightly different. I composed a list of every horror movie I owned and put them in alphabetical order. Then using a random number generator I generated 31 numbers and watched the movies that corresponded with those numbers. Some are great films and others… well… are less than fun let's say. I hope you enjoy!

Day 11: Black X-Mas (Movie #51)

Let me preference this write up by saying that I think the Original Black Christmas is without argument one of the top 10 best/most important/scariest/etc Horror movies of all time. It is a perfectly executed horror-mystery with a frighteningly open ended conclusion. Black X-Mas is none of those things.

Now does that mean I disliked this movie? Not at all. I have a genuine love for this remake but its in the same way I love something like Sleepaway Camp. Every death is so over the top, there's icicles falling through faces, ice skates and candy canes used in place of knives and a plot involving making human flesh cookies. If this movie was meant to be taken seriously they fucked up big time, if this was meant to be an over-the-top fun and gory slasher than A+ to everyone involved.

The plot line to this remake is mostly faithful to the original premise. A group of sorority girls are tortured by a crazed man in their house who keeps calling them. The modernization of things (like cell phones) take away part of the terror.

One of the biggest changes is that throughout most of the original no one knew there was a killer in the house. They assumed girls had left home for the holidays early and they were getting prank phone calls. This film they're well aware there's a killer in the house, which begins raising the question of why are they looking for this guy instead of just leaving (or calling the cops on their cell phones that obviously work).

The other mistake in this film is revealing Billy and giving him a backstory. What terrified me most in the original Black Christmas is (SPOILER ALERT) never knowing who it was that was doing these things.

As far as remakes go this isn't terrible but it certainly isn't particularly good. But I remember having a blast when I saw it in theaters. The fact that I'm still able to enjoy it all these years later is a nice bonus. 

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon. He also loves it when people surprise him with purchases from his Amazon Wishlist… just saying.

Jaws the Revenge: Greatest Christmas Movie Ever? (25 Songs of Christmas Part 17)

So Jaws the Revenge has long been considered one of the worst movies of all time; for starters it has one of the most action packed box covers of all time.



Beyond that it has the 2nd* shittiest looking shark in film history



That shark does it all, it roars, it eats fucking planes, and it explodes unexplainably. Jaws the Revenge is remembered for a lot of things; but few remember that the whole movie takes place around christmas time; It's actually quite genius; I mean... sure christmas time for most of us means no more fear of sharks; Specifically up north we're not thinking about swimming at all for quite some while... Jaws the Revenge has a very select audience, people that leave in the south (specifically Jamaica) who have to deal with a fear of sharks all christmas long. Perhaps we only thing its a shit movie becuase we don't know the true fear of opening christmas gifts and then FEARING FOR YOUR FUCKING LIFE!

Speaking of Christmas, Gatsby's American Dreams Nintendo-Core Christmas Metal Epic St. Nicholas is #17 on the 25 songs of Christmas



* = For the record the worst looking shark of all time is in 1980's The Last Shark (Great White)

Come in and know me Better man! (25 Songs of Christmas Part 6)

Before I post Christmas Song #6 in the the 25 songs of the Christmas I just wanted to post my review for Tis the Season to be Gotee which is up right now at absolutepunk.net.

Okay now song #6 isn't nearly as ridiculous as the songs in the last 5 days, but if you know me it's not really that surprising that it's on my list. Song 6 comes from the Muppets film "Muppet Christams Carol" it's the delightfully catchy (and the song that was stuck in my head ALL day at work) "It Feels Like Christmas"

How Jonathan London Ruined My Social Life (The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 5)

Today Geekscape founder Jonathan London turns 32 years old. While having a long and bizarrely complicated relationship with Mr. London I only actually got to meet him in person very recently. He is without a doubt one of (if not the) biggest driving force/motivation to my move to LA in July. Geekscape has indirectly (and directly) been one of the most important things in my life but I've never really told the whole story. I think it'd make an awesome blog entry myself.

Back in December of 2006 I got my first laptop; it's currently been my ONLY laptop. It was a mac-book pro that my friend (who worked for Apple) got me using an employee discount. I now had access to iTunes and I decided I'd check out these things called podcast I've been hearing so much about. I didn't really know what I wanted and somehow (and I honestly don't remember how anymore) i noticed a title that struck my interest... Geekscape. The episode was Episode 5: Nutpunch featuring co-host Scott Culver, to this day he is still one of my top 5 favorite Geekscape guests (despite NEVER returning for a second episode). I remember laughing my ass off and feeling like I could really relate to these guys, but what really struck my attention was hearing these two guys talking about bands like Don't Look Down who I knew of, but only thought I knew them because of growing up in the Tri-State area.

Using Facebook and Myspace I decided to track down the creator and host of this show, Jonathan London. London will tell you, he's one of the easiest internet personalities to get in touch with and it's true. His facebook has his screen name on it and I immediately IMed him, I told him how I just watched an episode and how great it was and we talked about different punk bands. Everyone week I'd listen to the new episode and then IM him to tell him how much I liked it. But that was really the extent of our friendship and relationship, until December of 2007.

Geekscape was getting ready to celebrate it's one year and I contacted Jonathan with an idea. "You should do a what a difference a year makes type segment, looking back at the first episode and seeing how far we came". Jonathan's answer was simply "if you're willing to watch episode 1 and give me notes... I'll do just that." So I did.

I think this single decision of doing exactly what he asked me to do is what changed our friendship. He started asking me if I'd be interested in doing other things, Join the forums, run the youtube page, run the facebook page, even write an occasional article. Geekscape started to become a second home; I'd spend hours on the forums, sometimes refreshing the page every couple minutes to see if someone had posted a new post. I even got my girlfriend at the time to become a scapist, and when my girlfriend dumped me... Geekscape was there to support me in ways that I was never able to ask my friends here in PA for help.

I began to distance myself from Geekscape in the spring of 2009. I just stopped watching, I'd still post occasionally, but I really stayed out of the loop. I'll never completely know why I did this, but I did. By the winter of 2009 I was at my lowest. I had no girlfriend, no job and was living with a married couple (though very good friends). I never really felt at home there, while M & L were very welcoming, I couldn't help but feel like I was always in the way, invading a honeymoon if you will. During this unhappiness, I started to watch the months of old Geekscape episodes.

Then I watched their coverage of that Summer's San Diego Comic Con. As I watched I couldn't help but think to myself... why aren't I out there? Almost a day or two later it was announced that Geekscape was going to have a booth at Comic Con that year and needed someone to run the Merch table. I contacted Jonathan and asked (and begged a little) for the job. If I got my own plane ticket and willing to help put up for the Hotel room... the job was mine. I accepted.

I got more involved with the site again, writing articles, running the twitter account, I was re-energized. As the trip kept nearing, I got more and more excited. I had already decided that I was going to move to LA the following summer, but this was the first time I'd ever actually see the city. I had developed many friendships with scapists and was curious to see how we'd get along. While i predicted that I'd hang out with a bunch of the scapists alot and only really see Jonathan here and there, I couldn't be further from wrong. I didn't anticipate that London and I would get along super well, in the end he was the one of the two people I became closed with. Perhaps it was just because we were forced to spend lots of time together between driving to San Diego and manning the booth together... but I'd like to believe it was because we both respected each other as creative minded people.

Regardless, July I'll be finally moving to LA. It's something I've said I'd do for over 13 years, but it's actually happening now, because of one man and his website. Thank You Jonathan London, you're one of the biggest inspirations in my life and I hope you have the Happiest of Birthdays.

In your honor I dedicate the 5th song in the 25 songs of Christmas to you; It's the Mark Hoppus and Ben Fold's covering the Blink 182 classic "Happy Holidays, You Bastard"