The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #341: Deadly Games AKA Dial Code Santa Claus (1989) & Violent Night (2022)

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Brian and Phil discuss these Christmas classics (maybe?).  It's the French movie with 4 names, Deadly Games or Dial Code Santa Claus or a couple others, paired with the brand new Violent Night with David Harbour.  We're bringing in the Christmas spirit with a sledgehammer! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 ESP Anchor Feed: https://anchor.fm/mac-nez E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

victims. For those of you delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify and go. Welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot Spoilers and the foulest of language. Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. To the horror returns, I am filled. Not Lance, as you may have noticed. But with me as always is Brian. And it looks like that's it tonight, man.

Dos amigos. Yes. everybody's too busy today. How's it going, man? What you doing over there? I'm trying to stay warm. Yeah. It's been snowing.

I bet. Alaska. Yeah. The cold place. Yeah, but usually it's been warmer. Usually when it snows, it gets a little warmer. So it's a kind of. plus and a minus, you know, warms up.

But then again, there's just more snow underground. I'll take it. I keep promising to take my kids someplace where it snows. That'd be a good place to go. Yeah. Hell of the drive. What's going on with you? Not a whole lot, man.

That'll bring me to my cool of the week, I guess, because I've been watching some found footage movies on Shutter. or Amazon or whichever, I don't know, it all sort of blends together. The movie about the Dietlov Pass, the Devil's Pass, I think is what it's called. Oh, about the people that get lost and then... Yes. Yeah. Not a movie I hadn't seen before, but I love that freaking movie.

I don't know why. It's so dumb. But I think it's a really well-done found footage movie, and it sort of does a whole... bring it back around at the end kind of thing that a lot of movies sort of forget about based on true events right yes yeah well true true true is yeah sure they're the best uh well true and then i watched a bad one um you know i can't even remember the name of it it was the something incident it was like a i assume a can't a canadian movie or something possibly French

I think they were speaking English but like it seemed Canadian it sounds very familiar yeah so they're they're like off in a like a log cabin in the woods somewhere

and they see this meteor and weird things start happening is this one very short not that short not short enough it's pretty fucking bad you know what i'm gonna go ahead and spoil the ending there's an alien oh i've seen this it's very very camcorderish yeah okay i know what you're talking about the production value is not there even for profound footage and uh yeah it was uh it was a little

rough and you would think oh there's aliens at the end this is a movie that's right up my alley No, man, it sucked a lot. Yeah, I remember this one too. I was like this movie was made legit with a 80s camcorder. Yeah, this is like a movie that we could have made. Yes. And probably would have made. Just get everybody together and have everybody freak out inside the house and then run outside and freak out and then run back inside.

Hey, who knows how to use a computer? You can do the alien graphics. And let's see. What else? I watch something else. I'll think about it in a minute, but I'll let you jump on Cool the Week for now. I don't have much another busy week,

but I did catch the first two episodes of Willow, brought Willow back as a Disney bus series. What is that on? Disney Plus. Okay. How is it? I really enjoyed it. Of course, I had to watch the movie.

We watched a movie before. Yeah. Because as a kid, I loved the Willow movie. Val Kilmer, man. Yeah. Mad Mardigan. Of course, when I posted, I was watching it, Lance commented with Jesus. I believe it's fucking fantastic.

Yeah. The first episode, it took a while to kind of get to, because you want to see Willow. So it kind of took a while to get there because you had to introduce a whole bunch of new characters. You know, this is years after the movie and the baby, Laura Danins, like, grown.

But they had to, like, conceal her identity even to herself. That makes sense. Because I guess, after the events of the first when Willow had a premonition that that's not what she was meant for she was meant

to stop a bigger evil so that's why they had to conceal her identity even from herself so nobody would find her and it's very nostalgic for me especially when that theme music kicked on and then Willow showed up and you know

no Val Kilmer but they do reference Matt Mardigan a lot so I think they said the door is open for him to be on the show but I think because of his current like medical condition he wasn't able to be on it I kind of don't want to see him because it was super sad the voice things in the willow world yeah it was super sad seeing him in Top Gun when he came back and on top spoiler they killed him off too and I was like oh that kind of It's kind of close to home right there. Yeah, I know. But I think I was going to start the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special,

but my wife said I had to wait, so I'll probably talk about that one next week. I heard a lot of people really enjoyed it. Yeah. They said that along with the Werewolf by Night, the little feature presentation, you know, not a series, but not a whole movie thing they're doing.

Yeah, I've heard good things about that. They're really successful. Yeah, I just, I hate to admit, man, I think that Marvel stuff has gotten so oversaturated, like things keep popping up, and I'm like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I kind of get you. I'm still a big fan of it, but I notice I still haven't finished She-Hulk, still haven't finished

a moon night it just kind of seems like I'll get to it when I get to it before it was like I had to watch week by week and when the movies came out I had to watch my opening day I can't imagine

either one of those things as a necessity I did like I think I'm two episodes finishing She-Hawk I did like what they did with the show that kind of made it like a court comedy drama.

It was kind of different. But Moon Night, I was just, like, very, I was very disappointed. I was, like, didn't like what the character was going. And I was just kind of like, how does he fit into the overall? Yeah. At all. I thought the pilot was cool. Yeah.

Yeah, they get you with the pilot. And then it just, it got super boring to the point where I was just like, I'll finish it when I finish it. I think that's probably my least favorite of the Marvel Disney Plus series. Well, and then it gets so often to Weird World that it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Did I watch anything else? Oh, I figured out the other one that I watched.

Okay, go ahead. It was Ford versus Ferrari. My brother-in-law came over and turned it on. Oh. And it's the first time I had seen it. Yeah, I have not seen that either. In my head, I knew that Christian Bale was in it and Matt Damon, right? And in my head, it was like Sasha Baron Cohen from Talladega Nights.

I thought he was going to be like the Ferrari driver. You are going to lose Mr. Ford. You know, that kind of guy. Yeah. And that's not who he was at all. he was the driver for Ford, and Matt Damon played Shelby, the guy that was behind the Shelby Mustang. Did not know that. Dude, great fucking movie.

Like, I was super impressed. It was like, all right, here's back when we were fighting for, like, American excellence. And they were pushing the limit and busting their ass, and I loved it. Fighting people the whole way. So. Good movie, man. I was very impressed by it. I still got to check that out.

I think I was just waiting for someone to talk about it, and I don't think anybody was really talking about it. Yeah, I know. Like, I didn't really know anything about it, but, yeah, super, super impressed. I think the only other thing I did start Wednesday, Oh, my wife was watching that. Yeah.

It's fine. Yeah. You know, I haven't really been big on anything Tim Burton has done lately. Oh, is that? Yeah. Okay. But I think Jenna Ortega is Wednesday. I think she knocks it out to park.

Yeah. She kind of nails that role. Yeah, I think she might be one of my favorite new actresses because I pretty much liked her and everything. I hated her in X. but not because of her performance. Her character? Yes. Yeah.

That was a turn for that character. No shit. It's like, damn, what a whore. She even had the nickname of Mouse because she was so quiet and... How old is she? She, I believe, I want to say, is early to mid-20s. Okay. So.

I feel like she's been around for a minute for being so young still. Yeah. It's weird seeing her do that scene in X. Yes. And her play Wednesday. Yes. Because, like, she's a high school character on Wednesday, right? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, she pulls off the high school character, but like she was just in a literal porn movie. Yeah. Even in Scream, the last Scream movie, she's playing a high school kid. So. Oh, yeah. Okay. So it's a little weird. I did feel weird after X.

I did have to look it up, and she is over 21. At least of age, so you don't have to feel quite so gross. Yeah, everything I've seen her in, I think she's played. She had a bit part in that Food Fighters for a movie Studio 666. Oh, I still haven't watched that one. Check that one out. It was pretty good. Denver Tega. Man, you're killing it. I think I'll stick with it. I don't know if I'm going to...

I think I watch it a couple of episodes here and there, but I don't think it's something I need to binge right away. But I heard it's pretty good. People are liking it. I guess it beat... Broke records for Netflix, beat Stranger Things 4 as far as... Oh, wow. Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Huh. Like, I wish that I had more interest in it. I kind of don't. I've seen, like, pieces of episodes here and there while my wife is watching it, but it's not something that really jumped out at me. Yeah. It's like in that, I think the thing I'm kind of a little lost on, not lost, but just, it's mostly, of course, by the name, it's focused on her. Yeah. I kind of would have wanted a Adam's family series.

Is the rest of the Adams family in it at all? Yeah, they are. Oh, okay. I think what's their names? Morticia, Catherine Zeta Jones, and... I like that. Yeah, I can't remember the actor that plays Gomez. If you see him, you'll be like, oh, I've seen this guy and hundreds of things.

Isn't it that dude in waiting that shows his balls? Yes. Yes. The brain? Yeah, the brain. I can't remember his name. Yeah, that guy. That makes sense.

I'm probably going to say his name. Isn't it like Juan Guzman? That sounds right. Yeah. Luis Guzman. Louis, there you go. There it is. We figured it out.

But, yeah, the only other thing that I checked out. Also, trying to catch up on some MMA. We'll check out the last UFC. Izzy middleweight champ Adesanier lost his

title shockingly shockingly but not shockingly he fought a guy that he lost to like twice in kickboxing

who's like now probably going to butcher his name I'm not even going to go I can't remember the guy's name I just remember because Izzy's

kind of ran through the division just destroying everybody so they kind of set him up with a title match with the guy. I think he's only had four fights in the UFC. He's undefeated, but the whole storyline

was, he's knocked out Izzy in kickboxing. He's beat him twice and he's knocked him out one time before. And Izzy was kind of winning for, I think he got finished in the fifth round. He was

winning the whole fight. And he was like, threw it some wrestling there showing everybody you can wrestle and just got caught and they had to stop the fight which a lot of people were upset saying because he's the champ you should have let him you know i guess get knocked out fully but he was out on his feet so oh and they stopped it yeah uh yeah it it my opinion i mean yeah you could have let it go but the way it looked like one or two more punches and he would have been out cold. The rubber legs? Yeah, he was not defending. The head was down. I think, yeah, at least have to wait for him to get pushed over.

Yeah. But it'll just set up a rematch. Yeah. So. I hadn't been keeping up with that. I need to watch it again. Yeah, I've been kind of lacking on MMA. And usually I keep up with that.

You know, I watched the independent stuff, too. And, yeah, I think that's it. Me and Nez actually got a wrestling returns episode out, so that's out there. Look out. Check out the wrestling returns. It's been a couple months. We promise there's action returns and stream fans that's coming to. Everybody's just been busy.

But, yeah, that's pretty much all I got for Cool of the Week. All right. on to horror headlines. All right. Let's see. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have inked a 10-picture deal with V-Channel, which I don't know what that is, in XYZ films. They were produced 10 low-budget genre movies.

That's not an extra dirty. Yeah, which them saying they'll produce, they do a lot of like sci-fi horror-ish movies. And they direct them. So it's kind of like the James Wan thing. I'm not too excited by hearing that they'll produce 10 movies. I would like to hear they signed a 10 picture deal to direct 10 movies. But speaking of them, I believe they did the pilot episode of Moon Night. Oh

So And then they just What, let them go? I think they're Supposed to be doing Something else for Marvel I think they did more Than a pilot episode

But I think they're writing Something else for For Marvel Okay Well, there were parts of Moon Night that were good And just towards the end It got weird

Yeah Uh I forgot which guess We had on recently That talked about the Midnight Club, Mike Flanagan's series on Netflix. Oh yeah. Season 2 is not happening because Mike Flanagan

and his partner Trevor Macy have signed a multi-year series deal with Amazon so he's leaving Netflix to go to Amazon which Mike Flanagan's had the house on Hotted Hill Midnight Mass. I thought that the

Midnight Club was just an extension of that. Is that not right? I don't think so. Okay. Yeah, it didn't really have the same feel. Yeah, I have not started it. I can't think of which guess we had. He spoke really highly of it. It's not bad. I watched a few episodes, but I

haven't finished it. It wasn't one that really caught me. So, I mean, I know a lot of people liked it, and probably are bummed that it's not getting a second season, especially Mike Flanagan's. done so much with Netflix, but But it's more like Teenage Drama stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. I was interested because I heard it broke a Guinness record for most of jump scares in one episode or something. It doesn't surprise me. Seems like a thing that it would do. But Amazon has that money to throw, so

Let's see. Drew Goddard, the director of the Cabin in the Woods, sells his pilot episode of animated monster hunter series titled The Trenches to FX. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I don't know what else to say about it. I'm just surprised that stuff is still coming to FX because it just kind of seems like FX stuff is like Hulu stuff to me. Yeah.

Let's see here. I know a show that we got a lot of feedback on before Los Spookies HBO Hispanic

Ghost series I guess that's on HBO's yeah but it's like in Spanish with subtitles right yeah

I know we got a lot of feedback of a lot of people liking it sorry HBO cancels it after two seasons

oh shit let's see I tried to watch an episode I didn't get that far in it. It looked all right, though. Lionsgate has asked Kevin Smith to make a sequel to his 2011 horror thriller Red State. Which one is Red State?

I don't really remember it. I feel like I've seen it, but I couldn't tell you what it was. I think everybody's seen it. Yeah. I do remember it was one of the better of him. his recent kind of I guess forays into horror

is better than yoga hosers tell you that uh constantine two director Francis Lawrence he's aiming for a hard R rating for the second

Constantine movie okay uh in early January we'll be reviewing Megan. It's already getting a sequel. Megan? Yeah, the TikTok dancing killer doll. Oh, okay.

That's right. It comes out in January. It's going to make a shitload of money. Yeah. That's a movie the kids will watch. Another James Wan produced movie. Of course. And I think that's it. Man between him and Guillermo Dutoro. They'll produce anything.

Yeah. It's kind of a shame. I know. Yeah, I think that's it. I'm just seeing, like, random casting news for movies. I ain't really that much to talk about. So that's it for news. All right.

Let's take a little trip down to the trailer park. We're going to bring you the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. Maybe all of the above. Oh, wait. Texas Frightmare Update as far as Alex Winter from the Lost Boys and Bill from Bill and Ted. Yeah. Really? I thought he looks fucking weird now.

Yeah. I know he directs a lot of like them kind of like conspiracy type. I know he had a documentary on like the dark web and he does like that kind of those kind of documentaries. Yeah, he does like that kind of documentaries. He had to bone up on him. He said the magic word. Let's see. What are the trailers?

I'm all over the place today. Cocaine bear. Cocaine bear. Yeah. based on true events. Seriously. All right, synopsis. An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converge in a Georgia forest

where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine. Sold. This stars Ray Leota, rest in peace. Kerry Russell Alden Is Rayleigh Oda dead? He died earlier this year Oh I forgot about that

Yeah Son of a bitch Uh Alden Enrique Margo Martindale And

O'Shea Jackson Jr. Which he looked Like he put on a lot of weight for this role Isaiah Whitlock Jr. I know He's got to say his line. He says in every movie.

He's the guy that always says, She is directed by Elizabeth Banks. A lot of people know her from Pitch Perfect in movies like that. Yeah. And the last What the hell is?

Was it that she directed? Oh. Charlie's Angels. Yeah, we're not going to talk about that movie. Yeah. I was like, man, who keeps letting her make movies? Well, I mean, this is the type of movie. I would assume that she would be interested in making at first instead of Charlie's Angels would be just this wild story cocaine bear. I mean, I was sold when I heard the premise of the story.

Yeah, yeah, no, I'll watch it. This is definitely a shot to give her another chance. And, I mean, hopefully she pulls it off, but we'll see. Yeah, I got this trailer. I've seen the trailer before, but I got it when I've seen The Violent Night in the theater. And it's just crazy that I'm in the movie theater watching a trailer for a movie called Cocaine Bear. I mean, it really can't go wrong, right? It has to be good.

I mean, it looks violent. It looks comedic. I like the cast that's in it. The fact that it's based off of true events is just wild. Because I think the story, of course, you know, like we talked about earlier, about stuff being embellished. You know, of course, this is embellished. I think the premise of the original story was a bear actually ingested like keys of cocaine

and there was a hunt for him basically to catch him and kill him and open him up and get the keys back and the fact that they've turned this into a movie is just wild and I'm I think I'm thinking we're going to put this on the schedule because I think we have to the fact that the watching it the bear in one scene in the trailer snorts a line off of a severed leg

yeah I'm like I'm there there's a lady in a tree she's like bears can't climb trees and then the other guy's like yeah they can yeah and then the bear climbs the tree at like

100 miles an hour because it's all high on coke and yeah because he sees the guy kind of dusting the cocaine off of him and the bears looking at him like, oh, that's where I need to be. It got a taste. Where is the release day for this? I should have been better prepared. February 24th. All right. I'm almost positive.

The schedule will be open in February because that is the dump month. Yeah. Which I'm predicting that's going to change soon. maybe with this movie because like I'm super stoked about this one so what is the mean one is our second and final trailer

let me pull up the synopsis this kind of nowhere yes this is starring friend of the show David Howard Thornton art the clown there you go he is the mean one of course you know they can't say the

Grinch. Yeah. Okay, the mean one. Not quite open to the public yet. No. In a sleepy mountain town, Cindy has her parents murdered, has her parents murdered and her Christmas stolen by a bloody, thirsty green figure in a red Santa suit, the mean one. But when the ravenous Christmas hating creature begins to terrorize the town and threaten to ruin the holiday she finds a new purpose trapping and killing the monster so i'm assuming cindy's supposed to be cindy who yeah who will i'm not mad at it i'm this looks like something i i want to put on the schedule because i know lance will hate the shit out of it yeah

but it it looks right up my alley it looks it looks like they know what what they what it is, what they're doing. It's intentionally they know it's not a great movie that they're making. It's a wild premise to make a horror movie out of the Grinch.

Looks like Sandy Boo don't fuck around. No, and it looks like she's throwing like an ornament grenade or something. I'm like, this is right up my alley. And we got to support friend of the show, David Howard Thornton. Absolutely. Yeah. No, and it does

the thing that would end most horror movies in 10 minutes. She's armed. Yeah, it looks like there's a montage of her working out, getting ready. Yeah, montage. That's what I'm talking about. And she is straight up 80s style. She is played by Crystal

Martin. So Crystal Martin going up against David Howard Thornton. Now, I know it's getting a limited theater run, I believe on the 15th of this month. Okay.

But I think, I'm hoping it'll be released VOD before Christmas, because it'll be a shame if it got released sometime, like in January or something. Yeah, this seems like it would be something that would kill on Netflix. Yeah. So I'm here for it. Cocaine Bear. in the mean one. All right.

Some pretty good trailers. I was going to throw on the new Guardians trailer and the new Indiana Jones trailer, but I think me and Ness will talk about it on action

because those are kind of more fitting for that one. But we had to talk about cocaine bear, so. Well, hopefully those will be awesome, too. We'll wait and see. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough on the Indiana Jones front.

Yeah, my wife's a little down on the Guardians one. Really? Yeah, because she's kind of, she's kind of basic. You haven't seen the trailer, I won't spoil it, but she's basically, they made me cry in Black Panther. Now they're going to make me crying guardians. That's what she got out of it. She's just kind of over crying in the movie theater, so.

Well, less guardians now. Yeah, I told her. you're really going to cry from what I heard about the Guardians because it might be more than one guardian dying, so well damn it. Take Chris Pratt out too?

I heard Batista's kind of saying he's getting too old to play the character. Kind of him having to stay in that shape and putting the makeup on because his makeup is full body. So, yeah.

He's just saying he's just kind of getting up there and age and kind of wants to do different things with his acting career. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's one the one or one of two characters that gets killed.

Man, I like his too. But he's already done what he, his character has already done what it needed to do. He avenged his family's death and saved the galaxy. So. Yeah.

And honestly, at this point, with Marvel, it's like, I mean, they can keep bringing out sequels, but I don't, I don't know that everybody's there for it. Yeah. And this is James Gunn's last MCU movie because he's the head of DC now. So. Oh, yeah. That's right. All right. Well, maybe we'll have a cool DC universe coming up.

Yeah. And I'm a little iffy about it. out indie. It is great to see him back, but he really does look like he's 80 years old in some of the scenes. Yeah. He does have Hannibal, Mads Mickelson, as the villain. So I do like that. Good villain. But we'll talk about that on action. So. All right. On to listener feedback. This week, the podcast spotlight shines on Degeneration. Here at the Cinema Degeneration Network, we bring you a variety of shows dedicated to specific genres and topics, including horror, grindhouse, foreign, and independent films, including others that are near and dear to us.

Every show will have a special co-host and we'll discuss and reminisce about a movie or two. Sounds like a good plan. Thanks. C.J. Ducote posted thought this group would like this and posted a trailer for Hazard Jack. Did you watch that one?

I have no idea what that is. I don't either. But I'll totally check it out. Hazard Jack, man. That sounds good. Kind of like Simple Jack. Nick Opelwaski.

I'm sorry, dude. something along those lines. Hey, I'm Nick, and can you review a classic movie for me, please? Yeah. Yeah, which one? Yeah, classic horror, man. We're on it.

We've probably already done it, but... Yeah, I don't know if this is the person Lance was asking me, because you know, Lance's memory is kind of shoddy. Yeah. Because Lance asked me if we did the screen movies, and I said we've done all the screen movies.

Yeah. But that might have been one that got taken down that we have to re-upload. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So check the website. We've probably got quite a few classic movies there, and I'm sure we'll be reviewing quite a few in the future. Yeah. That's sort of the set point, right?

Is a classic movie and a new movie, and we'll sort of bear and trash. Yeah. Nick, if you're new to the show, we. we reviewed the newest movie coming out and we pair something similar in storyline tone, you know, whatever the case is. So I think this is episode 341. We've done hundreds of classic or I can't say they're all classic. Yeah, no, they're definitely all classics, but.

Yeah. If we've done it and it's not on there, don't worry. re-up more re-uploads are coming for sure but thanks nick sorry i couldn't pronounce your last name buddy uh regarding the rick and michauds series uh which lance hopes will be only one season uh stephen loblad says you know it's going to be more than that i don't know why lance claims he's not watching any of these walking dead series yeah i know because we give him shit for it every time. Yeah, I mean, it's fine.

Somebody's watching them. I guess that Walking Dead finale was like their biggest ratings in like a long time, so somebody's still watching it. Really? Yeah. Oh, wow. It's officially

over. There it is. Beed versus the Living Dead says thanks for the share guys, and we'll be on your show soon. Mm-hmm. regarding the horror countdown podcast. Don Anali says,

So the time has come to start looking for guests for season two of the horror countdown podcast. It's about getting people on board to talk about a top ten list within the genre, whether it be a theme, genre, decade, franchise, director, or anything in between. If you were someone you know would be interested in doing this, I'd be happy to get something going with you all. well, I'm sure we'll jump in on that at some point. Yeah.

Or a countdown podcast. Don and Ellie is a good guy, man. Yeah. And if you want to get a hold of Don to get on the show or recommend somebody on the show, he's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Just type in Don and Ellie. Yeah.

And that's it. Bottom line, folks. need some more feedback. If you'll email us the feedback to read on the show and include your mailing address, we'll get you a horror returns coozy. Just email to the horror returns at gmail.com. Or jump in

on the Facebook. That's where most people leave their stuff. The horror returns. And our show intro comes from Steve Carlton, from the geeks, as well as all our new logos. And be on the lookout

for some more great stuff from Steve. Our original skull artwork comes from Natsulani. So check her out on Instagram. And if you'd like to help the show, please consider becoming a Patreon patron. We'll let you pick the movies for a future show at any amount. And for $5 or more a month, also pick a commentary for a future bonus show. And we now have kuzis available. Or what did they call them?

There's something else that they're called in Australia that sounds awesome. I can't remember what it was. I can't remember what they're called. But all patrons, all patrons are all patrons will get one for free. And as usual, be patient. Sometimes it takes us a while to get stuff meled out. If you don't know what a coozy is, it's the thing that the, you know, beer came. What are they called? I don't know. I can't remember a stubby holder. Is that one it was?

There you go. Yeah. Which sounds way better. That is the official name of Coosies now. Gets you a stubby holder. And on to our featured attractions. This week we hear the jingle bells ring as we cover some French movie with three titles and the new Violent Night. Was it at one point called Silent Knife Violent Night? No, I think Lance just kind of added the...

Okay. I think it's just called. violent night. But the French movie has a bunch of different titles. That's how you know it's bad, but good. So, the French movie that we're going to cover was from 1989 first. I think it's on

Deadly Night on Amazon. But it's called Dial Code Santa Claus, which is, I guess, the more direct translation from French. And it is in French with subtitles. It also goes by Game Over and Hide and Freak.

Oh, so it's got like four titles. Okay. Yes. The synopsis is on Christmas Eve, a resourceful young boy with a terrible mullet has to defend himself and his grandfather from a killer dressed as Santa Claus. Director and writer is Renee Mansour, also known for the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones and a Witch's Way of Law. love. I don't know what that second one is, but I did used to watch the

first one, the Indiana Jones series. Yeah, I was going to say, that was a series, right? Yeah. A poster for the film, Zorro, is visible in Thomas's room. The film is also dedicated to Elaine Delon, who played Zorro. Right.

Dial code Santa Claus, deadly night. Right. Game over. Hide and freak. This is a movie I've been meaning for us to do. We were supposed to do it last year, but we had some schedule changes. It's like one of those kind of notorious,

so bad it's good type movies that I always hear about. So it's like we have to do it at one point. And I have to say I'm a little let down. Uh-oh. I thought the kid was whiny as fuck With his Party in the back Business in the front mullet

That I didn't know what was going on Because one minute it was kind of like regular And the next minute it was like spiked up with gel And Yeah and it was like a straight up Like from here back is long And from here forward Is short

it's a distinct line the kid wakes up and gets in full rambo gear which was kind of awesome yeah I I dig the montage he even has a working out montage before he like suits up and puts the

the camo makeup on and everything yeah which is a little creepy for a little kid but yeah I French so they do that kind of shit yeah I dig all that I I see where they're trying to go, but for him to dress like that, he is kind of a little wighty bitch throughout the movie. And he's supposedly super smart.

He knows how to fix things. He knows how to work on engines of cars and computers or what was a computer back then, because that computer, that computer was crazy which was very basic for the 80s but

I thought it was going to get like with the guy playing Santa Claus or the guy that dresses up like Santa Claus and breaks into his house I thought the guy was going to be a little bit more creepier than they let on to be because he has that scene where he's

dressed up like he's working as a Santa Claus has kids sitting on his lap and he's like caressing that little girl's face and I was like this is fucking weird yeah and then she tells him I don't like your face and then he smacks the shit out of her yeah so I'm just kind of like okay this guy's about to get super fucking crazy and I just felt he was kind of fucking tame when he got to the house and he broke in when he killed the the staff of the house you didn't really I don't even think you even saw what happened to him it was like off-screen death and I was a little disappointed with

that. Well, this was more of like a kid movie sort of thing, though, I think. Yeah, but it just, they just kind of played off like it was going to be a little bit more than what it was. Yeah. I thought it was just going to be a straight, violent, home alone movie with the sadistic, maybe pedophiles guy dressed up like Santa Claus is trying to kill him. Definitely gave you that impression. But it just kind of fell flat for me I think it was mostly the kid

Was just kind of irritating me He was constantly crying Not knowing what to do Which I okay if you're not knowing what to do I get it you're a kid But don't have all these gadgets And stuff set up like you're about to use them And then they don't work and then you start crying

Yeah Well yeah Like he had the plastic knife on his ankle the whole goddamn time like what are you going to do with that I don't know I was expecting way more because

like I said I constantly hear about this movie and I was like we got to do it so it's only an hour and a half runtime and I just kind of found myself getting bored oh for sure because I'm just like okay and then

there are scenes where it's like he's having another montage setting up traps and setting this up. And I'm like, okay, here we go. And then it's just like some basic shit that, honestly, home alone did way better. Yeah. So, Home Alone was more violent than this movie.

Home Alone was 90s, though, huh? Yeah. Yeah. So this was before Home Alone, to be fair. Yeah. And that tells you something that Home Alone was way more, because I think Home Alone is way more of a family movie. than this movie, but

Home Alone was way violent than this movie. And funnier. And I don't know. The most violent part was when he killed the fucking dog. Yeah. Like at that point, I had

no remorse for the guy at all. Like, he needs to die. Yeah, I mean, I didn't feel bad for him when he smacked the kid that told him his face was weird and she hated. I was like, okay, I get it. I mean, you are going to lose your job, but, you know,

the kid was a little out of line. But then when you violently killed the dog with like a dessert knife or whatever it was, I was like, okay, you need to pay for this. And it just, it was just fucking weird. And then there was like no motivation. You got no motivation for why he was even there. Yeah. He was just weird.

Yeah, I mean, he got fired and he decided to go kill his boss's son. Why? Like, I felt like his whole thing was maybe he just wanted to be accepted. But it's like, I feel like you're trying to make us feel bad for a guy who just murdered a dog, which... Yeah, but then there's scenes where they kind of just made it seem like there's something wrong with him, like in the beginning where he joins the kids throwing snowballs at each other. and they all see him and then they take off running? Yeah.

I'm like, is he like a known weird guy in the neighborhood? Oh, that's a pet O'Peter. If he has children running. Yeah, if he has children running from him like that, how did he get a job as a Santa Claus? Nobody did a background check on this guy? This guy probably should have been locked up a long time ago. I imagine he did a whole lot of bad shit.

And got let out. But yeah, I was disappointed in this one. Yeah. I think, you know, maybe had I seen it in 1989 and, you know, spoke French, that probably would have been a big difference for me. Because then I feel like the nostalgia of this movie, because it is definitely a 1989 movie. Like, there's just from the haircut initially. You can tell. And I think the French thing kind of throws me off, and it's sort of dated.

But it was okay. Like, I feel like I would have really liked it back then. But this is definitely the only time I'm going to watch it now. Like, this one's not making it in an in mind. Christmas rotation. So, just all right for me. at best. Yeah, and then there was some weird scenes in the movie.

Like, when they're hiding from the Santa Claus and he takes his grandpa, which he has a grandpa that's diabetic and basically blind. Yeah. He takes them and he hides them in this secret underground layer where... How big is this fucking place? Yeah, where his father has hidden his toys and his father's father has hidden his toys for generations. And I'm like, okay, is this leading to something?

Nope. And then, like you said, how big is this place? You get that weird scene where he runs into that maze. Yeah, it's like an art gallery that's a maze and he can't find his way out. I'm like, you've lived here. And then when he finally gets out of there, he runs up the stairs into this creepy-ass attic with the desk at a phone. which I guess is his mom's office I guess

I don't know it doesn't make sense it looks like no one's been there for years but the phone is brand new I just it was just so many weird moments in this movie I just didn't know what was happening well and then like sometimes they'll show the outside of the house and it doesn't look like anything special

yeah and then like he gets stuck in the roof at one point and it looks like this giant fucking medieval castle with all these different buildings and levels and shit. Yeah. Like, what is happening? None of this shit makes sense. Yeah, like I said, disappointed. So you want to get into scores?

Yeah. What do you get it? I'll be fair. It wasn't completely bad. It does end up being. more of a kid's family-friendly movie, I guess, you know, with the exception of the murdering of the dog and a couple of other scenes, it was... Yeah, there's like a scene where he's walking with a dead dog and the tongue is hanging out. And I'm like, well, that was kind of excessive for a kid's movie.

Yeah, and he had time to bury the dog while he's being chased by the Santa Claus. It was kind of weird. This movie was weird. the kids mullet was bad I did like the montages of him setting up the traps and earlier him getting dressed in his fatigues

and his military gear so yeah I'll give it a six and a half okay I think that's being super generous I'm gonna I'm gonna go five and a half

I think it was he's worth the watch you know I'm glad that I watched it but I don't have any real desire to watch it ever again it's at least worth the watch for that one time

and I'm going to say Lance will probably get this movie a three yeah and say Brian what the fuck did you have his watch yeah probably that would be right online with that although I'm curious to see what he thinks

about the next one yeah So we'll move on to Violent Night, our brand new movie. When a group of mercenaries attack the estate of a wealthy family, Santa Claus must step in to save the day and Christmas. Director is Tommy Workola, also known for last year's The Trip and Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters. In entertaining movies. Yeah. Um, writers are Pat Casey and Josh Miller, uh, had its world premiere showing at New York Comic

Con on October 7th, 2022. Um, the saint that Santa Claus was based on, uh, St. Nicholas was famous for a fight at the council of Nicaea. No idea what that means. I don't either. But okay. Violent night. What'd you think about it? Oh, man. I I had a lot of fun with this one. Yeah. It was, this is, this is my kind of Christmas movie.

Not the, the 30 Christmas movies, Lance watches on Hallmark with, with, with his wife. I can't. Family Stone.

Fuck that movie. I hate it. I can't get into that stuff, but David Harvard as Santa Claus is perfect. Yes. He was born to play this character. I've never really, Santa Claus more.

I like the portrayal of Santa Claus, because I can honestly see him kind of being disgruntled and just like kind of down on Christmas and kids you know and you know kids only you know not really spoilers or anything

but when he's getting like Christmas list for kids it's just like cash cash cash video games you know gift cards you know just kids that's what kids want you know and they the violence was amazing in this

almost to the point of it being comedic which just added a nice touch to the movie I for some reason I don't know why this is the second movie that's come out this year that I didn't know John Leguizamo was in for some reason I just might have just spaced it

because I think it was the menu I was like I didn't know John LeguZama was in the menu and I've seen this trailer for this movie and he's in the trailer but somehow I just forgot and I kind of liked him as the bad guy he was just kind of hamming it up and then yeah even even his little um henchmen were just kind of hamming it up at times and there was a lot there was some home alone stuff in here that was way better than dial code Santa Claus game over sure deadly games.

Yeah. There was some home alone stuff in here that might have been better than home alone. Yeah, the little girl was, sometimes I'm down on child actors, but she was pretty good in it, you know? Yeah, I didn't have an issue with her. She played the cute, you know, I still believe in Santa Claus. Santa Claus, you got to help us roll real well. Yeah. And it's the cute little girls that sometimes they ham the shit out of that.

Lulu, I'm looking at you. Oh, Lulu. And this girl didn't do it. I thought she did okay. Yeah. Beverly DeAngelo from the vacation movies as the main. Yeah. Yeah, she is amazing as this businesswoman head of the family bitch that does not care about anything.

Yeah. Although you're kind of waiting for the whole family to die. really yeah um everybody else was fine um i thought the kid the one kid was hilarious yeah the the the other grand kid the one that was constantly yeah he was constantly live streaming and yeah he even had i took my family to see this he he had my daughter like rolling her eyes because he was like this guy is like super extra and i whatever like she didn't know 50 people like that yeah that's that's that's She was telling me, she was like, he reminded me of my friend.

He does this kind of stuff all the time. And she was like, it's really cringy. Yep. And I kind of got in a little trouble because my wife was like, you told me this was a family-friendly Christmas movie. And I was like, it is. It's just super violent. And it's cuss words.

But it has a good message at the end. And it's Christmas. So. Oh, this. well, you know what? I'll go ahead and say it. This is going to be on my Christmas rotation right now. Yeah, definitely. I'll definitely show on my kids this one. My daughter's real into horror movies. Nobody was, nobody watched it with me, but as soon as it comes out streaming, everybody's watching it for sure. Yeah. But overall, I had a lot of fun with this. I think this met or if not exceeded my expectations for the movie.

I just overall had just a good time. There was a little lull in the middle. Yeah. Because you needed some explanation on Santa Claus's backstory, and there was some family stuff in there, which was fine. I mean, I did kind of get to the point where, you know, come on, let's get back to the murdering. Yeah. But you needed it to kind of just explain things. And actually, especially on Santa Claus's background,

I thought was super cool. Yeah. And it didn't really bother me and had a lot of fun with this one. Matter of fact, I kind of wish that they had explained it a little more. You know? Yeah. His background stuff, like how he became Santa from being, well, I... Yeah, they say who he is, but they never said how he went from here to here.

Yeah. And, but I... Really, it's... What you see in the trailer is what you get. And they had a couple of opportunities to throw in some twists if they wanted to. And like when I saw them sort of come in, I was like, oh, please don't. And they didn't. It just stayed true to the story.

It was disgruntled Santa who was tired and fed up with his job. And I like ended up in this situation and kicked a bunch of ass and got his Christmas spirit back. that's the name of the game that's what you get and David Harbour could not have been more perfect for this role I loved it

I loved every second of it yeah I guess there was kind of a lull there in the middle a little bit and maybe I wanted Santa to be a little more badass than he ended up being but I mean there's that scene

there's that one scene where he kills a lot of people and it's fantastic that was when Santa gets his groove back yeah I say let's go to spoilers on this one a good movie man oh yeah let's do scores first what do you think some people might come at me for this one

but I have to give it a nine out of ten yeah dude I was fucking entertained I only take off that one point because of that kind of, like we said, that lull in the middle. Well, and it's a dumb movie. Let's be real. Yeah. And they, like I said before, they needed to kind of explain this situation and that situation. So there's, of course, this is not John Wick. There's not going to be action, action, action, you know, throughout the whole movie.

And like you said, it's a Christmas movie. silly premise. It's Santa Claus murdering people. So yeah. David Harvard was born to play his character and I like that he gets to do these roles because he's like a serious actor actor

like before he did stranger things and he was like I think a theater actor and stuff like that. That makes sense. So for him to get to play Hopper and Stranger Things and even Hellboy which is not a great movie.

yeah um he really has fun doing these roles and you could tell he had a blast playing santa claus so yeah was he born for hellboy probably not but this one for sure yeah um and i if he wants to come back and do violent night too i'm i'm there for it next christmas hell yeah because i mean how hard can it be to make another one of these as long as you as long as you stick to the premise and just don't try to deviate too much, which is what I was really concerned that they were going to do. They didn't. And I was, I was happy with it. I'm going to give it a nine out of ten too, man.

This was a lot of fun. I just had a really, really good time with this one. I mean, it's no elf, but it might be right up there, dude. This is, this is going on my Christmas watch list every year. It's right up there with Home Alone, I think. Yeah. Spoilers. Yeah. Let's do it. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert.

You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. The backstory on Santa Claus being this fucking ruthless, badass Viking warrior. Yeah. A complete, like how he said would have been number one on the naughty list.

Yeah. I wanted more of that. I wanted, how did you go from being like probably, as he described, the worst person ever to Santa Claus? That's where I was worried in his fight against John Leguizamo, which was a pretty good fight. And I love the way that it ended. He did his magic to go up the chimney and was hanging on. to John Leguizamo. Oh, that was great. And it just tore him

to shreds because he couldn't, you know, magically dust up there. It was great. I like showed it and everything. There was just blood spewing everywhere. We brought up home alone. The little girl had a great

home alone scene because they set it up as her shit was just so basic that the people, the henchmen were kind of like, okay, you got to do a little bit better than that. But as it went on, it was super fucking violent. I know everybody in my theater was not screened, but was just kind of in pain with the guy that fell down the ladder and the nail went through his bottom of his chin. Well, yeah, because he was like the bad guy that you hated the least. Yeah.

I think that kind of added to my enjoyment. My crowd, my theater crowd was also into the movie. Just kind of like everybody, when somebody was getting hit or killed or something, everybody was like, oh, ooh, ah, you know, just kind of. Yeah, creative kills, man. Yeah. Love that he, like you brought up earlier, the montage of him murdered everybody with the sledge. hammer. That was fantastic.

Well, that's where I was going with that. I think that in his fight with John Leguizamo, I was like, oh no, did he kill Santa Claus and that's how he became Santa Claus? Is that what we're going to see here? Because I don't want any redemption for this asshole.

Oh, you don't want John Likwasamo Santa Claus? No. I wanted that motherfucker to die. But I bet you that's an idea that they tossed around. And I just like and I brought up before the

lulls of explaining the story and that story but I like that they didn't really go into other things like Christmas magic because he was just like it works and I don't know how I still don't know how after all these years it just works and I like

I was laughing that every time somebody would reach in the sack of gifts they just kept pulling out video games that's all was in there that sounds about right and I totally feel him on the holidays of the drinking yeah he's like ah the good stuff yes and that looked like an expensive bottle too well yeah he was in super rich people's houses hanging out

the massage chair I thought the family dynamic was was interesting enough it was funny because you had everybody kind of going after the money sucking up to the mom. I think the character I thought was probably the funniest was the sisters I don't know if it was her husband

or her boyfriend, the guy that was supposed to be like a B movie action star or something. He was great. I'm glad he was in the movie. I mean, I'm glad he got killed too. Yeah. He got mowed down and I was Like, oh, all right. I knew it was coming.

I probably, the character I probably hated the most was the girl's father. I thought he was kind of a pussy throughout the movie. Sort of weasily, huh? Yeah. At one point, I kind of leant over to my wife and I was like, he's involved. Yeah. But then it was revealed he was involved in his own little scheme. and I was like, okay, you're still kind of a weasel.

But then it was revealed that he was kind of doing it for his family to get out underneath his mother who's controlling everything. Which I laughed at the mom when she found out. She was like basically, I respect that. You know, good job, son. You know, that's how I got where I got. Well, that's how that family works. But yeah, this is not really too much to spoil. you know, this movie was

Christmas action. It's really it. It is what it is. And they had a lot of fun doing it, and I had a lot of fun watching it. A great use of Christmas decorations and murdering people. Yeah, the star in the eye, I thought it was pretty good on its own. And then he put it in, and the guy caught fire. That was great. And he's just kind of fanning the smoke.

and he's just like, ooh, oof. Yeah. He's still fanning. And then the part from the trailer when he like stuffs the grenade in the guy's clothes, and he like runs off. And he's like, ah, I got to watch. And he turns and watches him blow up. I didn't hear, I don't know if I missed it, but I didn't hear him say the line in the trailer

where he hit somebody and he says, Seasons, beatings. Yeah, no, I don't think I saw that either. Maybe that was just a trailer line. Yeah. Something they tried out. But he did have a few pretty good one-liners in there, I think. And I just like Santa, I like this ruthless version of Santa Claus, you know. The one female henchman, he could have just killed her regularly.

But, you know, he went to smash her head in and he had to say naughty. Which she deserved it. She tried to murder a child. And then I think it was after that guy blew up And he was like oh Holy shit, that was cool Yeah If you're not convinced by now

Then I don't know what you want in a Christmas action movie Yeah if you don't like the trailer Maybe this movie's not for you But if you like the trailer That's what the movie is Like the one that I was going to pair with this one was a fat man with Mel Gibson

but this one is ten times better than that one if you like action comedy Christmas just all that is just rolled into one fun movie there actually was a whole

lot of similarities between these two movies so I think you paired them right from this obscure-ass fucking movie that I've never heard of before yeah and there was a good Christmas message at the end of the movie so yeah even uh although I really thought grandma was gonna die by the end of it um oh she was primed to die yeah but even even she was a believer by the end

stayed alive somehow so I think uh I think that's it for spoilers uh go go fucking watch this movie hell yeah 9 out of 10 what do you think Lance would have given this Oh, it's, see, this kind of movie's hard. I know, right? He could have either really loved it or really hated it. There's no in the middle. I see he could have had a lot of fun with it, or it could have offended his Christmas sensibility somehow.

But I'm going to say Lance had a lot of fun with this and gave it a seven and a half. Pretty good. All right, Lance score seven and a half. Which is like a nine and a half. It has been written. All right. Well, I guess that's it for this episode. As always, we want to thank you for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns.

We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. And you can always reach us at The Horror Returns at gmail.com. Or find us at www.ghorrorreturns.com. And follow our social media links from there as well as here the latest episode of the show. Also look for us on iTunes and everywhere else, including YouTube now. We've got their rudimentary videos being popped up. Hey, everybody starts somewhere. Yeah.

Maybe they'll get better production quality at some point. We'll see. And if you like what you hear, please rate us and review us and give us a like. next week more Christmas cheer as we discussed 1980s Christmas Evil and the brand new Christmas Bloody Christmas Which I've seen the trailer in the theater And Christmas Bloody Christmas could be

Neither a lot of fucking fun Or a really stupid movie As long as it's not black Christmas I think we're okay No But we all know who will be watching that this Christmas so until the horror returns again good night