This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies, with most selections reflecting a specific day or event in December.
Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.
This month’s offerings feature vengeful Christmas ghosts, home intruders, and more.
The Dumb Waiter (1979)
Image: Geraldine James as Sally in the1979 short film The Dumb Waiter.
Directed by Robert Bierman.
December 28 is National Short Film Day, and no genre thrives in this format as much as horror. And while story often has to be sacrificed or compromised when something is as brief as The Dumb Waiter, Robert Bierman compensates with an unwavering sense of dread. The Vampire’s Kiss director adeptly condenses the plot and action of a standard ’70s long-feature into this tense and well-shot 18-minute clip.
The story here is plain and direct: a woman (Geraldine James) is followed home by a stalker after a car incident. As she prepares for bed, the intruder does everything to find a way inside his would-be victim’s home. The title gives away his ultimate strategy, but inevitability aside, the journey to that endpoint is soaked in suspense.
The Dumb Waiter can be found on the BFI’s Short Sharp Shocks: Volume 2 Blu-ray.
American Nightmare (1983)
Image: Lenore Zann in American Nightmare (1983)
Directed by Don McBrearty.
Despite its title, American Nightmare was made in Canada. So this horror gem not only works for National Maple Syrup Day (December 17) — Canada is the biggest producer of maple syrup — it also has a bleak and wintry backdrop. Often compared to a giallo, this movie follows a man’s search for his missing sister. What Lawrence Day‘s character eventually discovers during his investigation is both dark and disturbing.
Don McBrearty now makes a living directing Christmas telefilms. This may come as a small surprise after watching this sleazy and depressing movie made toward the beginning of his career.
Scorpion Records’ DVD release of American Nightmare isn’t easy or cheap to come by these days, so hopefully a boutique distributor can help make this piece of Canuxploitation less obscure.
The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine (2003)
Image: A ghost rips open their “present” in The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine.
Directed by Olaf Ittenbach.
While there is no shortage of Christmas Horror, very few of these festive fright films go on to become seasonal staples. The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine admittedly doesn’t embrace Christmas anywhere as much as its peers, but it does pack a punch as far as holiday weirdness goes. Natacza Boon plays the protagonist, a woman whose repressed childhood trauma has come back to haunt her. Literally. Upon finding out her biological family was brutally murdered by mysterious intruders on Christmas, Boon’s character then finds herself drawn to the place where the bloodshed took place. Soon enough, the ghosts of her dead relatives demand the survivor brings them the guilty party. Of course, these restless spirits also don’t have an issue with collateral damage.
The fact that Olaf Ittenbach (The Burning Moon) directed and co-wrote this German-made/English-language gem should be enough reason to watch. Other major incentives are the amusingly soapy acting and the gory set-pieces. The type of violence here feels straight out of an old-school horror video game. Additionally, the special effects help make up for the obvious micro-budget quality.
The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine goes by other titles, including Born Undead and Garden of Love. It’s not the easiest movie to track down nowadays, however, it was issued on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Dark Hours (2005)
Image: Kate Greenhouse, Gordon Currie and Iris Graham resprctively play Samantha, David and Melody in The Dark Hours.
Directed by Paul Fox.
When compared to other movies featured in this column, The Dark Hours may not be considered all that much of a deep cut. There was a time when this indie flick was readily found in video shops, and it has a decent amount of votes on IMDb. Paul Fox’s directorial debut, written by Wil Zmak, played at film-fests and even won some awards. Yet despite all that and a healthy amount of positive reviews, the movie flopped during its meager one-week run at a single theater. It earned only $423 at the box office.
Nevertheless, The Dark Hours shouldn’t be forgotten. It starts out like a typical home-invasion story but set at a cabin. A troubled doctor, played estimably by Kate Greenhouse, surprises both her husband and his assistant, also her sister, at the isolated locale in the woods. From there this party of three adds two more as a pair of intruders force themselves inside and hold the main characters hostage. It all sounds straightforward enough, however, things take a heady turn.
The Dark Hours hasn’t made its way to streaming just yet, but, thankfully, used DVD copies are still affordable.
Kristen (2015)
Image: Terence Schreurs as the namesake of the 2015 Dutch movie Kristen.
Directed by Mark Weistra.
The worst part about New Year’s Day is cleaning up the mess from the previous night. The title character (Terence Schreurs) in the Dutch-language Kristen (a.k.a. Trapped) is stuck with clean-up duty at her father’s bar on January 1st, and her boyfriend hasn’t shown up after going to park the car. Audiences then anticipate a certain kind of movie once Kristen endures a series of increasingly menacing phone calls from an unseen male stranger. Refreshingly, director and writer Mark Weistra subverts expectations.
It’s best to be vague when discussing Kristen to new viewers, which, oddly enough, is also an appropriate description of this entire movie. The overall quality of this well-acted slow-burn is a satisfying, not to mention unsettling way to ring in the New Year.
Kristen is available for streaming on Plex as well as purchasable on Apple and other digital retailers.
No genre is as prolific as horror, so it’s understandable that movies fall through the cracks all the time. That is where this recurring column, Deep Cuts Rising, comes in. Each installment of this series will spotlight several unsung or obscure movies from the past — some from way back when, and others from not so long ago — that could use more attention.
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