And we’re back! Ani-May continues with the Christmas episode of Mr. Osomatsu, which as far as this dumb American can tell is an animated sketch comedy series? Bradford referred to this one as being “no chill”, but it turned out to be more this guy’s speed than the previous episode.
Also in this episode, Bradford gives us the skinny on the long history of this series, which dates all the way back to the 60s. Look, I can’t promise any of what transpires here is going to make a whole lot of sense, but we’re doing our best this week!
It’s Ani-May once again, the time of year when Bradford takes the reins and forces us to watch a bunch of anime. Like moths returning to the flame, am I right?
This week we look at the Christmas episode of Laid Back Camp, fittingly titled “Campmas”. How do a bunch of anime girls camping at the foot of Mt. Fuji celebrate Christmas? By day-drinking and cooking good food over a campfire, of course! What more does one need out of life?
Also in this episode, Joe and Bradford reminisce about their own childhood camping experiences, indulge in some video game chat, and get real hungry at the mention of s’mores…
Noirch Madness continues! This week we take a look at the 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Lady in the Lake! And to help us break it down, we welcome back our resident detective fiction expert Libby Cudmore!
Lady in the Lake is the first feature film to be shot and staged entirely in the first person. The posters emphasized that the film’s hero, detective Philip Marlowe, is played by “Robert Montgomery and you!” It’s a fascinating gimmick, for sure, but how well does it help translate the novel? And what does changing the novel’s setting to Christmas have to do with anything? Those are the very questions we aim to answer this week!
Film noir is a genre we’ve only barely scratched the surface of here on Christmas Creeps. But that ends today! This March, we’re highlighting some classic film noirs that also happen to be Christmas films. And what would we call such an event? NOIR-CH MADNESS!
This week Joe and Bradford discuss the 1953 film I, The Jury, the film debut of Mickey Spillane’s hard-nosed detective character Mike Hammer. In this film, Hammer vows to hunt down his best friend’s killer, which leads him on a wild goose chase through the snow-covered streets of New York City.
Also, Joe and Brad spend a good chunk of the back end of this episode on Video Game Chat, so if you like hearing us not talk about Christmas and movies, we got ya covered!
Greetings and salutations on this NINTH season of Christmas Creeps! On our inaugural episode of 2023, we take a trip to our local Redbox to catch up with VIOLENT NIGHT!
What if the hero in a hard-R Die Hard riff were Santa Claus? And not just any Santa Claus. This Santa Claus is played by Stranger Things’ David Harbour! That’s the gimmick at the heart of 2022’s hit holiday action flick. We were dubious of this one, but each of us found ourselves won over by the sheer absurdity of it all. It’s hard to go wrong with bad guys getting their just desserts.
Also in this episode: Joe eats gross gummies on purpose, Twitter continues to burn itself out, and the guys try to convince themselves they’re not mellowing out.
This year we bring you an episode all about A Christmas Story Christmas! Yet another attempt at an ‘official’ sequel to Bob Clark’s holiday classic, this one finds Peter Billingsley returning as a middle-aged Ralphie, now tasked with giving his family the fabled Perfect Christmas.
Is this a brazen attempt to cash in on our nostalgia? Or is it a genuine, warm-hearted plea to…er…cash in on our nostalgia? You may be surprised to hear where we land on this one! We’ll dig into the original Jean Shepard stories, the nostalgia of assorted casseroles, and a whole lot more!
The holidays are officially here, and along with them comes Freeform’s “25 Days of Christmas” programming block! Last year we tallied up every movie ever shown during the month of December since 2018, and the frequency of each. Now it’s time to add this year’s block to the data pool and see how things look.
Just like last year’s chart (available here), the big perennial favorites get more play this month than the others, but a couple of surprises emerged. Also, we’re only counting the films or specials that air in primetime (roughly 5pm to midnight).
In a shocking (though not unwelcome) turn of events, the 2000 live-action adaptation of “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas” is completely missing from this year’s schedule! Every year since 2018, it’s always racked up at least five showings. But its reign of terror is no more. Illumination’s 2018 animated version still gets two showings this year, and as it’s one that people increasingly prefer, I’m sure we’ll see it much more in years to come.
With The Grinch out of the picture, the Home Alone and Santa Clause franchises have picked up the slack in a BIG way. Both Home Alone and Home Alone 2 garnered eight showings apiece, up from their previous peak of 6 in 2018. Meanwhile the Santa Clausemovies took a big leap forward, with a grand total of seven showings each, all billed as “The Santa Clause Trilogy”.
The jump in popularity for The Santa Clause is no doubt a marketing move from Disney, looking to advertise their new The Santa Clauses series on Disney Plus. Early reactions to the series have been rough, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the marketing blitz on this thing turns out to be fierce.
For reasons known only to God and Bob Iger, Jingle All The Way 2 returns to the rotation this year. This is especially baffling as, to the best of my knowledge, the original has never appeared in any Freeform holiday block whatsoever.
Making their 25 Days debut (Day-but?) are an eclectic mix of features: Frozen, Frozen II, the Frozen spin-off cartoon Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, the comically morbid rom-com Last Christmas, the Bill Murray classic Scrooged, and the film that once made our podcast literally explode:Unaccompanied Minors.
Curiously, though, Frozen II and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure are the only two of those that are listed on the schedule as “Freeform Premieres”. The others have never appeared in any schedule I’ve seen before, but again I’m only looking at primetime data here.
Overall, not too many surprises this year. It’s still curious to me that Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas only ever seems to get played once per season, though as I’ve said before, maybe the Halloween crowd has finally staked its claim over that one.
What do you think? Any interesting data that I might have missed? What movies do you always look forward to revisiting every holiday season? Am I crazy for even obsessing over this? Maybe! Leave a comment below!
Home for the Horrordays enters extra innings this week as we finally tackle a little film called SANTA JAWS!
You see, it’s Jaws, but the shark wears a fun little Santa hat. Not surprisingly, this comes from the Syfy Channel stable of original movies, but somewhat surprisingly, this actually looks and feels like a real movie. Granted, that’s not much to hang our hats on, but we’ll take what we can get!
Come join us as we discuss gross Mountain Dew flavors, how Santa Jaws stacks up to Regular Jaws, the shenanigans going on over at Twitter, and more!
Home for the Horrordays continues with one of the more bizarre films we’ve ever covered: Blood Beat!
A family hunting trip in the Wisconsin wilderness is interrupted by the vengeful spirit of a dead samurai, and it’s up to the two psychic women of the house to stop him. Or at least, that’s what we think is going on here… Blood Beat is a bunch of loosely interpreted ends in search of a movie, and it’s our job to twist those ends into something vaguely coherent. Wish us luck.
We also spend some time discussing apple picking, mellowcrème candies for old people, waterbeds, the films of Jim Wynorski and James Cameron, and so much more!
Grab your pumpkins and pour your ciders, kids, because the most wonderful time of the year is finally upon us: HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS!
Home For The Horrordays is our annual tradition of watching Christmas-themed horror flicks. There are more of them than you’d imagine, and this year we’ve picked some real oddballs! On this episode, we dig into the 1984 cult classic Night of the Comet!
It’s 11 days until Christmas and a passing comet has vaporized most of Los Angeles. Survivors Regina and Sam find themselves besieged by mutant stockboys, nefarious scientists, and zombified cops. Will they escape with their lives? Can they find a way to save Christmas? There’s only one way to find out…
Christmas Creeps 