Episode V: Snow Day? Yes Way!

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Greetings earth children! Welcome to the fifth episode of Horror Business, the podcast that proves yet again Justin Lore shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near anything he can broadcast his ideas through.

This episode was originally intended to be a Christmas themed episode due to the release of The Krampus, but due to scheduling conflicts and general laziness, we unfortunately ended up making it into a general winter themed movie episode that happened to include some Christmas movies.

The first film discussed is 2015’s The Krampus, with a particular focus on the instability of tone for the movie, the lack of any real likeable characters, and most importantly the near total lacking of any Krampuses. It’s safe to say we weren’t huge fans of this movie, but at least reasoning is provided as to why we weren’t huge fans. Compared with such horror comedies as Shaun Of The Dead, Gremlins, and An American Werewolf In London, this film falls woefully short in pulling off a sense of goofy horror. Also noted in the dissection of this film is the use of tired character tropes to propel the plot along as well some unpleasant connotations in what the film may or may not have been trying to say on the nature of belief.

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The second film of the episode is 1974’s Black Christmas, chosen for it’s obvious connection to Christmas. Attention is given to how unlike some other Christmas themed horror films, Black Christmas is connected only very tenuously to the holiday in that it takes place on Christmas Eve and, unlike other films that are Christmas themed, doesn’t rely upon gimmicks or puns. The proto-slasher nature of the film is examined, as well as its impact upon horror films in general (POV aspects, young people in danger, etc.). The lack of an explanation for the motives of the killer are a key point in this area. However, the most striking aspect of the discussion of this film is the nature of it portrayal of women: is it’s portrayal of women as weak and vulnerable a self aware phenomenon, in that it is doing so in order to criticize such beliefs, or does the film do so unknowingly and actually perpetuate a sexist and somewhat misogynistic view of women? In this discussions the motives of several male characters (a local police officer, the father of one of the characters, the main characters boyfriend) are examined, and the way they interact with the largely female cast is also discussed.

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The last film of the episode is 2010’s Trollhunter, a Norwegian film done using the “found footage” technique. The two main points of the discussion of this film are that it a) succeeds where other films using the found footage technique fail, in that it legitimately feels like footage that someone found and is watching in order to understand where it came from, a b) that despite being a one hundred percent serious film and having almost no jokes and zero irony, the tone of the film is nonetheless comedic. The difficulty of having a film remain serious and unironic while dealing with such subject matter as hunting trolls is discussed as well. The impressiveness of the computer generated imagery is brought up, and there is a discussion on how well the filmmakers blended traditional practical effects with that computer generated imagery to achieve the rather fantastic shots that the film stands upon.

As always thanks to everyone and anyone who checked this episode out. You have our eternal gratitude for giving us another chance! Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to [email protected]. Thanks again to Justin Miller and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions, and also thanks to Josh “John Slade” Alvarez for being the incredible theme song. Follow us on Twitter at @thehorrorbiz666 and look for us on Facebook! Thanks!

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