The Kat Files

Kelsi and I completed our Holiday Horror Movie Marathon at the end of April. It was a two-month long marathon (March/April) that entailed watching 15 holiday related horror movies. We both kicked off the marathon with Holidays, an anthology of eight short horror films centered around holidays, and I wrapped it up with The Evil in Us. Kelsi and I originally chose 18 films for this marathon; however, we made some adjustments after viewing Rottentail. We bothed nixed Hanukkah and replaced Father’s Day because of content. Kelsi watched Stepfather, and I watched Stepfather 2. We also decided to move Thankskilling to November. Additionally, since we were unable to find a full-length movie of Groundhog (only watched trailer, teaser, and kill count videos), we removed it completely from our lists with the hope of getting a DVD of the movie by next year.

Out of the 15 movies that I watched, two of them were rewatches, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Terror Train. Overall, I enjoyed most of the movies that I chose for this marathon with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter being my top favorite. Along with Fat Tuesday, it was filmed in Louisiana. Both films feature local actors which I absolutely love. In fact, about ten years ago, I worked on a short film called Hotcakes with Michelle Kolwalski, who acted in and produced Fat Tuesday. As you can see from my rankings, there are two films that I wholly hated and have NO redeeming qualities. Both Leprechaun in the Hood and Rottentail are beyond terrible (content) and were difficult to sit through the entire viewing.

Since our Holiday Horror Movie Marathon was longer than our other marathons, we decided to split our conversations up into four separate videos. There are a few ways that you can watch all four of our delightful chats at your leisure, dear reader. This blog post contains links to all four of our conversations. They are also located on the Movie Marathon page of my blog. And, you can view them and additional fantastic content on Kelsi’s YouTube channel, Slime and Slashers – A Nostalgia and Horror Channel.

Our first chat is featured in my 19 March 2021 blog post, “Kicking Off Holiday Horror Marathon.” This conversation includes our opinions on the holiday horror themed anthology Holidays, and our expectations for the movie marathon.

Our second chat is a review of the first half of the films we watched at the beginning of the marathon. It includes our thoughts on Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Leprechaun, Leprechaun in the Hood, Fat Tuesday, Candy Man: Farewell to the Flesh, and The Happening.

Our third chat is a review of some of the films we watched during the second half of the marathon. It includes our thoughts on April Fool’s Day, Dead Snow, Night of the Lepus, Rottentail, Ladronas de Almas (Soul Thieves), Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and The Evil In Us.

Our fourth and final chat is a wrap-up of the marathon which includes holiday related dishes, literature, activities, and the final three films we watched, Stepfather, Stepfather 2, and Severance. We give our rankings of the films we watched and our thoughts on the marathon in general.

Generally speaking, dear reader, our Holiday Horror Movie Marathon was a success. Some of the highlights of the marathon were watching the horror movies connected to holidays, eating a Mexican feast while watching Ladronas de Almas, and chatting with Kelsi about the movies and our thematic activities. If there was a downside to our marathon, it would be that it was a tad bit too long. Our final concensus is watching holiday horror movies around the actual holiday would be a better approach. Kelsi and I also discovered in April that April is Halfway to Halloween Month. Apparently, it is something new conceived by the streaming service Shudder. Therefore, you can imagine what the two of us will be watching next year during the month of April. All in all, I am happy that I participated and look forward to sharing more of our movie marathon experiences. Happiness!

Horror, at its best, seeks to show its audiences that it’s okay to be scared–scared of anything at all–because fear is the dark before the dawn. ~ Carly Racklin, “Why Horror Matters”