‘Tis the season to be jolly…well, not all the time! It’s hard to keep up the celebratory smiles through the stresses of the Christmas period. Here are 5 films to take your mind off of yuletide joy!
Gremlins
Released in 1984, comedy horror film Gremlins sees Randall Peltzer visits a Chinatown antique shop in the hope of finding a Christmas present for his son, Billy. He buys a creature called a mogwai, but is told about three important rules he must follow if he’s to own it – do not expose it to bright lights or sunlight which will kill it, do not let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight.
Things don’t quite go to plan as you can imagine (!), and festivities are put on hold in the Peltzer’s community whilst the terror that’s been unleashed is dealt with.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Disney’s Star Wars reboot is the new Harry Potter in the sense that we’re seeing the huge franchise dominate cinema takings during the Christmas holidays.
This December sees Rogue One released to millions of eagerly anticipated sci-fi fans around the world. As the first standalone film in the Star Wars universe, its separate nature means that it’s one for all to go watch. Get down to your local cinema and enjoy!
Die Hard 1 and 2
The Die Hard franchise, home to one of the greatest one-liners in cinematic history (Yippee ki yay Mo-…), presents us with a somewhat alternative take on Christmas Eve. In both Die Hard 1 and 2, NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) battles two terrorist plots in two very different situations.
The chemistry between Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman in the first instalment is, at times, incredibly charming and witty, and serves as a good way to honour the career of the latter, who sadly passed away this year.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
The only foreign language film on the list, Rare Exports is a Finnish fantasy horror film that unleashes a sinister interpretation of Santa Claus upon its audience.
It follows Rauno Kontio and his son, Pietari, who own a reindeer slaughter house in Lapland, northern Finland. When they discover hundreds of dead reindeer on the base of the local mountain, Korvatunturi, they decide action must be taken to find the culprit. What they find certainly wasn’t what they expected…
Batman Returns
When we think of Batman our minds automatically go to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, but there are so many other good films out there!
Tim Burton’s 1992 Batman Returns has an A-list cast (Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfieffer, Christopher Walken) and a stereotypical madman-attempts-to-take-over-Gotham City plot. The plot is set in a traditional Christmassy environment, full of presents, trees, and mistletoe galore, but very much uses its setting as simply that; a tool to develop what is a very good action film.
First published at Pulse Media
Tom Talks 
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