There’s a lot of things I dislike about being British. I mean a hell of a lot. I started typing them out and realised I’ll save it for another day… I’m already feeling ill, so I don’t need to add more negativity. It does help tee up one of the things I like about being British, our phrases and sayings. “Feeling like death warmed up”. That about sums up the past week for me. I have not stopped coughing and sneezing since last week which can only mean one thing. It’s nearly Christmas time!!

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a blur with an intense work life coupled with a busy social calendar. Through in the traditional early Christmas present of the flu and it’s pretty much floored me! It’s meant I’ve not really been able to sit down and take notes on a film like I usually would for one of these blogs. Instead, I thought I’d do a mini round up of November, maybe a slight mind vomit and then a brief look into December plans.

I had some very exciting deliveries during October and November. I took advantage of October sales at Arrow, 88 Films, Eureka! as well as full price for one of the big drops… A Nightmare on Elm Street 4K Steelbook Collection. My assumption is, that if you’re reading this, you have some form of love for physical media and all I can do is urge you to keep on investing & building your collections. I’m writing this as we’re FINALLY hearing the news that Hellraiser 2022 is getting a physical release. We’re living in a dangerous era for art, that a lot smarter people than me have written about in a lot more detail, but suffice to say, use it or lose it! The fact that it’s taken 3 years for this well received entry in a fan favourite horror franchise to receive a release is, frankly, bewildering. This would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago, but the more streamers produce this content and then hoard to get subscribers rather than releasing in cinemas, the more common this will be. Look at Frankenstein, people can’t stop talking about it, but it was in the cinema for less than a month. Pixar’s recent Elio was another blink, and you miss it release before landing on Disney+. Don’t even get me started on the fact I still can’t own a copy of Barbarian. Mini rant over.

So, films. A Nightmare on Elm Street is pretty good, isn’t it? I tell you what, it’s even better on 4K. The 4K restorations for this hallowed set are some of the best I’ve seen. It really was an absolute blast revisiting this franchise and watching them all in the space of a few weeks made me re-evaluate a few of them. Freddy’s Revenge is an infinitely better film than I’ve ever given it credit for. Dream Warriors is a near perfect film. The Dream Master, again, has improved with distance and time for me. Freddy’s Dead is far more watchable than Dream Child and I won’t hear any less. This aside, the actual Steelbooks are just gorgeous in general. I’ve put a fair few pictures up of them on my Instagram and Twitter so head over there to see although I’m sure I’ll do a full retrospective at some point. I do have plans!

I’ve again tried to keep myself on a path of watching “new-to-me” films as opposed to rewatching favourites as I know I’ll be revisiting a load of classics in December. I discovered 1989’s The Dead Pit for the first time and was blown away by nearly every aspect of it. I’m not a huge fan of zombie films but this was different. It gave me old Hammer horror vibes splattered with 80s neon vibrancy. A really solid film if you’ve not seen it. I watched 1987’s Blood Rage or Nightmare at Shadow Woods for the first time too. I knew this one was considered a trashy slasher classic and it didn’t disappoint. The sort of film that just wouldn’t be made now. Excessive, abysmally acted and completely nonsensical. It was superb and I’ll watch it every year from now on! I’ll also chuck in an honourable mention to 2004s Club Dread. I have always and will always love Bill Paxton. His turn in this is so brilliant and I found myself laughing along at a lot of the jokes. Some of them have aged quite badly but some of the lines are all-timers. I’m going to be digging into more of the Broken Lizard catalogue at some point.

I want to get back to more deep dive reviews/musings on films throughout December and with a load more holiday days coming up, I should be able to do this! I’m going to be finishing off my Puppet Master binge (don’t ask) in the next few days and then I’m going to turn my attention to the Silent Night, Deadly Night series. I adore the first two and I watched The Toymaker for the first time last year and was pleasantly surprised. I’m hoping to write a little piece on these classics of Christmas Cinema! I’m also planning on digging into the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas series with classics like Whistle and I’ll Come to You, The Stone Tape, Stigma etc etc. I’m also planning on doing a deep dive of an incest, neo-Nazi tinged Christmas film (that’s surely enough information to work it out, right?!) an 80s, London set slasher classic and a piece on my favourite Christmas film of all time. Hope you’ll be back to check them out!