Movie Review: RED ONE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 11/15/2024
RED ONE movie poster | ©2024 MGM / Amazon Studios

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J.K. Simmons, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Kiernan Shipka, Wesley Kimmel, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Nick Kroll Writer: Chris Morgan, story by Hiram Garcia Director: Jake Kasdan Distributor: MGM/Amazon Studios Release Date: November 15, 2024 The premise of RED ONE contains all sorts of intriguing Northern and Eastern European folklore: not only Santa Claus, but some darker figures as well. This could have made a great Rankin-Bass special, either with conventional animation or RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER-style puppetry, or even a live-action fantasy, a la the NARNIA films. However, RED ONE, directed by […]Read On »


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THE BLOODLINE OF YULE: Author Maria Alexander on her Christmas horror trilogy of novels – Exclusive Interview

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 04/26/2021
SNOWED book cover | ©2021 Ghede Press

THE BLOODLINE OF YULE trilogy consists of three YA novels by Maria Alexander: SNOWED, SNOWBOUND, and SNOWBLIND. The three books take the connections between jolly Christmas elf Santa Claus and demonic Yuletide entity Krampus and posit that he’s really the same being, the Klaas. Depending on what mood he’s in, the Klaas can manifest as either Santa or Krampus. He spends most of the year in his icy snowbound fortress at the North Pole, but can find anyone with The List. In SNOWED, the Klaas’s son and heir apparent Aidan runs away and meets mortal tech-whiz teenager Charity Jones. The […]Read On »


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Book Review: SNOWBLIND by Maria Alexander

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 01/13/2021
SNOWBLIND book cover | ©2020 Ghede Press

Writer: Maria Alexander Price: $13.70 Publisher: Ghede Press Publication Date: June 1, 2020 SNOWBLIND is the third installment in author Maria Alexander’s Bloodline of the Yule trilogy, following her Stoker Award-winning SNOWED and its sequel, SNOWBOUND. The books posit the intriguing mythological notion that jovial Santa Claus, aka St. Nicholas, and evil Krampus are in fact two aspects of the same being, the Klaas. Charity Jones is a teenager who is also a brilliant mechanical engineer. Our narrator in SNOWED, she falls for the mysterious Aidan MacNichol, who turns out to be the son of the current Klaas. In SNOWBOUND, […]Read On »


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EMERGENCE: Allison Tolman on playing a cop again in new genre series – Exclusive Interview

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 11/05/2019
Allison Tolman in EMERGENCE - Season 1 - "Mile Marker 14" | ©2019 ABC/Eric Liebowitz

In ABC’s new Tuesday-night series EMERGENCE, Allison Tolman stars as small-town police chief Jo Evans. Jo has an amiable divorce from her ex, Alex (Donald Faison), and they are co-parenting tween daughter Mia (Ashley Aufderheide). Jo and Mia also have Jo’s ailing dad Ed (Clancy Brown) living with them. The family’s relatively tranquil existence is thrown into chaos when Jo meets a mysterious little girl, Piper (Alexa Swinton), who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. Piper seems to be suffering from severe memory loss. Then people try to kidnap the child. Then Piper shows that she may be […]Read On »


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Book Review: SNOWBOUND

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 07/05/2019
SNOWBOUND novel by Maria Alexander | ©2019 Ghede Press

Writer: Maria Alexander Price: $13.99 Publisher: Ghede Press Publication Date: July 21, 2018 What with NOS4A2 making Christmas in July scary again on TV, this seems the ideal time to pick up Maria Alexander’s novel SNOWBOUND. This is the second in Alexander’s Yuletide trilogy, following her Bram Stoker Award-winning SNOWED. While it is advisable to read SNOWED before SNOWBOUND (and SNOWED is excellent in its own right), it’s not absolutely necessary. Alexander brings us up to speed without repeating herself. SNOWBOUND is told in the alternating first-person voices of Charity Jones, a brilliant just-out-of-high-school engineer now doing government work, and […]Read On »


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KRAMPUS: Composer Douglas Pipes unleashes music for the anti-Claus – Interview

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/14/2015
KRAMPUS soundtrack | ©2015 Back Lot Music

If Douglas Pipes comes knocking at your door with a bag begging for candy, or drops into your chimney with a sack of toys to give, it’s best to run the other way from a composer with a knack for turning child-friendly holidays into hell. But for those Scrooges who delight in hearing merriment tuned to the key of frenzied misery, Pipes’ seditious way of playing two of the year’s most beloved days as humorously black-hearted apocalypses is music to the ears – no more so than on the happiest eve of all as he twists all that is musically […]Read On »


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Movie Review: KRAMPUS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/04/2015
KRAMPUS movie poster | ©2015 Universal Pictures

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, Krista Stadler Writers: Todd Casey & Michael Dougherty & Zack Shields Director: Michael Dougherty Distributor: Universal Release Date (theatrical): December 4, 2015 While KRAMPUS is far from the first movie to use the mythic anti-Santa of legend as its villain, it’s arguably the best of the bunch, and indeed, up there with GREMLINS as a Christmas horror movie that deserves to become a tradition. Krampus, for those who’ve never heard of him, is a figure who possibly predates Christianity, but certainly showed […]Read On »


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Movie Review: A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 10/19/2015
A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY | © 2015 RLJ Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated Stars: William Shatner, George Buza, Rob Archer, Zoe De Grand Maison, Alex Ozerov, Shannon Kook, Amy Forsyth, Adrian Holmes, Olunike Adeliyi, Orion John Writers: James Kee, Sarah Larsen, Doug Taylor, Pascal Trottier Directors: Grant Harvey, Steve Hoban, Brett Sullivan Distributor: RLJ Entertainment Release Date (theatrical, VoD, iTunes): October 2, 2015 A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY is actually several horror stories all set on Christmas Eve in the picturesque small town of Bailey Downs. For fannish folk, Bailey Downs is the name of settings in both the werewolf movie GINGER SNAPS and the TV sci-fi drama ORPHAN BLACK. Neither […]Read On »


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