Christmas Creeps

Grab your pumpkins and pour your ciders, kids, because the most wonderful time of the year is finally upon us: HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS! Home For The Horrordays is our annual tradition of watching Christmas-themed horror flicks. There are more of them than you'd imagine, and this year we've picked some real oddballs! On this episode, we dig into the 1984 cult classic Night of the Comet! It's 11 day...

For years, internet sleuths have tried to identify a cartoon based on nothing but an old family Christmas photo. In an amazing turn of events, not only was the cartoon identified, but it turned out to be an obscure Christmas special titled The Christmas Gift of Light . So you know we had to watch that thing ASAP! And watch it we did. On this Stocking Stuffer, Joe and Johnny-5 break down this odd l...

There's a reason we don't often go to the made-for-TV well, and it's because we fear falling into that abyss never to be seen again. But sometimes a project intrigues you so much that you can't help but gaze into it anyway. This week we discuss the 1990 made-for-TV Disney film A Mom For Christmas ! Directed by George Miller—"Zeus & Roxanne" George Miller, not "Happy Feet" George Miller—this film f...

This edition of Stocking Stuffers is unique, in that the episode of TV we're covering is only 7 minutes long. "All Through The House" is the lone Christmas episode of Netflix's animated anthology series Love Death & Robots . It's also a perfect fit for our show's often macabre and off-kilter grasp of the holidays. But since the episode is so short, Joe and Bradford take the opportunity to discuss...

Happy Christmas in July! On this episode, we're still knee deep in summer action season as we take a look at the Wesley Snipes/Woody Harrelson buddy cop flick Money Train ! They're two cops who also happen to be brothers, or is it two brothers who also happen to be cops? Either way, it's Christmastime in the Big Apple and Charlie owes a large gambling debt to a local mobster. What's a transit cop...

We're back with more holiday action hijinks! This week, in honor of the recently departed Ray Liotta, we take a look at his 1997 airplane thriller Turbulence ! It's Christmas Eve and the feds need to escort a number of criminals, including the Lonely Hearts Strangler, from New York to Los Angeles. When all hell breaks loose and every officer and pilot onboard have been killed, it's up to flight at...

This Memorial Day, we're kicking off our Summer Holiday Movie Season! All summer long we'll be highlighting ridiculous summer action movies with a holiday bent! On this episode we're taking the modern surveillance state to task with Tony Scott's 1998 mistaken identity thriller Enemy of the State ! Will Smith is on the run from the NSA, who believe he's in possession of a videotape with incriminati...

Our pals Niall Flanagan and Dwayne Moloney, co-hosts of the Secret of the Sailor Madness podcast, join us this week to try and make sense of Rankin/Bass' 1967 Christmas special The Cricket on the Hearth ! Based on Charles Dickens' other holiday novella, Cricket plays fast and loose with its source material to make it suitable for television. Certain characters get cut out, new ones invented out of...

When we discussed A Karate Christmas Miracle last year, we swore that we wouldn't touch its follow-up unless we had no other choice. Ladies and gentlemen, that day came far sooner than we expected. A Wrestling Christmas Miracle has the distinction of being the only Christmas movie to feature the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Going into this, that was all we knew. Only now can we say that we have...

Please enjoy this week's Stocking Stuffer to tide you over until our next full episode. This week we're taking a look at The Norm Show , Norm Macdonald's foray into the world of late-90s sitcoms. In this episode, "Norm vs Christmas", Norm tries to show his co-workers how magical Christmas can be, with a non-denominational holiday party, a Secret Santa gift exchange, and surprise decorations at hom...

This week we return to world of Jim Henson with the 1992 holiday classic The Muppet Christmas Carol ! You know how this story goes: Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old turd who only loves his money. Three spirits show him the error of his ways, yadda yadda yadda Christmas is saved! But the Muppets put their own unique spin on this tale, with some help from Jaws: The Revenge star Michael Caine! Is it...

Happy New Year to one and all, and welcome to Season 8 of Christmas Creeps! We kick off the new year with the little-seen 1987 animated Christmas special Christmas Every Day . Based on an 1892 short story by William Dean Howells, this cartoon seeks to answer the question: What would happen if we celebrated Christmas every single day? Not only does the situation send one family into crisis, but it...

Last week we pit the original Home Alone against its 2021 remake. Of course the remake didn't hold a candle to the original, but there is still a bit of unfinished business we need to discuss. On this podcast, we attempt to rank all of the traps from both films. First we rank all the traps in the original Home Alone . Then we do the same for Home Sweet Home Alone . How does the iron to Marv's face...

Merry Christmas to one and all! We don't usually pit two films against one another, but since it is Christmas we thought we'd give you fine listeners a little holiday treat. Home Alone is one of our generation's unassailable holiday classics. We've covered a number of its sequels on the show before, but tonight we're finally digging into the 1990 original. But because one Home Alone simply isn't e...

This week we discuss the nostalgia-fueled Nintendo frenzy of the film 8-Bit Christmas ! Inspired in part by A Christmas Story , the film tells the tale of young Jake, a kid like any other in 1988 who just wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. As you can imagine, this week's podcast is going to be wall-to-wall Video Game Chat. We understand if that might not be your cup of tea, but...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Or rather, Happy T-Hanksgiving! This week we dig deep into the Tom Hanks-filled 2004 animated feature The Polar Express, which somehow manages to turn Chris Van Allsburg's 32-page book into a feature-length adventure full of magical train-hopping hobos, swing-dancing elves, and one kid's quest to continue believing in Santa at all costs. Our discussion takes some wild...

On this week's episode, we attempt to explain the weirdo madness of the 1985 Rankin/Bass special The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus ! Based on a story by "Wizard of Oz" author L. Frank Baum, this special features a council of immortal wood nymphs, an army of invisible trolls, and an elf that may or may not have inspired a character from The Legend of Zelda. Oh, and somewhere in all that there's...

We conclude Home For The Horrordays with James Wan's The Conjuring 2 ! Set against the chilly backdrop of Christmas, Conjuring 2 is based on the Enfield Poltergeist, a true haunting case from the late 1970s in which a ghost supposedly haunted a single mother and her four children living in the north of London. And joining us this week is our old pal Dr. Nick ! Last heard on our Black Christmas epi...

The days are getting shorter... A chill is in the air... The smell of candy corn lingers... That can only mean one thing: It's time for HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS! For this year's spookytimes, we're spotlighting a pair of holiday horror sequels. On this episode, our pal Stuart joins us to bear witness to the wanton police brutality of Maniac Cop 2 ! They thought they killed the zombie cop the first t...

This week Bradford brings us an episode of the Viceland comedy series "Nirvanna The Band The Show". The episode, titled "The Bean", follows its stars' attempt to sneak a float into the Toronto Christmas parade as a means of promoting their rock band that may or may not actually exist. Christmas gags abound on this episode, including a surprisingly detailed homage to the finer points of Home Alone...

Let's try that whole Dog Days of Summer thing again, huh? Santa Stole Our Dog! absolutely has a dog in it, and this time it might even be important to the plot! Why on earth would Santa steal someone's dog, anyway? Well friends, this is not the first time a little critter has followed Ed Asner home... And in order the tell the full story of  Santa Stole Our Dog! , we receive a transmission from ou...

Welcome, dear listeners, to the Dog Days of Summer! The season is winding down, but it's hotter than ever out there, so what better time to stay indoors with a cool holiday treat featuring some cute little puppers? Well there's a problem... This week's film, 12 Christmas Wishes for My Dog , was sold to us as exactly the kind of holiday/dog shenanigans we usually watch this time of year. Instead, t...

Happy Christmas in July, superfriends! You didn't think we'd be doing one, but guess what? We're doing one! And wow is this one a doozy... A Karate Christmas Miracle is one of those movies that defies explanation. A kid sets out to teach himself enough karate to reach black belt by Christmas in order for his missing father to come home after a yearlong absence. Why is he missing? Who is responsibl...

Welcome back, friends! We're officially halfway to Christmas, so we figured what better way to round the corner on 2021 than with some toasty, heartwarming Muppet goodness! A Muppet Family Christmas first aired in 1987 with a whole host of musical numbers, and due to copyright issues the special has appeared in a truncated form ever since. Unless you know where to look online... We dug up an origi...

And now, we bring you the thrilling conclusion to the Let It Snow trilogy! This week's film is a romantic comedy from the late 90s, when indie cinema was all the rage and bucking Hollywood trends was a surefire way to get yourself noticed! That's a fancy way of saying this movie doesn't know what the hell its doing. James and Sarah meet on a snow day in high school. His family is unlucky in love;...