stonepicnicking_okapi

I like horror movies. I have borrowed plots from different horror movies for fic through the years. I prefer older films or the first of the franchise. This Christmastide I watched:

1. Jack Frost (1997). I enjoyed this. It was so camp, so ridiculous, so cheesy. I recommend it if you want a laugh. So the van carrying a serial killer and a van carrying Secret Stuff collide on a snowy night and the serial killer becomes a snowman. And (spoiler) there is a scene of the sheriff and the serial killing snowman wrestling in a truck bed filled with antifreeze. Crack-tastic.

2. Black Christmas (1974). I will probably watch this again. There are some cringe moments (the Margo Kidder character is an ugly drunk) but there were elements of it that are still pretty awesome. A killer haunts a sorority house at Christmas. And it's the origin of the phrase 'the call's coming from inside the house.'

3. Silent Night Deadly Night (1984). This was the first horror movie I ever saw and the only part I remembered was the best part (in my opinion). The killer grabs a half naked girl and impales her on the antlers of mounted deer. My uncle has/had A LOT of mounted animals around his house (deer, turkey, and other antelope, kudu, and horned animals he shot in Africa) so that made that part very memorable to a young okapi. But in general it's just sad. A traumatized orphan is abused by nuns and grows up and is forced by an employer to trigger himself at Christmas and goes on a spree with an axe. It was just sad (except for the chick impaled on the antlers).

4. Silent Night Bloody Night (1972). This is a bit contrived but very atmospheric. If you watch it at night with the lights out, you could probably scare the shit out of yourself. A man dies and leaves a house where a lot of tragedy has occurred, and a developer comes to town 15 years later to sell the house. And a killer is on the loose. There is a lot here about 'crazy people' i.e. people committed to mental institutions getting loose and being extremely organized and violent. That rankles. But it was scary in a retro way.

I really like the idea of BBC Sherlock getting an evil advent calendar from Moriarty.

Title: The psychopath's advent calendar, Day 1
Rating: Teen for implied violence/dark themes
Length: 500
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Prompt: Listen
Summary: Sherlock receives a sinister Christmas gift from Jim Moriarty (inspired by Black Christmas).

John had left for Edinburgh. He hadn’t batted an eyelash when Sherlock explained that the object under the sheet was a dolls’ house that Mrs. Hudson was safekeeping for Mrs. Turner, a Christmas gift for the latter’s grandniece.

John had apologized. So had Sherlock. They’d parted amicably enough. But Sherlock’s thoughts were on the dolls’ house the whole time.

Sherlock listened to the front door shut. He was at the window and watched John load his suitcase into the back of the taxi. When the taxi could no longer be seen, Sherlock flew to the dolls’ house, more precisely, the dolls’ hotel.

He examined it carefully. He toyed with the idea of telling Lestrade about it, getting some of the Yard’s equipment involved in the examination, but something prevented him.

Curiosity. If it really were a game of some kind, a game between himself and Jim Moriarty, well, he didn’t want anyone else involved.

Sherlock waited. Then at some point, he dozed off.

--

Sherlock wasn’t listening for it, but he heard it, nonetheless.

A click.

Sherlock’s eyes opened and went instinctively to his phone.

Midnight, exactly.

Sherlock blinked at the dolls’ house.

Then he heard a telephone ringing, not a ringtone, an old-fashioned ringing. The noise was small, not quiet, but small, like the click had been.

He honed in on the sound, stepping closer and closer…until he reached for the tiny door marked 01 and opened it easily.

It hadn’t opened before, none of the rooms had, and Sherlock had not wanted to force any—yet.

Sherlock felt a little bit like Alice in Wonderland, peering into the dolls’ house from the tiny open door.
There was a tiny table. And a tiny old-fashioned telephone on it. And that tiny old-fashioned telephone was ringing.

Sherlock reached in and lifted the tiny receiver, and a tiny voice sounded.

“The call is coming from inside the house! The call is coming from inside the house!” Tiny cackling. “That’s from a very old scary movie set around Christmastime. Black Christmas. Don’t you love scary movies, Sherlock? Especially the old ones? Especially the Christmas ones? They’re so much fun, aren’t they? So camp, so many delightful motifs baked right in.” More cackling. “Don’t you love scary old Christmas movies, Sherlock?”

Sherlock replied honestly. “No.”

“Well, that’s just too bad because you’re in one! And tonight is just the opening scene!”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that there’s going to be a murder out there and you need to solve it before tomorrow midnight, but I’m going to be sporting. I’m going to give you a clue. It’s inspired by the film Black Christmas, the old 70’s one, not the horrid remakes. Might want to take a gander at it. We can have a watchalong if you’re especially keen! Hmm. But that might cut into your sleuthing time. Whatever. Solve it and we’ll all have a happy Christmas—until the next door opens. And, remember, the call is coming from inside the house!”

This is a challenge to post about 50 things I'm fannish about in 2024. I did the challenge in 2023 so to make it more interesting, in 2024, it's Everything is Murder edition. More info & to sign up here:https://alexcat.dreamwidth.org/1357645.html

The List (to date)

Fannish 50: 2024: #1: Jeeves & Wooster
Fannish 50: 2024: #2: Libraries
Fannish 50: 2024: #3: Facial Sheet Masks
Fannish 50: 2024: #4: Venom
Fannish 50: 2024: #5: jhope of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #6: the art of Edward Gorey
Fannish 50: 2024: #7: The works of Edgar Allan Poe
Fannish 50: 2024: #8: SUGA of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #9: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Fannish 50: 2024: #10: Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Fannish 50: 2024: #11: Honkaku & shin honkaku detective fiction
Fannish 50: 2024: #12: Audiobooks
Fannish 50: 2024: #13: Holiday blend coffee
Fannish 50: 2024: #14: Jazz
Fannish 50: 2024: #15: Jigsaw puzzles
Fannish 50: 2024: #16: Sherlock Holmes
Fannish 50: 2024: #17: Poetry
Fannish 50: 2024: #18: Chocolate
Fannish 50: 2024: #19: Detective Matthew Venn series - Ann Cleeves
Fannish 50: 2024: #20: Tarot
Fannish 50: 2024: #21: Poirot - Agatha Christie
Fannish 50: 2024: #22: The ocean
Fannish 50: 2024: #23: Hardboiled detectives/noir
Fannish 50: 2024: #24: Tea
Fannish 50: 2024: #25: Bees & honey
Fannish 50: 2024: #26: Campion - Margery Allingham
Fannish 50: 2024: #27: The language of flowers
Fannish 50: 2024: #28: The moon
Fannish 50: 2024: #29: Gervase Fen detective series - Edmund Crispin
Fannish 50: 2024: #30: James Bond
Fannish 50: 2024: #31: Jungkook of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #32: Inspector Alleyn series - Ngaio Marsh
Fannish 50: 2024: #33: Collage materials
Fannish 50: 2024: #34: RM of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #35: Nanette Hayes mysteries - Charlotte Carter
Fannish 50: 2024: #36: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Fannish 50: 2024: #37: Inspector Littlejohn series - George Bellairs
Fannish 50: 2024: #38: Jimin of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #39: Autumn
Fannish 50: 2024: #40: Halloween
Fannish 50: 2024: #41: Ghost stories of MR James
Fannish 50: 2024: #42: Christmas
Fannish 50: 2024: #43: Jin of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #44: Advent calendars
Fannish 50: 2024: #45: Snoopy
Fannish 50: 2024: #46: Inspector Rebus detective series- Ian Rankin
Fannish 50: 2024: #47: Scary movies