Christmas Creeps – Details, episodes & analysis

Merry Christmas, friends! We've finally made it to the big day, and we hope you all are having a lovely holiday wherever you are in the world. It's time to sit back, relax, mix up some fun Yuletide cocktails and listen to us yak about some Christmas movies!

On this episode, Joe and Nikki discuss a pair of new holiday offerings from Amazon Studios. First we take a look at The Merchants of Joy, a documentary about families who make their living selling Christmas trees in New York City. Following that, we get into the dysfunctional family comedy Oh. What. Fun., which follows Michelle Pfeiffer as a mom who feels wholly ignored by her family around the holidays. Ha ha ha!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
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Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!
Join us on our Discord channel!

Intro: Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses)
Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Shane Black Friday returns! Our favorite purveyor of holiday action nonsense is back with another Christmas-themed feature to jingle our bells and deck our halls. Or something like that.

On this episode we're discussing Play Dirty, the latest from filmmaker Shane Black. Play Dirty is based on Richard Stark's long-running series of "Parker" crime novels. But rather than adapting any novel in particular, Shane Black elected to concoct his own with the help of Mark Wahlberg, Lakeith Stanfield, and Rosa Salazar.

It's got twists and turns! It's got heists and wacky characters and double-crosses! It's got all the things we come to expect from a Shane Black movie. And it also has the baggage of being an Amazon-produced film meant for 'second screen viewing'. What does all that mean? We'll get into it!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!
Join us on our Discord channel!

Happy New Year, Creepazoids! It's January, so you know what that means... It's time for our second annual Video Game extravaganza! The holiday season is behind us, so we're taking some time out of our winter break to discuss a few of our favorite things: video games! 

Joe, Johnny-5 and Bradford countdown their five favorite video games of 2024. Also in this episode, we get into some honorable mentions, favorites from listeners in our Discord channel, and so much more! So crack open a cold one and get ready for 80+ minutes of quality video game shenanigans.

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!
Join us on our Discord channel!

Happy December to one and all! This week, we present to you a Stocking Stuffer we recorded back in August. J5 went digging around the Lost Media Wiki and turned up Cranberry Christmas! Sponsored and produced by the Ocean Spray cranberry juice company, this animated special features songs and narration from the one and only Barry Manilow! To our knowledge it has aired only once, and as this podcast bears out, there is probably a very good reason why. Enjoy!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and that can only mean one thing... It's time for our third annual Shane Black Friday!

Libby Cudmore joins us to help navigate all the bizarre twists and turns of Renny Harlin's 1996 action yarn The Long Kiss Goodnight. National treasure Geena Davis plays a recovering amnesiac who suddenly, violently discovers her former life as a trained assassin, and Samuel L. Jackson plays the low-rent detective helping her get to the bottom of things. There are explosions and gunfights and it's all very silly.

Also it's a Christmas movie. Shane Black wrote this, so of course it's a Christmas movie!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

This one has been a long time coming. Our celebration of all things Bob Clark—known around these parts as CLARKSGIVING—comes to an end with perhaps the greatest Christmas movie of them all: A CHRISTMAS STORY!

Our friends Booker and Jessie join us for a discussion of one of the true kings of holiday cinema. The adventures of Ralphie Parker and his quest for that elusive Red Ryder BB gun have become an American institution in the form of TV marathons, museums and, yes, a cash-in sequel or three. But what makes this film endure where so many other wannabe Christmas classics simply don't? When exactly does the film take place? Who would want to live down the street from that house? We dig into all of that and more!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Happy November, friends! It's time to pack up Home for the Horrordays for another year. But fret not, because we have one last bit of horror goodness up our sleeves.

Ten years before A Christmas Story, Bob Clark directed a little horror movie called Black Christmas, which would inspire slasher cinema for decades to come. Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, Scream and countless others owe some sort of debt to Black Christmas. And with a brand new remake on the horizon, we thought it would be fun to dedicate an entire month to the Christmas offerings of Bob Clark. Welcome to CLARKSGIVING!

This week, our pal and horror expert Dr. Nick drops by to discuss all things Black Christmas, and why this film deserves its reputation as a bona fide horror classic!

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

It's everyone's favorite time of year! No, it's not Christmas just yet. It's time to go Home for the HorrorDays! 

This week, we're revisiting the saga of the Caldwell family with Silent Night Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! Somehow, Ricky "Santa Claus Killer" Caldwell survived the last film, and what's he got to show for it? Oh nothing much, just his EXPOSED BRAIN IN A JAR WHERE HIS SKULL USED TO BE. No biggie. This film also features a blind psychic who can sense Ricky's thoughts, and somehow never manages to do anything interesting with that. For real, SNDN3 is kinda the pits.

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
Visit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

It's finally here! We conclude Vaughn-a-thon this week with Vince Vaughn's other holiday offering: The $100 million comedy spectacle Fred Claus! What happens when St. Nick's deadbeat brother Fred gets arrested for grifting money away from Salvation Army Santas? Nick bails him out on the condition that he come work for him at the North Pole. And then there are some shenanigans involving Kevin Spacey. Yes, it's all very unpleasant.

Anywho, also in this week's episode, Joe breaks out some Fred Claus marketing material, Brad gives the Santa Talk to his dog Charles, and we ponder the difference between Santa Claus and his clan and your average pack of vampires.

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
For show notes, visit us at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Welcome to Vaughn-a-thon! This month we're highlighting the two holiday features produced by and starring Vince Vaughn. We kick things off with Four Christmases, which we assumed would be the lesser of two evils. We assumed wrong. From the sheer volume of A-list stars with nothing to do, to the film's weirdly antagonistic tone, to the way it forces regressive notions about family upon a couple with more modern sensibilities, Four Christmases is a dire experience all the way around!

Also in this episode we discuss Freeform's Halloween TV schedule, ponder how seasonal creep operates in the Southern hemisphere, and Joe and Bradford gets a chance to gush about one of their favorite films! Check it out!

(NB: Movie chat begins at 23:50)

Questions/Comments?
Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.com
Tweet us @ChristmasCreeps
For show notes, visit us at ChristmasCreeps.com!