Reviews
‘Dial Code Santa Claus’: The Horror Film That [Maybe] Inspired ‘Home Alone’
Dial Code Santa Claus (also known as Deadly Games, 3615 Code Father Christmas, Game Over, and Hide and Freak) is a 1989 comedy/horror/thriller from writer/director René Manzor. Thomas (Alain Lalanne) is a very young boy with a large imagination. Resigned to one of the largest mansions I’ve ever seen, Thomas fills his days with Rambo-style antics by working out, building trapdoors, and playing war with his precious dog J.R. His mother, Julie (Brigitte Fossey) manages a Printemps, which is a French chain of department stores. Thomas spends the majority of his time with his near-blind grandfather Papy (Louis Ducreux), due to his mother’s insanely busy schedule. However, it feels like Julie attempts to make herself busier than she needs to be as a way to cope with the recent loss of her husband, Thomas’s father. On Christmas Eve, Thomas uses a Minitel to talk with Santa, only he’s not talking to Santa… he’s talking to a cold-blooded and unnamed killer (Patrick Floersheim). Unfortunately for Thomas, the vagrant finds out where he lives, and he’s ready to spread some Christmas spirit.
Synchronicity in life is always a strange thing to comprehend. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head that happened to start playing randomly in the grocery store? Remember when Deep Impact and Armageddon came out the same year? How about the short time differential between The Illusionist and The Prestige? Do you recall in 1997 when Volcano and (the highly superior) Dante’s Peak came out nearly simultaneously? Sometimes, when one studio hears about one movie in production, they’ll race to get something similar out as quickly as possible. I call this the Asylum Effect (if you aren’t familiar, Asylum creates low-budget-quick-turnaround films that mirror big-budget films, i.e., their version of Transformers was Transmorphers). These incidents aren’t always malicious, rather, they just happen. One thing that seems less like a coincidence is the distinct similarities between Home Alone and Dial Code Santa Claus.
An Overlooked Horror Christmas Classic That Maybe Inspired Home Alone
Dial Code Santa Claus (also known as Deadly Games, 3615 Code Father Christmas, Game Over, and Hide and Freak) is a 1989 comedy/horror/thriller from writer/director René Manzor. Thomas (Alain Lalanne) is a very young boy with a large imagination. Resigned to one of the largest mansions I’ve ever seen, Thomas fills his days with Rambo-style antics by working out, building trapdoors, and playing war with his precious dog J.R. His mother, Julie (Brigitte Fossey) manages a Printemps, which is a French chain of department stores. Thomas spends the majority of his time with his near-blind grandfather Papy (Louis Ducreux), due to his mother’s insanely busy schedule. However, it feels like Julie attempts to make herself busier than she needs to be as a way to cope with the recent loss of her husband, Thomas’s father. On Christmas Eve, Thomas uses a Minitel to talk with Santa, only he’s not talking to Santa… he’s talking to a cold-blooded and unnamed killer (Patrick Floersheim). Unfortunately for Thomas, the vagrant finds out where he lives, and he’s ready to spread some Christmas spirit.
From the description alone, it might not sound like Home Alone, and, going with my belief that these two films are a bit too similar, I think that was purposeful. Home Alone feels different enough to be its own entity, and I would hate to accuse John Hughes of plagiarism–I mean he’s not the Australian author John Hughes. But let’s take a step back and look at the quickest form of elevator pitch that would apply to both of these films: a young boy who is more self-aware than your typical 8-year-old, with rocky familial relations, finds himself at the behest of a home intruder(s) with villainous intent. From that simple description, Dial Code Santa Claus and Home Alone could easily be one of the many outcomes once the pitch was accepted. What’s even stranger is how both films are Christmas films. Did John Hughes take the premise of an “obscure” French film? How in touch with world cinema are Americans [in 1989] anyway? No one will notice.
Why Dial Code Santa Claus Stands Out as a Unique Film
Okay, enough talking about John Hughes and Home Alone. The point has been made, and we can all move on. As someone who isn’t really into Christmas or Christmas horror by proxy, it’s no surprise Dial Code Santa Claus flew past my radar. It’s a shame. Dial Code is a genuinely original, odd, and heartwarming tale of resilience and the human condition. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt genuinely moved by a film, and this film hit me hard. However, every vice has its versa, and this film is far from perfect. The consistency of the direction and cinematography vary from scene to scene, creating a fairly messy visual tale…the continuity errors don’t help either. Tonally, Manzor’s script is all over the place. At the drop of a hat, the film switches from comedy to horror to drama without giving the audience a minute to catch their bearings. The majority of the time it’s not overly egregious, but when this happens during major plot points, the film feels a bit confused. Dial Code Santa Claus is charming for how it tells its story, however, how they tell the story will not work for everyone.
It’s the Christmas season. Let’s be jolly and focus on the positives! Unlike Home Alone, Thomas does not find himself home alone. Thomas finds himself in the company of his grandfather, but with his near-blindness, Thomas is the one who must take control when la merde frappe le ventilateur (when shit hits the fan). Having a child lead a film is always a risk, and most of the time it doesn’t pay off. Luckily for Manzor, he found Alain Lalanne. Full of charisma and energy, Lalanne absolutely eats this role up. The emotional turning point in Home Alone is when Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) realizes Marley (Roberts Blossom) isn’t the big bad urban legend he was made out to be. Home Alone tries forcing an emotional connection without really earning it, he’s a privileged little boy who has to learn empathy—big deal. There’s nothing to care about in that character. On the other hand, Thomas is dangerously creative and truly a tragic character. You can empathize with him right off the bat.
A Movie Carried By A Small Protagonist
Thomas is quite an interesting character. Part of me believes after this whole debacle, their family packed up, moved to the States, and changed their last name to Kramer…because this kid is a little Jigsaw in the making. He looks at himself almost as the patriarch of the family. When he has an inkling that his mother might be falling for her coworker Roland (François-Eric Gendron), he fixes her car so she doesn’t have to be chauffeured around anymore. A montage scene of Thomas setting up traps shows how forward-thinking and ambitious he is. Kevin McCallister sets up a few pulley systems and puts a hot rod on a door handle, Thomas literally sets up a tripwire with darts that shoot into the killer’s neck before being led into a literal fire trap. Unlike Home Alone, where the violence feels cartoonish and pointless, Thomas and Papy legitimately are out to kill the invader. (Yes, the Wet Bandits show injuries, but there’s no way in hell your skull isn’t getting caved in from a paint can at that speed.)
Manzor’s script creates a childlike whimsy throughout the film’s first half. It shows us Thomas is a genius with grand ideas and a sense of wonder. It’s not until the film’s second half that that facade slips into true terror. One of the most intriguing aspects is how the film opens versus how it ends. The opening shot consists of a garbage truck running over a snow globe, a true depiction of innocence being shattered. Our first look at Thomas is of him asleep in his gigantic airplane bed with a fan pointed directly at him, simulating wind. From there, we get a montage of Thomas working out, sharpening a [plastic] knife (with a bit too many closeup shots of sweaty child skin), scaling a ledge, and trapping his dog in the floor pit they have for some reason. The final shot of the film is of Thomas covered in mud in front of Santa’s (the killer’s) corpse as his mother runs over and consoles him. Eff around and find out, right? Thomas’s morning routine is an emulation of his military father, doing everything he can to be a macho-man badass and doing things that would give an average person PTSD. Sadly, there’s no way Thomas would have gotten out of this film without extreme PTSD.
Moments of Vulnerability in a Child’s Bravery
Rather than giving us Rambo Jr. the entire film, Manzor drops in small moments here and there to remind us that Thomas is still a child. In Thomas’s wake-up scene, we see him scaling a tight ledge, until the camera pulls back to see he is on a balcony. Later in the film, when being chased by the killer, Thomas is forced to scale an actual ledge on the snowy rooftop. During this time, he breaks down, screaming and crying for his mother. After Thomas steals a cop car, understandably, he comes to a face-off with the killer. They stare dead into each other’s eyes. Using the gun from inside the cop car, Thomas directs the barrel toward the killer and cries out, asking why he’s doing this. It is just another one of the heartbreaking moments where Thomas breaks the “manly” and “adult” facade he portrays so heavily.
Killer Hobo Santa Is Legitimately Scary
Speaking of the killer, let’s talk about him. It would have been nice to have him fleshed out a little more. Most people I know who’ve seen this film assume he’s a deranged unhoused person, so we’ll go with that. His intentions are unclear, but we have some context clues to piece together what’s going on. At the film’s beginning, the killer tries to join a group of neighborhood kids in a snowball fight, but they quickly depart from the area. From there he gets hired to be Santa Claus for Julie’s incredibly impromptu Christmas festivities (it’s Christmas Eve, and she’s making her team plan this extravaganza now). As the kids pass with their parents, he throws out candies and treats to the giddy children, all with wide smiles on their faces. Things go south when Marion (Marion Bureau), whose mom is inside the store, approaches him. He strokes her face, yeesh, and things start to feel…icky. Marion yells out that he’s not the real Santa and straight-up slaps her. Contain your laughter.
The Killer’s Descent into Violence
From here on out, the killer is unleashed. Something at this moment clicks in his head. He makes his way to Julie’s home and starts dispatching the help one by one. The killer has these moments of innocence that are entirely eclipsed by his insidious nature. One of the most compelling scenes of his terror comes when Thomas and Papy are chased into the garage and into the car. Thomas eventually gets the car started but can’t bring himself to run the killer over. Set to the tune of an audibly confusing psychedelic techno-rock song, the killer walks up to the car and slams his head smack dab on the windshield, cracking it and his skull. The scene gets even more intense as he attacks the car with a sledgehammer and long metal pipe in a mixture of expertly used slow-motion shots intermixed with higher frame rate impacts.
The Eclectic Soundtrack of Dial Code Santa Claus
Super quick segue: while we’re talking about music, we have to talk about one of the first songs on the soundtrack. When Thomas is doing his morning routine, a song starts playing, and I cannot find it for the life of me. AND I NEED IT. The song is a bastardization of Eye of the Tiger and the lyrics, the intelligible ones, are just funny. It’s a hard rock Christmas song that feels tonally off while working in just the right ways. Oh, they have Bonnie Tyler’s rendition of Merry Christmas, which is fine. Author’s note: if you know the first song I’m referring to, please comment the title and or DM me because I NEED TO KNOW.
Is Dial Code Santa Claus Better Than Home Alone?
Is Dial Code Santa Claus better than Home Alone? Yes. Though, I’m probably biased because I don’t really like the film. Was this film plagiarized off of? I also want to say yes, but I find it hard to believe John Hughes was able to watch this film in 1989 and, with such a quick turnaround, pump out Home Alone. If there were two or three years between the films, I think you could easily make the argument, but it’s hard to say yes. Synchronicity in life is always a strange thing to comprehend.
Why Dial Code Santa Claus Deserves a Spot on Your Watchlist
Dial Code Santa Claus is one of the few Christmas horror films that will go on my yearly December viewing list. Overwhelmingly fun and intriguing, Dial Code brings a new take, especially for 1989, on the home invasion subgenre. Not relegating itself to a single genre, René Manzor created something that genre fans and non-genre fans alike can enjoy. While select scenes feel paced awkwardly, the film does an overly effective job of telling a story and sticking to its themes. Staying away from excessively graphic, but still impactful violence, audiences will find an accessible horror film in this criminally underseen French romp. That is, as long as they know Santa doesn’t exist.
As Iron Lung begins, the film places you in an overhead shot looking down at a submarine that’s seen better days. Jagged metal teeth of a broken cage sit at its head, illuminated by a light from the ship above that’s about to cut it loose. As you’re about to be dropped into a roiling ocean of blood, you become quickly invested in its story.
A dire paternal voiceover runs you through your place in the world as an observer: someone is being sent into the “waters” of a far-off moon in a dead, dark galaxy. They’re in search of an answer you’re automatically aware will never be enough and a penance they will never attain. It prompts an obvious, cutting question: if Hell is where we’re looking for an answer, how bad must things be among the stars to go searching there for hope?
A Surprising Outing for Writer and Director Mark Fischbach
The debut feature film of writer and director Mark Fischbach, better known to the internet at large as Markiplier, is as surprising as it is atmospheric. And no, not surprising because Fischbach is an internet personality crossing over into film. And no, not surprising because this is a video game adaptation that is actually quite good.
The surprise here is mainly from the way Fischbach dodges a number of first-time filmmaker torpedoes that would otherwise sink the film straight to the sea floor. It’s in the very clear coordination and trust he has with his cast and crew. In a way, the film itself is a mirror of the submersible his character is forced to pilot: flawed, surely, but strong enough to complete its mission and deliver an exceptional experience.
What Is Iron Lung About Exactly?
The story goes as follows: in the wake of an event called the Quiet Rapture, the stars themselves have been snuffed out. Most of the galaxy has been plunged into sudden darkness, and a mass dying off has consumed countless worlds (think the worst possible aftermath to The Nine Billion Names of God).
Convicted for a reprehensible crime, the convict Simon (played by Markiplier himself) has been given a rare opportunity to return to life among the survivors. The mission is to pilot a death trap of a one-man submarine into the blood oceans of an alien moon, looking for a scientific sample useful enough to earn his freedom. That is, assuming he doesn’t lose his mind or his life in the process.
Bespoke Set Design That Matches the Premise Perfectly
Iron Lung should be commended first and foremost for being a bottle film with the perfect set design to match. Not overly ambitious, but not too simplistic either. Contained in a marvel of a small space, the submarine here is a tactile nightmare of rusty metal and antiquated technology you never get sick of seeing more of.
While Fischbach and director of photography Philip Roy have the camera linger in close ups almost too often, I don’t blame them for wanting to capture the finer details and leer at them. It’s clear every inch of this condensation covered machine was engineered by the art team and production design to emphasize its prison cell qualities as a barely functional vessel.
The ship’s external camera fires off like a flash bulb on its interior, barely illuminating the cabin with its next horrific image of the sea floor before plunging us back into darkness. The oxygen gauge and its cold robotic voice are a countdown to the painful annihilation that awaits its pilot. Its proximity sensors give only the barest indications of what’s going on outside, ticking a dull noise warning us: you are not alone. It’s a punishment to operate, and the set design as well as the very solid sound design that accompany it make that violently clear and effectively spinetingling.
Translation From Game to Film Isn’t So Perfect Though
This perfect setting isn’t always used perfectly though. The translation of the game’s mechanics and gameplay to the screen are both a weakness and a strength. They make the pacing of the first third run to a slow start, especially when Fischbach’s screenplay grinds against the strong suit of the film’s cinematography: the panic of it all.
Like its video game source material, David Szymanski’s Iron Lung, the film is really at its best when it’s instilling a sense of active and imminent panic. A tone that matches the borrowed time the submarine is glued together with. Putting out fires, both literal and metaphorical, ratcheting up its claustrophobia as you’re placed cheek to cheek with Simon in steamy, metallic darkness. This is where Iron Lung shines.
Markiplier’s Performance in Iron Lung is Hit or Miss, But Mostly Hits
It’s outside of these moments of panic where the weakest parts of the script and Fischbach’s performance are highlighted. Some weak line deliveries and beats of dead air kill the real tight headlock the film could have you gripped in from start to finish. And while Fischbach is phenomenal at playing terrified or pleading or even simple exhaustion in the face of the impossible, he really requires someone to bounce off of as his solo work just isn’t as compelling. Even the clunkiest bits of dialogue between him and his jailer (Caroline Kaplan) are better than the best of his moments where he talks to himself or tries to inject some humor into the bleak story.
This is a shame too, because the minimalist storytelling and background we get for his character is genuinely very intriguing. It’s thematically rich for what the film is trying to say about the power and terror of belief, and it’s doubly satisfying that the film has enough confidence to not lay everything out in a longwinded speech explaining the motives and lore that landed him here.
All that being said, his performance is hit or miss, but he mostly hits. The dialogue becomes more urgent as we approach the climax, and all of the cast delivers on that impending doom nicely. It reaches its peak in the final act, and Fischbach is on fire as he struggles to hold himself together in the face of absolute madness leaching its way into the pressurized cabin.
Iron Lung: A Redemptive Finale With Pure Liquid Body Horror
What a fantastic final act it is, one that makes up for its imperfection in the first two parts with a homerun of pure liquid body horror. It’s just phenomenal how the film’s digital and practical effects present the true horrors of Iron Lung. There’s a near perfect mesh between the two, and they highlight the best influences of similar genre films that came before.
Soaked with all the gore, madness, and mystery of the likes of Event Horizon and Pandorum, Iron Lung is a worthy successor in the cosmic horror genre as it rises above its own problems. It’s a moody, environmentally precise stunner of a horror film that sets a benchmark as the movie to beat for forthcoming releases this year.
The Ritual is, without a doubt, one of the most completely enthralling horror films of the past decade. Usually, I wouldn’t open with such a strong reaction for a movie that isn’t a technical and narrative masterpiece, but this is close enough to call that in. It’s at the very least masterful work that deserves more love, and that’s even with it having a permanent home and high placement on the world’s biggest streaming platform. It’s no longer the obscure hidden gem it was at the time of release, if it ever was that, but I refuse to stop talking about it.
The sheer catharsis this film grants through its cast, and the way its environment really pushes that cast of characters, is what I could only describe as “surgical.” It cuts to the bone. It’s a movie about the strangling nature of grief, and it gives us a great time showing its characters fighting against that choking feeling.
What is The Ritual (2017) About?
After the death of Rob, things haven’t been the same for Luke. The memories of the robbery that took his life, a robbery he had to witness hiding behind a liquor shelf, still haunt him. But there’s a chance for closure as he and his friends go on the trip that Luke had helped plan the night he died.
Their quest to honor his memory sends them through the beautiful locales of Northern Sweden, along a hiking trail in the mountains. But after an attempt at a shortcut sends the group deep into the woods and they struggle to get back on course, it becomes violently clear they aren’t the only ones in the wilderness. Ritualistic markings, involving dead animals and dire effigies, warn of a much greater power lurking in the forest. Whether they can escape it depends on whether they can keep each other safe long enough to get out.
Netflix Could You Lock In And Do A Physical Release For Once
This is a phenomenal film, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t get up on my soapbox about its format for just one moment. Regrettably, this is a streaming-only film that has been shackled by Netflix to its platform. It has an excessively rare DVD release floating around, but that is also unfortunately, region locked, and likely more low fidelity than most physical collectors would like. Especially when so much of this movie relies on shadow and darkness, a Blu-Ray release is kind of obligatory for high quality preservation of the director’s vision.
Not sure what I expected from the media conglomerate that it is. Netflix is already notorious for refusing to release physical media and then cancelling and erasing shows from the platform. What are we going to do with you Netflix? You only ever seem to cause me problems. Just make the physical release for this already.
Gorgeous, Grotesque, And Gut-wrenching All At The Same Time
Setting that thought aside, this film was bound to be fantastic given the horror pedigree behind it. Cutting loose anthology director David Bruckner, the MVP of the V/H/S franchise, then giving him a budget and legendary location scouting is about as great as you’d expect. It’s like saying that sugar and butter make things taste better; should you really be shocked?
When you have this many lighting and environmental factors to juggle, expectations are understandably high. The film on paper should look at least a little choppy, but Bruckner and cinematographer Andrew Shulkind really are in their element here. This is only exemplified even further by the film’s most memorable space-bending set piece at its climax. I won’t even risk spoiling it for lack of a better description, but I will say the stark contrast they play with light and shadow here makes for some really captivating visuals and frightening moments.
The naturalistic environment this folk horror takes place in really has a knack for showing the contrasting beauty and grotesqueness of the things hiding in the woods. And its director really has a knack for using that environment to squeeze the actors for all they’ve got.
A Phenomenal Cast Led By Rafe Spall
Make no mistake: The Ritual is not just a pretty face. This is at its core a story about a group of men facing their strained relationships in the wake of a brutal death, and all the ugliness that entails. They’re foolish, angry, bitter, and sad people struggling each in their own way to accept a loss. What it leads you with is what you’d expect to be one-note characters being slotted into archetypal roles, but what they end up as feels surprisingly real.
The obvious star here is our lead Rafe Spall, whose turn as main character Luke ranges from downright depressing to shockingly soul lifting. You can see Spall plays him as a man slowly trying to piece himself back together, fumbling as he’s soaked in alcohol and self-pity. His changing demeanor throughout the film really reflects the truth of his character: he was only ever going to change and confront his past when he was forced to. And him being forced to go through supernatural circumstances really does make for one of the most satisfying character arcs in a horror film I’ve ever seen.
Is This The Best Creature Design Of The Past 20 Years?
Again, it’s difficult to talk about this film without spoiling its most fun moments, so I will just say that you only stand to gain something by watching it. If its emotional aspects don’t grab you, its aesthetic qualities will. And if all that fails to grab you, maybe this will: The Ritual boasts what is the definitively best monster design of the 2010s, if not the past 20 years. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can top the visual concept this film delivers on with that design. Need I say more?
‘Iron Lung’ Review: Exceptionally Atmospheric Cosmic Horror
No, Cult Cinema Isn’t Dead
‘The Ritual (2017)’ Review: When Grief Gets Gruesome
‘Wait Until Dark’ Review: A Timeless Psychological Horror Thriller
‘Return to Silent Hill’ Review: A Misogynistic Betrayal of Silent Hill 2
‘Lake Mungo’ Review: Still the Greatest Ghost Film of All Time
How ‘Child’s Play’ Helped Shape LGBTQ+ Horror Fans
‘The Cabin in the Woods’ Review: And the State of Horror
‘Night Patrol’ Review: Vampiric Cop Horror Undone by Messy Execution
The 10 Most Satisfying Deaths in Horror Movies
‘The People Under the Stairs’ Review: A Brilliantly Bizarre Horror Classic
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ and The Story of William Afton Explained
Slappy Was the Blueprint: How the Dummy from Goosebumps Became A Horror Icon
Glen and Glenda: Don Mancini’s Reverence for Queerness in ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)
‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
V/H/S Franchise Ranked, Best to Worst
Everything You Need to Know About Jason Voorhees
The 11 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Ever, According to an Actual Horror Fan
[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher
