Editorials
Hidden Holiday Horror Favorite: Paco Plaza’s ‘A Christmas Tale’
Before horror director Paco Plaza made a name for himself on an international scale with the first three entries in the beloved [REC] franchise and Netflix’s Veronica, he married an Amblin-esque kids story with yuletide terror in the made-for-TV movie A Christmas Tale. Because it aired in native Spain on network television and received a minor DVD release as part of a collection stateside, A Christmas Tale remains one of the more hidden holiday gems. For those looking for something outside of the norm, albeit with an ‘80s nostalgic spin, it’s worth seeking out.
The plot revolves around five twelve-year-old friends in 1985; Koldo (Christian Casas), Peti (Roger Babià), Tito (Pau Poch, [REC] 2), Eugenio (Daniel Casadellà) and Moni (Ivana Baquero, Pan’s Labyrinth). They spend their days biking around their small coastal town, hanging out in clubhouses, and obsessing over a B-horror movie titled Zombie Invasion– clips of which open the film and are interspersed throughout, adding both context and fun to the overarching narrative. The gang’s usual routine is interrupted when Moni comes across a pit in the woods, with an unconscious woman dressed as Santa Claus at the bottom. The kids split up; three remain at the pit to help the woman out of the hole while two bike to the police station for aid.
While there and being ignored by the front desk, the kids snatch an incoming fax that reveals the mysterious woman to be Rebeca Expósito (Maru Valdivielso, Veronica), a dangerous criminal wanted for theft of $2 million. They return and exert a majority vote to keep the woman in the pit until she splits the stolen loot with them.
The ‘80s setting means there’s a lot of nostalgia at play here, from the kids’ bedroom décor to Tito’s extreme obsession with The Karate Kid and the morality tale underpinnings that hearken back to ABC’s After School Special movies. A Christmas Tale can be seen as a precursor to Stranger Things in many ways, though with a much, much darker edge. Save for Moni, the sole female of the group, these kids are vicious toward their captive. Rebeca’s fall into the hole left her battered and bruised, and many of the boys make it worse with the way they ruthlessly pelt her with food- including full soda cans. Her attempts to climb up the hole with busted knee caps make for some cringe-worthy moments of horror. The careless way they treat Rebeca, regardless of her criminal background, racks up a severe debt with karma. It’s only a matter of how and when.
It’s the how of it that provides the biggest surprise; Plaza both embraces and subverts expectations, offering up grisly surprises while ultimately delivering a satisfying end to the story. It helps that for all the morally wrong choices made, all characters are ultimately sympathetic. Even the most rotten of the gang still feel like children, like they don’t fully understand the ramifications of their actions. Rebeca may be a wanted criminal, but you can’t help but feel bad for what she endures, too. As for the holiday motif, the iconography might be pretty limited, but Plaza does offer up a refreshing take on the naughty and nice theme.
Plaza’s a lifelong horror fan, and A Christmas Tale feels very much like his love letter to horror and his discovery of it from a young age. He specifically sought out Valdivielso for the part of Rebeca as a fan of the actress’s work, and she later appeared in his possession horror, Veronica. Pau Poch, who played The Karate Kid-obsessed Tito, played a prominent role in [REC] 2– as the teen that becomes infected and offers up new exposition on the series’ unique mythology. The character’s name? Tito. A fun nod.
A Christmas Tale initially aired as part of the Películas para no Dormir series, a modern attempt to revive popular Spanish series Historias para no Dormir from the ‘60s. The entire six-film series is worth checking out- either through the 6 Films to Keep You Awake DVD collection or separately on Tubi, where its currently streaming.
For holiday cheer with a mean horror twist, add this hidden holiday gem to your watchlist.
Despite what the higher-ups at Marvel would have you believe, Stan Lee’s original vision for Spider-Man was very different from the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler that fans ultimately got.
It was comics maestro Steve Ditko that turned him into the lovable web-head that we all know and love, though even that first draft of the character wasn’t exactly meant to be a child-friendly mascot. Ditko envisioned an uncanny arachnid-human hybrid whose freakish poses and dark costume would strike terror into the hearts of criminals, with the inclusion of web-shooters possibly having been a suggestion by Ditko’s roommate at the time, renowned fetish artist and bondage enthusiast Eric Stanton.
These more adult-oriented origins may have changed over the years, but one could argue that Spidey never completely lost his darker side. In fact, we’d eventually see several grim storylines that explored the horrific consequences of Spider-Man’s radioactive blood. While having his irradiated body fluids give Mary Jane cancer is likely the most terrifying of these yarns (track down Spider-Man: Reign if you’re up for a depressing read that was at one point set to be adapted to film by Michael Jackson), one of the most memorable horror-adjacent moments in these comics has to be the acceleration of Peter Parker’s mutation and the eventual introduction of Man-Spider – a storyline that appears to have been one of the main inspirations behind the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
I sincerely doubt that Marvel Studios is really going to give their toy-selling juggernaut a Cronenbergian rebrand, but the most recent trailer for Brand New Day suggests that the creative team is pulling from some surprisingly spooky source material in this latest superhero sequel. Specifically, the trailer makes it seem like the film is set to be a loose adaptation of the Neogenic Nightmare arc from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, commonly known as the best exploration of Spidey’s radioactive dark side that also features the most iconic version of Man-Spider.
If you’re wondering what these influences could mean for the upcoming film, I’d like to invite you to join me as we look back on some of the animated series’ most horror-tinged episodes.
A fourteen-episode story arc that made up the show’s second season, Neogenic Nightmare began airing in September of 1995. At this point, the series had already earned a reputation as the definitive version of Spider-Man despite dealing with absurd levels of censorship and executive meddling. It’s widely known at this point that this incarnation of Spidey was prohibited from ever punching his villains, and the studio even insisted that realistic guns should be replaced with futuristic laser weapons in order to avoid enraging concerned parents.
And that’s not even mentioning bizarre demands like setting up Hobgoblin as the original Goblin villain simply because the folks responsible for the toy-line had already prepared the character’s merchandise before scripts were even written.
At the end of the day. the show’s success mostly came down to John Semper’s excellent writing, with the (mostly) faithful recreation of the Spider-Man’s core principals and a handful of iconic storylines (coupled with an excellent cast behind the scenes) elevating a what was intended to be a kid’s show promoting ToyBiz products.
Naturally, the rampant cartoon censorship of the 90s couldn’t keep Semper from wanting to explore darker themes from his own favorite Spider-Man comics, and that’s how his team came up with a season-long re-imagining of iconic arcs like the Six-Arm Saga, The Mutant Agenda and even the first appearance of the Sinister Six. These stories would be enhanced with additional “dark” characters like Blade, The Punisher and even Morbius (though the latter had to exchange his vampiric blood-drinking for bizarre plasma-absorbing powers in order to conform to network guidelines).
If you haven’t yet seen it, the complete Neogenic Nightmare arc follows Spider-Man as he discovers that his mutation is progressing beyond his initial superpowers and threatening to turn him into a more monstrous hybrid. After developing extra arms, Spidey goes so far as to request help from both the X-Men and several other super-heroes as he becomes embroiled in a criminal conspiracy involving a team-up between some of his most iconic villains. The arc eventually introduces us to the show’s version of Man-Spider, which is depicted here as the monstrous final stage of the process which began when Peter was first bitten by that radioactive spider.
Personally, I think this werewolf-like addition to Spidey’s genetic curse is the best incarnation of Man-Spider that we’ve ever seen. This is because the six-armed body horror of it all adds even more weight to Peter’s decision to keep helping others regardless of what his powers may cost him, with the creature’s final rampage even giving the supporting cast a chance to help Spider-Man for a change. While I don’t hate the Morbius movie as much as some other comic fans, it’s a shame that Sony relegated that story to a solo film instead of later incorporating it into the Man-Spider saga like Neogenic Nightmare did.
Season two of the animated series ended up being an even bigger hit than the first, with fans loving the show’s take on an expanded Marvel Universe (which even included the ’90s X-Men cast) as well as the darker take on a more monstrous Spider-Man. That’s why it makes sense that the MCU’s return to street-level comic adventures would harken back to this particular storyline – especially since it appears that the Disney wishes to use the upcoming film as an opportunity to shine a light on other Marvel characters just like Semper did back in the day.
From what we can see in the trailer, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appears to be going through his own additional transformations, including creepy fully black eyes and organic web-shooter, as well as the cocoon-building behavior previously seen in Marvel’s The Other arc in the comics. As I mentioned before, I doubt that the MCU will allow this particular cash cow to fully transform into a nightmarish spider freak that can scare away children, but there’s always a chance that the studio could surprise us with more horror elements. I’d also love to see the story explore Spidey’s mutation and use that as an excuse to formally introduce X-Men’s mutants into the MCU, especially since Sadie Sink is rumored to be playing Jean Grey in the flick.
However, even if Brand New Day doesn’t adapt as much of the Neogenic Nightmare as the promotional material has suggested, I’d argue that this particular season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series is still worth revisiting simply because it’s a great example of artists being able to work past network limitations in order to tell complex stories that approach full-on body-horror.
You must be logged in to post a comment.