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‘Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker’ – The Maternal Instinct to Kill in 1981’s Underseen Horror Gem

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Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker

In the 1980s, it was too easy for a film like Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker to get lost in the horror shuffle. Icons like Freddy and Jason were coming into the world and franchise fever was catching. A “video nasty” label also did little to help this hidden gem find an audience overseas in the U.K. Yet after years of being trapped on VHS under the name of Night Warning, this film finally surfaced on both DVD and Blu-ray and, for a short time, the streaming service Shudder. Cult followers relived what might have felt like a fever dream back in the day, and new fans have since latched on to the film’s sensational excesses.

Since he was three years old, Billy Lynch (played by Jimmy McNichol) has only known one mother: Aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell). He has been in her care ever since his parents were killed in a bizarre and gruesome car wreck. After his folks are snuffed out early on — the film’s original director, Michael Miller, delivered the grisly opener before being replaced by William Asher — Billy eventually forgets about them and grows into a seemingly well-adjusted teenager. Sure, his and Aunt Cheryl’s relationship is deemed a bit unnatural by outsiders, but so far it is nothing too alarming. Everything only starts to change when Billy talks about leaving home.

A mother’s love can be detrimental if not outright dangerous in the horror genre. The original Friday the 13th delivered a prime example of the “killer mommy” character; Pamela Voorhees’ maternal instinct caused her to harm anyone she blamed for her son’s accidental death. Shortly after that iconic massacre rose another malevolent matriarch whose crimes had everything to do with her child. Tyrrell’s character is considered an aunt in Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, but her smothering is no less sinister or destructive.

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker

Aunt Cheryl’s insidious transformation coincides with Billy’s maturation. His interest in girls, particularly high school sweetheart Julia (Julia Duffy), and his plans for college both trigger Cheryl. She accommodates Billy’s academic ambition after expressing dismay, however, this is not a compromise so much as it is a part of her master plan. Not long after getting the supposed thumbs-up to fly the nest, McNichol’s unaware character comes home on his seventeenth birthday to find his blood-spattered aunt holding a knife and standing over a dead man’s body.

Ahead of Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker’s very limited screening in theaters, Pocket Books issued a tie-in novelization. This adaptation of the screenplay, written by Joseph Brugo and Richard Natale, more or less tells the same story as the film, albeit with some significant differences here and there. For starters, the inciting murder is something more of a mystery in the book. The film hides nothing as Cheryl aggressively comes on to the TV repairman, Phil Brody (William Caskey Swaim), then stabs him repeatedly with a knife after he rebuffs her advances. However, the details surrounding Brody’s death are uncertain in the novelization until Billy learns the horrible truth about his dear Aunt Cheryl.

Keeping Billy close to home is Cheryl’s utmost priority, yet she still enacts a backup plan. Hence Tyrrell’s character getting dolled up for Brody’s ill-fated house call. If her pride and joy for the last ten-plus years is so determined to leave her, then Cheryl needs to find someone else to nurture and look after. Could Aunt Cheryl have been hoping to make Brody a father and herself a mother (again)? Or was it always her intention to kill someone in hopes that the legal and social consequences would ensnare Billy, forcing him to stay home with his aunt? Either way, Cheryl views the repairman’s death as a happy accident; creating chaos was her way of restoring normalcy.

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker

Billy believes his aunt when she claims Brody attempted to rape her, but the police are less convinced. Especially Detective Joe Carlson (Bo Svenson), a man of many prejudices. Svenson’s portrayal as the bigoted cop is as alarming as it is convincing. Carlson gets it into his head that not only is Cheryl covering for Billy, the murder was the result of a gay tiff. Learning that Brody and Billy’s basketball coach, Tom Landers (Steven Eastin), were romantically involved only makes Carlson stick to his outlandish theory despite there being no evidence of Billy’s involvement with either man. The lawman is only going off a mistaken hunch and responding to his provoked homophobia. Now, the novelization does not make Carlson any less of a homophobe, but it does show where his irrationality and anger both stem from.

One of the biggest differences between the novelization and the film lies within Tom Landers, who is now Billy’s English teacher rather than his basketball coach. The coach in the book is a tertiary character named Nelson, and he has no significant bearing on the overall story. The change is jarring at first, but other than the different occupation, the literary version of Tom Landers is, more or less, the same sympathetic man whose partner was suddenly taken away from him. With this being a novel, Tom is granted more game time; readers get to know him better as he deals with his grief and plans a new future now that he has been outed. Although his screen counterpart does not have the same degree of character development, Eastin’s depiction is unusually progressive for ’80s horror. The film’s Landers is masculine as well as sensitive, not a degenerate, and he survives to the end.

While often lumped in with the decade’s slashers, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker fits in far better with the “grand dame guignol” (or “hagsploitation”) films of yesteryear. Older women who are put upon or seen as past their prime — by society and/or themselves — transform into “psycho-biddies.” Resentment and an overwhelming sense of faded glamor are among the key factors fueling their eventual rampages. The blueprint for this entire subgenre, 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, is a substantial inspiration for Stephen Breimer, Boon Collins and Alan Jay Glueckman’s story. Cheryl herself is too young to be deemed a psycho-biddy; Tyrrell was only in her mid-thirties when Butcher was first released. Nevertheless, the DNA of the archetype courses through Aunt Cheryl’s veins as she kills anyone who denies her a chance at motherhood.

Character actor Susan Tyrrell plunged into the role of Cheryl Roberts, making it her own and blessing Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker with a show-stealing performance. Tyrrell is indeed the big draw here, but the rest of this horror gem is surprisingly well-crafted, ripe for analysis, and should not go overlooked.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker

Paul Lê is a Texas-based, Tomato approved critic at Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, and Tales from the Paulside.

Editorials

Silly, Self-Aware ‘Amityville Christmas Vacation’ Is a Welcome Change of Pace [The Amityville IP]

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Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.” 

After a number of bloated runtimes and technically inept entries, it’s something of a relief to watch Amityville Christmas Vacation (2022). The 55-minute film doesn’t even try to hit feature length, which is a wise decision for a film with a slight, but enjoyable premise.

The amusingly self-aware comedy is written and directed by Steve Rudzinski, who also stars as protagonist Wally Griswold. The premise is simple: a newspaper article celebrating the hero cop catches the attention of B’n’B owner Samantha (Marci Leigh), who lures Wally to Amityville under the false claim that he’s won a free Christmas stay.

Naturally it turns out that the house is haunted by a vengeful ghost named Jessica D’Angelo (Aleen Isley), but instead of murdering him like the other guests, Jessica winds up falling in love with him.

Several other recent Amityville films, including Amityville Cop and Amityville in Space, have leaned into comedy, albeit to varying degrees of success. Amityville Christmas Vacation is arguably the most successful because, despite its hit/miss joke ratio, at least the film acknowledges its inherent silliness and never takes itself seriously.

In this capacity, the film is more comedy than horror (the closest comparison is probably Amityville Vibrator, which blended hard-core erotica with references to other titles in the “series”). The jokes here are enjoyably varied: Wally glibly acknowledges his racism and excessive use of force in a way that reflects the real world culture shift around criticisms of police work; the last names of the lovers, as well the title of the film, are obvious homages to the National Lampoon’s holiday film; and the narrative embodies the usual festive tropes of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies.

This self-awareness buys the film a certain amount of goodwill, which is vital considering Rudzinski’s clear budgetary limitations. Jessica’s ghost make-up is pretty basic, the action is practically non-existent, and the whole film essentially takes place in a single location. These elements are forgivable, though audiences whose funny bone isn’t tickled will find the basic narrative, low stakes, and amateur acting too glaring to overlook. It must be acknowledged that in spite of its brief runtime, there’s still an undeniable feeling of padding in certain dialogue exchanges and sequences.

Despite this, there’s plenty to like about Amityville Christmas Vacation.

Rudzinski is the clear stand-out here. Wally is a goof: he’s incredibly slow on the uptake and obsessed with his cat Whiskers. The early portions of the film lean on Wally’s inherent likeability and Rudzinski shares an easy charm with co-star Isley, although her performance is a bit more one-note (Jessica is mostly confused by the idiot who has wandered into her midst).

Falling somewhere in the middle are Ben Dietels as Rick (Ben Dietels), Wally’s pathetic co-worker who has invented a family to spend the holidays with, and Zelda (Autumn Ivy), the supernatural case worker that Jessica Zooms with for advice on how to negotiate her newfound situation.

The other actors are less successful, particularly Garrett Hunter as ghost hunter Creighton Spool (Scott Lewis), as well as Samantha, the home owner. Leigh, in particular, barely makes an impression and there’s absolutely no bite in her jealous threats in the last act.

Like most comedies, audience mileage will vary depending on their tolerance for low-brow jokes. If the idea of Wally chastising and giving himself a pep talk out loud in front of Jessica isn’t funny, Amityville Christmas Vacation likely isn’t for you. As it stands, the film’s success rate is approximately 50/50: for every amusing joke, there’s another one that misses the mark.

Despite this – or perhaps because of the film’s proximity to the recent glut of terrible entries – Amityville Christmas Vacation is a welcome breath of fresh air. It’s not a great film, but it is often amusing and silly. There’s something to be said for keeping things simple and executing them reasonably well.

That’s a lesson that other indie Amityville filmmakers could stand to learn.

2.5 out of 5 skulls

The Amityville IP Awards go to…

  • Recurring Gag: The film mines plenty of jokes from characters saying the quiet part (out) loud, including Samantha’s delivery of “They’re always the people I hate” when Wally asks how he won a contest he didn’t enter.
  • Holiday Horror: There’s a brief reference that Jessica died in an “icicle accident,” which plays like a perfect blend between a horror film and a Hallmark film.
  • Best Line: After Jessica jokes about Wally’s love of all things cats to Zelda, calling him the “cat’s meow,” the case worker’s deadpan delivery of “Yeah, that sounds like an inside joke” is delightful.
  • Christmas Wish: In case you were wondering, yes, Santa Claus (Joshua Antoon) does show up for the film’s final joke, though it’s arguably not great.
  • Chainsaw Award: This film won Fangoria’s ‘Best Amityville’ Chainsaw award in 2023, which makes sense given how unique it is compared to many other titles released in 2022. This also means that the film is probably the best entry we’ll discuss for some time, so…yay?
  • ICYMI: This editorial series was recently included in a profile in the The New York Times, another sign that the Amityville “franchise” will never truly die.

Next time: we’re hitting the holidays in the wrong order with a look at November 2022’s Amityville Thanksgiving, which hails from the same creative team as Amityville Karen <gulp>

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