Movies
Mini Doc Explores the Bizarre Monstrosities of Brian Yuzna
Not all masters of horror get the recognition they deserve.
If you’re not familiar with the name Brian Yuzna, you should be. Yuzna got his start working as a producer on the Stuart Gordon-directed films Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dolls, but he quickly branched out on his own with a series of gems that I consider personal favorites. From the late ’80s into the ’90s, Yuzna directed Society, Bride of Re-Animator, the underrated Silent Night Deadly Night 4, Return of the Living Dead 3 and The Dentist, and he later returned to the franchise that gave him his start when he directed Beyond Re-Animator in 2003.
A twisted visionary who has more than earned the right to be called a master of horror, Yuzna’s work has over the years been home to some of the most insane and totally off the wall makeup effects in the entire history of the horror genre. The ’80s were a time of excess, and oh boy did Yuzna embrace that to the fullest extent of the law. His “bizarre monstrosities” are the subject of a new mini-doc we just found over on YouTube, which we wanted to bring to your attention. The video digs into Yuzna’s genre contributions, offering a brief summary of his awesome career.
We’re glad this video exists. Because Yuzna deserves the spotlight.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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