Juleblod

After capturing a sadistic killer, a detective learns that he has escaped after several years in captivity and sets out to finish a deranged killing spree interrupted by his capture, putting him on the target of a group of friends partying in a remote village and forcing him to stop the killer.

This was a rather enjoyable holiday-themed slasher. One of the finer points here is the strong slasher-film setup at play here, which is the point of these types of films. The main setup, of the deranged killer exploiting a fabricated system of punishing those that might not seem to have a connection but n his warped thinking there is, his idea of hunting down those that he believes has been a sinner in their lives gives him a fine motivation to carry out his spree. This is nicely done in conjunction with the detective out to catch him once again after having caught him the first time around works as a fine secondary motive, and when carried out with the idea of the girls at the house partying that draws the killer there gives this a rather strong slasher-style setup. There's also the strong slashing scenes in the film. The opening scene, with the detectives searching the house for the killer after he had taken out the family in the darkened house, sets up the impressive scenes later on in the village. As the holiday setting is ably utilized in fine form with the festive lights, ornaments and decorations, as well as the overall snowy landscapes as the air is adorned with festive seasonal songs, there's a fine counterbalance to the scenes of the Santa-dressed killer running wild in the streets providing this with plenty of graphic kills, bloodshed and suspense as the scenes in the abandoned town give this a lot to like. These here are what makes this one work over the flaws here. The main issue at fault here is the rather sedate and bland pacing that comes into play. The fact that a deranged serial killer, given as much backstory as we have here about his feelings and history about the holiday, doesn't generate more focus and intensity from the officers in charge to stop him makes the detective investigation scenes rather bland and boring. This should generate more urgency to catch him, yet there's very little energy to these scenes as they seem happier to be meeting up again than stopping him. Likewise, the girls' trip includes the same drama about drug use, partying and cheating boyfriends that isn't new or adds anything to the film, making for a longer setup time than what's warranted to get to the slashing and causing this to stretch out far longer than it really should be. The other problem to be had with the film is the technically-challenging issue of being way too dark to make anything out at times. Since this is taking place in a small, remote village that doesn't have too many residents there to light everything up, but even at that point, the film is just too dark to really tell what's going on. As this occurs during the film's main targets in the slashing scenes in the inn where they stay during the finale as the killer begins running loose on the group, it's quite detrimental to the point of this one really not being able to tell what's happening as the shadows overwhelm this one during this time. Combined with some overly familiar setups and themes from other genre features, these here are the film's only flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Extreme Graphic Language, Brief Full Nudity, a mild sex scene and drug use.

I hadn't even heard about the 2017 movie titled "Juleblod" (aka "Christmas Blood") prior to sitting down to watch it. And I must admit that the movie's cover/poster definitely had caught my attention, and that is why I picked it up. So writer and director Reinert Kiil had a clean slate here for impressing me.

And now having seen the movie, I must say that I wanted to like the movie. I really, really did, but writer and director Reinert Kiil just didn't manage to deliver a movie that was properly interesting or entertaining. Sure, the movie was semi-watchable, but it all drowned and was washed away by a mundane storyline and characters with the appeal of wet cardboard.

Now, the storyline in "Juleblod" definitely had potential and there were aspects to the plot and script that definitely could have worked. But the pacing of the storyline was just way too slow, and that made the movie suffer. And little did it help that the characters were as rigid as 1980's toy figures.

For a slasher movie, "Juleblod" just didn't really cut it. Writer and director Reinert Kiil apparently opted to play it safe and run everything on auto-pilot, which meant that the movie was just way too generic and mundane, especially for a seasoned horror fan such as myself.

This is hardly a noteworthy movie in the slasher genre, nor is it a movie that found its place on the watch-list for Christmas seasons. I managed to sit through it once, but I can guarantee that I will never return to watch it a second time.

My rating of "Juleblod" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I've been into the "Christmas horror" thing a few years now and this is about as dry and dark as you can get. Some obvious parallels to Rare Exports or Sint, but there are no children (or humor/joy) to be had here, setting a much bleaker and darker tone. Not a bad thing in itself so long as you know what you're getting into. The few other reviews are pretty much spot on. Characters are largely 2-dimensional and the movie feels bloated with so much going on. It really felt every minute its length.

Suffice to say this felt a lot like Rob Zombies Halloween, only set to Christmas. Since "Silent Night, Deadly Night," many have tried cashing in on transitioning the success of Carpenters original "Halloween" to the Christmas season. Besides "Black Christmas" most devolve into various degrees of campiness. Beyond the over the top blood spurts, this plays pretty much deadpan (although I did chuckle at the creation of a human-snowman, very dark humor granted).

In sum I largely agree with the other reviews, and despite its impressive destruction of Yuletide Joy, I must give high marks for what is, in my opinion, the most successful transmorphing of "Michael Myers" to the Christmas horror genre

What a joke. A very disjointed movie where absolutely nothing makes sense. The writing is beyond terrible. The acting is even worse. There are no likable characters at all, so very early on I started looking forward to the obvious victims being killed. Sadly it took a long long time before that happened. And it wasn't even scary. And what is up with all the seemingly endless scenes of someone's face while they're walking through an empty building or whatever? It's not interesting, it's not suspenseful, it's just boring. Like everything in this movie. It's supposed to be a horror movie, but my only emotional response was to laugh at how horribly bad it was.

Christmas Blood (2017) is currently available for free on Tubi and is another holiday picture that came highly recommended from Edward Delgado. This Norwegian horror movie tells the tale of a small town plagued by a psychopath that escapes from prison and starts an amazing killing spree with an ax. This movie is directed by Reinert Kiil (The House) and stars Jorgen Langhelle (Arn), Sondre Krogtoft Larsen (Lyft), Haddy Jallow and Kylie Stephenson (The Cure). This is another Christmas story that is fun and starts off with a bang with a great kill scene and setting a potential pace for the movie; However, a lot of scenes are shot dark causing a feel of a lul through a big portion of the middle of the movie. Then the end picks up nicely for a solid climax. I did really like the cinematography throughout this film and the use of Santa's shadow across the snow to add intensity. Overall this is a fun addition to the genre but a step below a classic. I'd score this a 5/10.