Director Craig Anderson is like a lot of us… a middle-aged man who hasn’t given up the dream of making his own fright flick. So he leaves his television gig and actually makes a film; 2016’s Red Christmas (which I reviewed in another life right here); a lil’ ditty about an aborted fetus that lives, grows up and decides to get sweet revenge on mommy dearest come Yuletide.
Now you may say; “Why in the unholy fuck would I give two generous shits about the making of a film I (probably) never saw?” The answer to that is simple; “Because you need to see the absolute hell filmmaking can be if you aren’t properly prepared.”
The main area that unpreparedness shows is in the budgeting of the film… Anderson’s budget, meager to begin with, continues to grow, and he has to bust ass and make many a sacrifice (including totally sucking the teat of his life savings dry as a beastly bone) to bring Red Christmas to the sinister silver screen.
Kudos to Anderson for letting himself be portrayed as a bumbling boob (seriously, this guy is brutally honest about himself, and doesn’t shy away from showing the embarrassing shit that went down making his holiday horror opus) that aims to succeed now matter how the deck is stacked against him. This makes for one hell of an engaging watch, and if nothing else, the dude has heart and a desire to have his creative voice heard in our beloved horror biz, and that heart shines bright to both the audience of this doc and those that worked on the film (especially with actor’s Gerard Odwyer and the legendary Dee Wallace).
Horror Movie: A Low Budget Nightmare is like a crash course in trying to bring a low-budget film to lascivious life; you get to see exactly how things can (and will) go off the rails, with absolutely no glamorous sheen placed over the process, but you also get the inspiration that comes with the realization that sometimes sheer force of will can actually make your dreams a reality!
