Friday Five: Christmas Subgenres

Well? What else were we gonna list this week? ‘Tis the season folks, so we took the season-specific genre and divided it into five subgenres. Yes, there’s bound to be some overlap, but it’s fair to say that these classes stand out on their merry own.

1. The Adaptation

e.g. A Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A basic one, for sure, but an essential one too. Many of the ideals we’ve come to associate Christmas with derive from popular literature.  So, it’d be eye-gauging-ly obvious why filmmakers would choose to turn those stories into motion pictures.

It doesn’t matter how you sugar-coat it. Whether it is with Muppets (The Muppets Christmas Carol) or a moss-covered Jim Carrey (Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas), the moral fibre between every Christmas adaptation remains identical. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about the films’ collective qualities.

2. The Christmas special

e.g. A Charlie Brown Christmas, Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure

These films aren’t prone to theatrical releases, but they serve admirably into getting fan-bases amped for the smell of pine trees and eggnog (which tastes disgusting, BTW). To truly nail the Christmas special, the holiday needs to work in conjunction with the context of the universe the special is set in (see the Doctor Who episode A Christmas Carol for full enlightenment).

It’s not enough to simply chuck in Santa and some elves while haphazardly trying to thread some cockamamie story (that’s right, I used the word “cockamamie”). The idea of Christmas needs to be organic to the source material, or else it’ll fail on both accounts.

3. The “Merry f**king Christmas” flick

e.g. Bad Santa, Scrooged

http://youtu.be/zrskUzfpNBQ

Some of us aren’t really drawn into the fluffy-pancake fantasy that surrounds many a Christmas film. Some of us are drawn to seeing the holiday infected with a dose of heavy crassness (similar to porn-film-splicing ala Fight Club). Hence, the “Merry f**king Christmas” flick, a subgenre that raises a bold middle finger to the typical innocence of Christmas movie conventions.

Yet, despite their unapologetically crude nature, these flicks somehow manage to pull a 180, hitting you with some genuine heart. Often the morals come down to the basics, such as “giving is better than receiving.” But it’s the thought that counts (another basic moral).

4. The Family Fluff

e.g. The Santa Clause, Home Alone

Christmas is really for the kids and the family. This subgenre caters to them, doing their part to glorify the seasonal myths and/or ideals held in Western culture. It can be overwhelming (from a veteran moviegoer’s perspective) just how underwhelming these films can get, often throwing more delusionary confection than a lolly scramble at a mental asylum.

That’s not to say family fluff always make for bad films (Home Alone). You just need to know what you’re getting into before committing yourself to finding enjoyment out of the ones that are universally tolerable. Who knows? It may reignite your belief in the bearded jolly fat man.

Maybe not…

5. The film that just happens to take place during Christmas

e.g. Gremlins, Die Hard

These films have absolutely nothing to do with the spirit of the yuletide, but why should that stop you from watching it? You get enough Christmas cheer clogged in your ear-holes when your local Briscoes decides to play Grandma got run over by a reindeer for the 80^th time, so a little holly jolly apathy would serve as a welcome ear-popper.

It’s not like these films have to completely shun the holiday (see the clip). In fact, those little touches can get you more in the mood than an entire rendition of Silent Night. Nothing makes us merrier than a grey jersey that reads “Now I have a machinegun. Ho ho ho.”