A Very Film Noir Christmas

Film Noel (2013)
Starring: Oskar Brown, Wenonah Wildblood, Jerry Kwarteng, and Philippe Linus Petit
Director: Sebastian Matthias Weissbach
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Winter's twin sister Snow (both Wildblood) has gone missing, and she hires hardboiled detective Claus (Brown) to bring her home before Christmas.

Part film-noir spoof, part Christmas movie, and all goofy, "Film Noel" is a lighthearted and pun-laden film that will have you alternatively chuckling and groaning at the jokes and gags that flow steadily across the screen. If you enjoy films like "Young Frankenstein", "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", or anything from the second stage of Leslie Nielsen's career, I think you'll appreciate this fun little film... which is embedded below so you can check watch it right now!

It's not Poe, but it's still poetic

Back: A Tale of Romance and Necromancy (2013)
Starring: Oskar Brown, Anna Juliana Jaenner, and Lara Hoffman
Director: Sebastian Matthias Weissbach
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A broken-hearted man (Brown) turns to dark magic to bring the love of his life back to life (Jeanner).

"Back" is a quiet little film that is more atmospheric and melancholy than scary, but as it reached its conclusion, I could see one of those hosts from the old-time horror comics anthologies (or the Cryptkeeper from "Tales of the Crypt") close the book from which he or she had been narrating the film. That sensation alone makes this more than suitable Halloween viewing. It's even more suitable, because as it unfolded, I thought more than once about certain poems and short stories from Edgar Allan Poe... and there is no higher praise that I can bestow upon a film like this than that.

On the technical front, "Back" is beautifully filmed and director Weissbach makes clever and impactful use of trick photography and splashes of color at a couple of points as the film unfolds. The only complaints I can mount is that he should have included a two-shots or some deeper focus in a couple of scenes, and the sound could be mixed a little better. I understand the impulse to have the reanimated lover speak very softly, but the sound of actress' Anna Juliana Jaenner's voice is so soft at a crucial moment at the film's climax that you can't hear what she's saying unless you crank the volume way up--and the narrator booms like the voice of God immediately afterwards if you do that.

Those are fairly minor problems though, and in the final analysis it's nice little film that's excellent Halloween viewing.