Films I watched on Christmas Eve (that you probably shouldn't)

As my family was busy preparing their specialty dishes for the Noche Buena, and the kids were all ecstatic about the bags and boxes of presents piled up below our Christmas tree (it’s sad to think that I’m no longer one of them), I locked myself up in my niece’s bedroom, eager to start my movie and series marathon. Nothing out of the ordinary here really, except maybe for my choices of movies and TV series to watch. I highly recommend that you see them - although maybe not on a Christmas Eve.

Donnie Darko (2001)

This is a classic psycho-thriller. It’s intriguing, dark, and it’s gonna mess with your mind. If all the confusing time-travel, religion, and schizophrenic elements aren’t enough for you, seeing an adolescent Jake Gyllenhaal for over two hours should already make this interesting enough. Why I decided to watch this on a Christmas Eve beats me, but the moment I went out of the room, I didn’t see the stuffed animals on our Christmas tree the same way I used to.

American Horror Story: Coven

I got hooked to American Horror Story: Asylum, that’s why the third season has always been on my must-watch list. The first episode disappointed me a bit as it gave me the impression that it’s going to be a teen-witch, Sabrina-ish story, but just find the motivation to move-on to the next episodes and it’s going to remind you why you loved Asylum  in the first place. There’s witchcraft (duh), voodoo, zombies, and lots of mutilations. Oh right, and sex too. Happy now?

Perfect Sense (2011)

Our guest movie reviewer recommended this to me (check out his Metro Manila review) and since I trust his taste on films, I gave this one a shot. True enough, the premise itself is already interesting. An epidemic is spreading worldwide (wait for it), but what’s interesting is that it slowly disables people’s senses – one after the other. Losing the sense of smell may not be that alarming at first, but just imagine the chaos when you lose the rest. This movie is really more of a love story than an epidemic film, and I thought that it could have been more fun if the film was more creative with the consequences of everybody losing their senses. But still, can you imagine celebrating Christmas without the ability to taste, hear, smell, hear, see, or worse…feel?

I know, I know. I had a weird choice of movies to watch just a few hours before Christmas. I could have watched The Nightmare Before Christmas at least. Or maybe even The Grinch  would have been a better option? But if it’s any consolation, at least I watched this alone and not with the kids.

Now I wonder what I should watch on New Year’s Eve. What do you think of Clockwork Orange?

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