Christmas Creeps

Episode 176: Ebenezer (1998)

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:01:00 +0000

It’s our Oscar Special! It’s our St. Patrick’s Day Special! It’s our combination Oscars/St. Patrick’s Day Special!

Okay, so it’s not really either of those things… On this episode we dug up Ebenezer, a 1998 made-for-TV western adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”. It stars Academy Award winner Jack Palance as the film’s namesake money-grubbing miser. It also stars Rick Schroder as a sadsack who just can’t stop getting swindled by that charming old cad Ebenezer!

We also get into the state of cable television, a brief history of Turner Broadcasting, and even a little bit of Oscar chat. (We recorded this three days before the Oscars, and releasing it two days after. Whaddaya gonna do?)

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

Ebenezer is available to stream on YouTube
Nirvanna The Band The Show: Update Day
KRANKOMETER: (0, 1)

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Episode 175: Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 06:57:34 +0000

Welcome back, Creepazoids! We’re ringing in the twelfth season of Christmas Creeps with an adaptation of Charles Dickens classic, infinitely adapted holiday fable: “A Christmas Carol.” More specifically, we’ll be looking at Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, the 2022 animated version produced by Netflix.

As it turns out, this is a direct remake of the 1970 film musical Scrooge, which explains why all the musical numbers seem vaguely familiar. We’re hitting the ground running in 2026, so buckle up and join us for holiday podcasting chaos!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

This film is available to stream on Netflix
Join our Discord channel today!
KRANKOMETER: (1, 0)

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Episode 174: A Very Merry Amazon Prime Christmas

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 05:01:00 +0000

Merry Christmas, friends! We’ve finally made it to the big day, and we hope you all are having a lovely holiday wherever you are in the world. It’s time to sit back, relax, mix up some fun Yuletide cocktails and listen to us yak about some Christmas movies!

On this episode, Joe and Nikki discuss a pair of new holiday offerings from Amazon Studios. First we take a look at The Merchants of Joy, a documentary about families who make their living selling Christmas trees in New York City. Following that, we get into the dysfunctional family comedy Oh. What. Fun., which follows Michelle Pfeiffer as a mom who feels wholly ignored by her family around the holidays. Ha ha ha!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

Both movies are available to stream on Amazon Prime
Join our Discord channel today!

KRANKOMETER RATINGS:
THE MERCHANTS OF JOY: (3, 2)
OH. WHAT. FUN.: (4, -3)

Questions? Complaints? Requests? Hit us up at XmasCreeps@gmail.com!

Episode 173: Play Dirty

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 05:02:32 +0000

Shane Black Friday returns! Our favorite purveyor of holiday action nonsense is back with another Christmas-themed feature to jingle our bells and deck our halls. Or something like that.

On this episode we’re discussing Play Dirty, the latest from filmmaker Shane Black. Play Dirty is based on Richard Stark’s long-running series of “Parker” crime novels. But rather than adapting any novel in particular, Shane Black elected to concoct his own with the help of Mark Wahlberg, Lakeith Stanfield, and Rosa Salazar.

It’s got twists and turns! It’s got heists and wacky characters and double-crosses! It’s got all the things we come to expect from a Shane Black movie. And it also has the baggage of being an Amazon-produced film meant for ‘second screen viewing’. What does all that mean? We’ll get into it!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

Play Dirty is available to stream here
Join our Discord channel today!
KRANKOMETER: (1, 3)

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Questions? Complaints? Requests? Hit us up at XmasCreeps@gmail.com!

Episode 172: Werewolf Santa

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 04:39:03 +0000

Home For the Horrordays continues as we enter spooky season proper! We’ve been sampling the wares offered by everyone’s favorite streaming service, Tubi, and landed on the 2023 found footage horror flick Werewolf Santa!

It’s Christmas Eve in British seaside town of Hastings, and amateur monster hunters Lucy and Dustin encounter Santa Claus just in time to watch him get mauled by a werewolf. Now it’s up to Lucy and her family to save Christmas before the feral monster Santa can devour the entire town.

On this episode, we discuss the film’s found footage bona fides, ponder the logistics of lycanthropy, and reminisce about our own misspent youth as high school filmmakers!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

Werewolf Santa is available to stream on Tubi
Join our Discord channel today!
KRANKOMETER: (1, -3)

Questions? Complaints? Requests? Hit us up at XmasCreeps@gmail.com!

Episode 171: Adult Swim Yule Log (w/ Alonso Duralde)

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 05:59:11 +0000

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, friends! Home For the Horrordays, our annual celebration of all things festive and spooky, makes its triumphant return!

Also returning this week is our guest, film critic Alonso Duralde! The second edition of his book “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas” arrives on shelves this week. (Pre-order your copy today!) Alonso joins us to discuss the explosion in the holiday cinema landscape since the book’s original release.

Afterward, Alonso brings us the 2022 Adult Swim Yule Log for discussion. Produced in secret and released with zero fanfare, the Adult Swim Yule Log starts simply enough: just a video of a festive fireplace. It soon veers off into some wildly grotesque directions, including a hillbilly killing spree, alternate dimensions and timelines, aliens, sentient yule logs… You know what? We’ve already said too much. Jump on in and join the insanity!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

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Episode 63: Christmas Inheritance

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Stocking Stuffer #36: Donkey Kong Country – “The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights”

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 15:04:46 +0000

It’s been a long, hot summer, but we’re back just in time for Christmas in July! We’ve been playing the heck out of Nintendo’s new Donkey Kong Bananza game, so we thought we’d take a look at the Christmas episode of the Donkey Kong Country TV series!

“The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights” has everything you could want out of a holiday-themed cartoon episode: A holiday-themed light display, a wacky O. Henry-esque gift-giving mishap, two warring factions coming together in the name of peace, and even a festive song or two!

So yes, we’re talking all about Donkey Kong this episode. The first half of this episode covers the Donkey Kong TV show (and also Avatar: The Way of Water, for some reason). The second half is when we pull the ripcord and just gush about Donkey Kong Bananza. Strap yourselves in, kiddos!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

RELATED EPISODES:

Questions? Complaints? Requests? Hit us up at XmasCreeps@gmail.com!

Episode 170: Spy x Family Code: White

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 04:40:01 +0000

We crash into June with the grand finale of this year’s Ani-May block! This episode we’re talking about Spy x Family Code: White. And to help us break it all down, we’ve enlisted two experts in all things animation: Returning guests Niall Flanagan and Dwayne Moloney!

The Forger family—career spy Loid, his secret assassin wife Yor, and their psychic adoptive daughter Anya—takes a holiday vacation to the cozy mountain town of Frigis. Anya needs her father’s help to bake the perfect dessert for a school contest, but along the way the family find themselves embroiled in a plot to kickstart a war.

As one of our guests puts it: “What if John le Carré wrote one of his spy novels and accidentally wrote a sitcom instead?” That’s about the size of it. And, hey! It’s also a Christmas thing!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

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Episode 17: I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Where they visit a Bavarian tourist trap!)

Episode 169: Mobile Suit Gundam, “War in the Pocket”

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Mon, 26 May 2025 04:02:00 +0000

Ani-May 2025 continues! On this episode we’re discussing Mobile Suit Gundam‘s “War in the Pocket” OVA from 1989.

It’s Christmastime on the Riah space colony, and eleven-year-old Al has made friends with Special Forces pilot Bernie, who’s on a secret mission to destroy the Gundam being built in the colony. The two improbably become fast friends, and along the way Al learns some hard truths about all this war business he’s dreamed so much about.

It’s a harrowing tale, and our resident Gundam expert Dr. Nick is here to explain all of it. And I do mean alllllll of it! So crack open a cold one and get yourself some burgers. It’s gonna be a wild ride!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

“War in the Pocket” is available here
The 1982 anime adaptation of The Wizard of Oz
KRANKOMENTER: (3, 5)

DR. NICK’S “WAR IN THE POCKET” EXPLAINER CHARTS!

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Episode 142: Gundam Wing Endless Waltz

Questions? Complaints? Requests? Hit us up at XmasCreeps@gmail.com!

Stocking Stuffer #35: Lupin the Third, “The Sleight Before Christmas”

xmascreeps@gmail.com (Joseph) — Tue, 06 May 2025 04:42:53 +0000

Ani-May is back once again! We’re dedicating the month of May to all things anime. First up is “The Sleight Before Christmas”, from the second series, released in 1977. Lupin and the gang are out to steal the last bottle of Napoleon’s wine, on it’s way to be delivered to the President of the United States for Christmas.

In this episode, Joe and Bradford discuss expensive wines, cheap wines, the phenomenon of subs vs. dubs, and compete to see who can do the best Bill Clinton impression. Also, stay tuned for what’s coming up on this year’s edition of Ani-May!

SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:

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Stocking Stuffer #17: Lupin the Third — “Christmas at Tiffany’s”