Kirk Franklin's The Night Before Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Last year was the first time I had ever heard of gospel singer Kirk Franklin. A Gospel Christmas was a fairly boring movie with some amazing music. This year we’re given The Night Before Christmas. Let’s see if it’s any better.

Journee (Naturi Naughton) and Nia (Lorea Turner) are a mother and daughter going through a difficult time. After the loss of their husband/father, they have had a tough time connecting with one another. When they get caught in a blizzard on Christmas Eve, they find sanctuary in a church. With the help of youth pastor Adam (Luke James) and the rest of the trapped congregation, maybe they can heal their relationship.

Much like last year’s movie, the music in The Night Before Christmas was amazing. Thankfully, this time around, the plot was better. Focusing on the troubled mother/daughter relationship separated the movie from the rest of the Christmas fare. Yes, there is a little bit of romance but it’s not the main plot of the story. And, to be honest, there aren’t a lot of movies that focus on a mother and teenage daughter. If a movie does feature a mother/daughter relationship, it’s almost always two adults.

I absolutely recommend watching this one. Last year I recommended watching for the music. This one I recommend for both the music and the plot. It’s just a great movie overall.

Christmas in Harmony | 2021 Christmas Movies

I really wish Hallmark (and all of the other channels) would pick better names for their movies. And don’t tell me that Hallmark has no say in the titles. They have renamed movies before. Christmas in Harmony sounds nice until you realize that there was a 2018 Lifetime movie called Christmas Harmony and that the female lead in this movie is named Harmony. This is less the title of a Hallmark movie and more the title of an X-rated film.

Harmony (Ashleigh Murray) was just fired from her job at a music publishing company. When she goes home for Christmas, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Kyle (Luke James). The exes get talked into co-directing the local church choir for the annual Christmas fundraising concert. Harmony’s big name client, Melo D (Michelle Williams), is having trouble getting to their small town to help save the church. Kyle tricks Harmony into singing the big solo herself, giving her the self-confidence she needs to become a singer on her own.

While this is yet another movie that doesn’t really have anything to say, Harmony at least offers some nice music. If anything, the problem with the movie is that there isn’t enough music. With a title like Christmas in Harmony and promo graphics with music notes all over, you should be begging them to stop singing. Instead, the chorus sings a few times, Kyle performs part of a song, Melo D (which is a dumb name) tries a piece of a song, and there’s the finale where Harmony sings a song then everyone sings a song together. That may sound like a lot of music but it’s really not. We see more about the crappy world of music publishing than we do hearing music.

With all of that said, it is a pretty decent movie. Just pretend it’s called something else. Harmony of Christmas would have been better and sounded less pornographic. Or maybe The Harmony in Christmas. Just be sure to leave me a comment with your name for the movie.

Horror Noire | 2021 Halloween Movies

Anthology series, especially horror anthology series, vary a lot. There are way too many terrible horror anthologies out there. Thankfully, the few black horror anthology series I have seen have been amazing. Let’s look at the latest one.

Horror Noire is a six-story anthology show on Shudder. “The Lake” stars Lucifer’s Leslie-Ann Brandt as a woman who moves into a lakeside house. She is told not to swim in the lake but she doesn’t listen. “Brand of Evil” gives us Brandon Mychal Smith as an artist commissioned to draw some mystical brand artwork for a mysterious client. “Bride Before You” is the story of a new bride (Lenora Crichlow) tasked with giving her husband a son. When she has difficulties conceiving, she turns to a magical old woman. “Fugue State” has Malcolm Barrett becoming a victim of a cult. “Daddy” turns a insecure father (Luke James) against himself. “Sundown” twists racist sundown towns into the supernatural.

These are all amazing stories. I don’t think there was one that I didn’t enjoy. My favorites were “Sundown,” “Brand of Evil,” and “Bride Before You.” I love that all of these stories took stereotypical black issues and twisted them into something new. Yes, for the most part, they all still held onto their racist core but they took that history and gave it a supernatural life.

I absolutely recommend watching Horror Noire. The show definitely needs more eyes on it. And since each story is only about 20 minutes long, if you don’t like one particular story, another will be starting soon!