It's been a long time since Santa rode out with the thirteenth reindeer. It waits in a stall in the stables, a pelt wrapped around a pile of bones and twigs, all covering a reindeer skull. None of the stories talk about this particular beast of burden. Most years, Rudolph leads the way with light; only rarely is the thirteenth reindeer strapped to the front of the team, stepping forward in darkness. Santa has other duties than giving presents. After riding with the thirteenth reindeer, Santa sits at home, the creature's skin wrapped around him as a cloak. He cannot do this job forever.

Background

Another piece from my Christmas horror advent calendar. I’ve enjoyed the reaction to this project and will be doing it again next year - hopefully with a way to share it more widely. I’ve written 17 new stories so far this month, some of which will be part of a second advent calendar series.

Recommendations

On December 1st, I watched two surprise Christmas movies. The first, Boiling Point, was set at Christmas but had few specifically festive elements. The second was Tangerine which, like Go (discussed last week) is a story of LA misadventures.

I’d picked out Tangerine as it was added to Prime and I was curious after hearing it was filmed on an iPhone. I loved the idea that a cinematic release could be filmed on a consumer device.

Tangerine follows a transgender sex worker who discovers that her boyfriend/pimp has been cheating on her. What follows is an odyssey through Los Angeles. The film is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and concludes with an epic confrontation in a doughnut shop.

I’d expected Tangerine to be a curiosity, to be most interesting for how it was filmed. Instead, the use of cameraphones allows the characters to be portrayed in realistic environments. The film travels through some dark places but is ultimately life-affirming.