My hat-trick of yuletide death docu-downers is complete with the aptly titled A Christmas Family Tragedy, a thoroughly disturbing 2006 doc exploring the infamous Lawson Family Massacre of Christmas Day 1929 in Carolina. In this low-budget but in-depth picture from filmmaker Matt Hodges we look at how, on that awful day, a respected tobacco farmer named Charlie Lawson snapped and brutally murdered his own wife and six of his seven children before ending his own life. This became the most notorious mass murder in Carolina history and has been immortalised in songs, folk tales, ghost stories and even ghoulish tours of the crime scene. Hodges’ film attempts to explore how this horrible event could have happened on the holiest of holidays and examines the continuing effect this massacre has had on the local community.
The shocking events of Christmas 1929 are pieced together through a series of interviews with Carolina natives, a few of whom were actually alive at the time. Theories, facts, myths and even tales of the paranormal are shared as townsfolk debate and speculate over what happened. Again, this can be exasperating as the actual details about what led Charlie to flip his lid that day are few and far between, with some people even blaming malevolent spirits for the slaughter. Other crazy theories include a shameful narrative that takes in incest and a secret pregnancy. The film astutely illustrates how grisly events like this can, over the years, take on lives of their own in the minds of the public with the truth being twisted and reshaped into something almost unrecognisable.
In a ghoulish turn, it transpires that Charlie’s own brother chose to keep the “murder house” and reopened it as a macabre tourist attraction, charging visitors 24c a time to look around. He even put on display a famous raisin cake that the family had baked for that Christmas day. This practice went on for decades, with tourists reportedly seeing ghosts in and around the farm, though I suspect that a few of the contributors to this film were not the full shilling.
The alleged supernatural element adds some extra spice to what is essentially a sad, sad movie that comments on how domestic violence was commonplace in little communities back then and how mental health issues were rarely properly diagnosed. Experts ruminate on how different things might have turned out for the Lawsons had they had access to half-decent healthcare.
I’m watching this on the day of my birthday party, a lovely family gathering which turns out to be a much bigger deal than normal. My mum and dad are finally back in the country after being kept abroad for months by that bloody virus and with restrictions finally being eased a little bit, my brothers, their wives and all Amelia’s cousins are all gathered together for the first time ever under one roof. A Christmas Family Tragedy puts me on a total downer but having this wonderful big family day - this is what a family celebration should be. As all the kids frolic and leap about on the bouncy castle, their euphoric squeals filling the summer air, I feel doubly lucky, joyous and grateful to have everyone together at last and all still in one piece.
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