On the other hand, cutting away from the changeling piece might keep it from getting too intense for newer horror viewers. Interrupting these with sequences of zombie elves being decapitated did hinder their ability to maintain tone. There's an argument to be made that this one and the ghost story might have benefited from being told start-to-finish, as opposed to being broken up. And by this time, the changeling has grown accustomed to its new life. As this progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that they never took their son out of the woods. While there, they lose track of this son for a brief period of time, and something isn't right when they find him. A couple take their son to look for a Christmas tree and trespass on private property.
This was an eerily claustrophobic ghost story, aided by some incredibly creepy nativity statues.īut the scariest of the segments is the last. They discover connections to the building's past, when it was used by a nunnery.
#A christmas horror s. movie#
Next up is the story of three high school students filming a movie about a murder that occurred in their school the year before. There's a bit of camp throughout, though the makeup on Krampus is stunning. Like most creature features, this isn't really interested in building up sympathy for its victims. The last survivor uncovers a secret behind the demon's appearance and uses it to take her revenge. The demon follows them into the snowy woods, then hunts them as they try to take shelter in a church. The second story line follows a family who incurs the wrath of Krampus. Without giving too much away, I'll add that I really like how that battle ends. This culminates in what's likely the movie's primary claim to fame: a fight scene between Santa Claus and the one responsible for all of this, Krampus. This version of Saint Nick is part Bishop of Myra and part Odin: it's refreshing to see these elements combined on film. I appreciate that they merged Santa Claus's Norse and Catholic roots. The zombie-elves are reminiscent of the deadites from the Evil Dead movies. Needless to say, this is the campy segment.
Armed with his bishop's staff, Nicholas fights back. Worse still, the dead rise up as zombies. While preparing for his Christmas Eve run, Santa discovers his supposedly immortal elves are infected with a terminal disease. I'll start with the best known of the movie's installments. So, if you're in the market for a good horror movie built around the holidays, stop reading and track this down.įor the rest of you, the spoiler-free section is coming to an end. This is absolutely worth your time, and at least one of the segments would lose at least a little of its punch if you know the premise going in. If that's enough for you - if this is a genre that interests you - then you might consider stopping the review here.
Not every joke in this movie hit its mark, but the structural writing was really topnotch. It's all too common for horror to wrap up with a needlessly ambiguous resolution, and that didn't happen here.
The movie never forgets it's horror first, and it has no interest in settling for "so bad it's good."Įqually impressive, all four segments provide satisfying finales, at least one of which was genuinely surprising. None of these - not even the camp - fall into the pitfalls that usually trip up this genre. It balances the horror and comedy well, juggling between a genuinely unsettling horror/fantasy, a creature feature, a ghost story, and a campy horror tale. Some of the characters know each other or have some background tying them to another story, but none of what happens to them in their own tales is impacted by what's going on elsewhere.ĭespite being distributed direct to video on demand, this anthology was impressively well shot, written, directed, and acted. They're technically connected, but not significantly. All occur simultaneously on Christmas Eve. The stories are told in tandem, cutting back and forth over the film's hour and forty minute run time. A Christmas Horror Story's title might undersell the content: this is at least four distinct stories, not one, each with a different tone.
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