Review by Ken King
A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY - 2015 USA Release: Oct. 23, 2015 Super Channel, Copperheart Entertainment, Téléfilm Canada, Image, RLJ Entertainment Rating: USA: R

End Credits Disclaimer: No Elves Were Harmed in the Making of This Film.

This will be my first anthology review for the site. It certainly won't be my last. Like I stated in one of my other reviews, I absolutely love anthology films. Being this is the season of giving; it's only fitting I do my first film of this sort that deals with the holiday itself.

A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY is five tales interwoven to make one complete film. So, there are no separate titles to differentiate one tale from another. I wasn't crazy about all the bouncing around when you would be getting into one part of the story and then BAM! Let's switch it over and see what is happening with these characters that have nothing to do with these ones over here, except they incidentally find themselves in the same flick.

It got to be frustrating at times and I felt my sudden rushes of excitement deflate as soon as it would begin to build, which is not a good situation whatsoever. I have a few scenarios that would explain this rather well, but none of them are family friendly.

The movie starts out this way. We see what can't be mistaken for any other place in the world but Santa's Castle at the North Pole. Santa (George Buza1: THE AMATEUR, QUEST FOR FIRE, THE BRAIN, FRIDAY THE 13th: THE SERIES [TV], RAIDER OF THE SOUTH SEAS, TALES FROM THE CRYPTKEPPER [TV], MONSTER FORCE [TV], X-MEN, COLD CREEK MANOR, DIARY OF THE DEAD, A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE) looks hella beat up when we finally get our first glimpse of him. He is in his stables trying to calm the reindeer team because they can sense something bad is about to go down. Suddenly, the doors to the barn bursts open and a blinding light appears...

Aaaaaand...we find ourselves at a local radio station in Bailey Downs2 that is occupied by lone DJ "Dangerous" Dan (William Shatner. Nuff said. But we will list some of his creds: THE DEVIL'S RAIN, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, VISITING HOURS, STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN, AMERICAN PSYCHO II: ALL AMERICAN GIRL, HORRORWEEN) who is manning the radio station for a double shift and reporting on the annual Christmas Food Drive down at the local mall.

The DJ is getting loaded on eggnog as he goes over the night's festivities and plays Christmas music to keep spirits high. We then start getting into the stories. I'm not going to bounce back and forth like the movie, so I will take them one at the time and break it all down as best as I able, so bear with me here.

The first segment that starts off, has three teens trying to make a video for a class about two teens, whom the year before, were brutally murdered in the lower rooms below the school that used to serve as a convent for wayward girls that came there to have babies out of wedlock. The police that investigated the scene of the crime, saw this written in blood on one of the walls:
"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given."

It is a passage in the Bible that is paraphrased from the Book of Isaiah Chapter 9:6.

With nothing else to do, they explore the place and shoot some footage. The teenagers encounter some ghostly visions and one of them, a girl named Molly (Zoe De Grand Maison: ORPHAN BLACK [TV], RIVERDALE [TV], BAD HAIR DAY, STICKMAN, ADAM'S TESTAMENT) seemingly becomes possessed by one of the dead girls who apparently had a baby through Immaculate Conception. No one believed her and she committed suicide. Molly has sex with one of the boys, Ben (Alex Ozerov: SALEM FALLS, THE DARK STRANGER, BITTEN [TV], THE AMERICANS [TV], THE MACHINE) and I don't have to tell you how that turned out.

The second story was a bit better. A family of three go to cut down a Christmas tree and do so on private property. The dad, Scott (Adrian Holmes: VALENTINE, WHITE NOISE 2: THE LIGHT, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, SUPERNATURAL [TV], V-WARS [TV]) is a policeman and mother, Kim (Olunike Adeliyi: SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER, BEING HUMAN [TV], THE RETURNED, LOST GIRL [TV], DEEP SPACE), scolds him for setting a bad example for their son, Will (Orion John: FLASHPOINT [TV], IN CONTEMPT [TV]). Scott blows this off and they all go out and find a good tree and saw it down. As they are starting back to their truck, Will hears something calling on the wind that only he can hear, and the kid starts in the direction of the voice. After a bit, his parents see he isn't with them and frantically, they search for the boy.

Eventually, he is found, but Will is markedly different. He is silent, moody, and seemingly no longer needs his inhaler. The family go home, unaware they are being watched as they leave.

That night, Will, disobeys his parents at every turn and becomes violent in a few instances. Kim receives a phone call from the man who owned the property who tells her he saw them steal a tree and they woke up something in the forest they shouldn't have and that the "Will", they have with them now, isn't the real one, but something else altogether. Kim tells the man not to call again and she hangs up on him. It isn't until something really bad goes down with the "boy" that she is all to willing to listen to the man, whose name is Big Earl (A.C. Peterson: SUCKER PUNCH, HE NEVER DIED, DARK HARVEST, STAKELANDER, HEMLOCK GROVE [TV]).

Of all the segments, this is the only one that even remotely has a "Happy Ending".

The next story has a man and his family traveling to see his Aunt Edda (Corrine Conley: WOLFCOP, LEGACY OF FEAR, THE DEFENDERS: PAYBACK, WAR OF THE WORLDS [TV], NATURE OF THE BEAST) under the pretense of mending things between them for Christmas, but the real mission is to beg her for money, as the old woman is wealthy.

The aunt chases them all out after the son, Duncan (Percy Hynes White: CAST NO SHADOW, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB, EDGE OF WINTER, RUPTURE, AT FIRST LIGHT), breaks a very old ornament on purpose that is made in the likeness of the Shadow of Santa Claus, The Krampus (Rob Archer: BULLETPROOF MONK, KICK-ASS 2, INCIDENT IN A GHOSTLAND, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, DARKEN). The butler, Gerhardt (Julian Richings: MIMIC, CUBE, URBAN LEGEND, WRONG TURN, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, THE WITCH*) sees this as well and tells the family they don't know what they have done and to boot it out of there. They do, but shortly after leaving, they spin off the road trying to avoid a collision with a large form that darts out in front of their vehicle.

Soon, it becomes apparent they are being hunted by a creature of myth and legend, the Christmas Demon, Krampus. Not even a church they find off the beaten path and try to find refuge in is seemingly safe enough from the Devil himself.

We finally get back to Santa. He and his wife, Marta (Debra McCabe: SAW III, PAINKILLER JANE [TV], THE BORDER [TV], THE HOUSE) find themselves besieged on all sides by undead elves seeking warm flesh to devour, namely that of Mr. & Mrs. Claus. After a bloody showdown with his former employees, Santa faces off against his mortal enemy and who is the true culprit behind the elven zombie uprising. It is the battle for the ages... but then, reality returns and we find ourselves back to the cramped radio station, where D.J. "Dangerous" Dan is reporting about a terrible incident unfolding at the Mall's Annual Christmas Food Drive. And then we're being whisked away to the mall and what is happening in real time. Then we go off the air with one of a million different versions of the song, Carol of the Bells.

We had no less than three directors on A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY: Grant Harvey (GINGER SNAPS BACK: THE BEGINNING, WYNONNA EARP [TV], 12 MONKEYS [TV], KILLJOYS [TV], GONE), Steven Hoban (DARKNET [TV]) and Brett Sullivan (GINGER SNAPS 2: UNLEASHED, LOST GIRL [TV], FLASHPOINT [TV], URBAN MYTH CHILLERS [TV], THE CHAIR). Usually, the more cooks stirring the pot tends to change the recipe drastically because individual points of view clash and you wind up with a huge mess. The directors all worked on some of the same projects together and if not in a directorial capacity, then as film editors, or producers. It shows here as the individual stories all look as if they were directed by the same person. This tells me that if all three weren't on the set at the same time, frequent visits were made to watch the dailies.

I would like to know, however, who took precedence over whom. The D.J. scenes with Shatner, the ghost story, the doppelganger tale and the mall incident, were done on the cheap, no two ways about it. Not much in the way of effects were used in these parts and it looks as if they just got by on what they were given and made the best of it. Most of the budget was noticeably used on the stories that involved the two Krampus tales and one of those yarns that also had Santa Claus.

If the whole movie had been shot the exact same way, this would EASILY be a holiday classic. As it stands, it comes off as a mixed bag and that's most unfortunate, because there were some great ideas being bounced off the walls where maybe half of them actually stuck.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Since this is an anthology, I am going to have to go by each story and say what worked for me and what didn't.

Ghost stories can be scary, but they must be done right. You can't half-ass these things and expect your audience to buy what you're selling. The creators of A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY have nothing to be ashamed of. This part was atmospheric as hell, but it was lacking too many details to make you care for the characters either in the past or present. It came off as something just thrown together at the last minute to complete the script because nothing else in the way of material was readily available. I'm not a big ghost story aficionado, so I'm probably being too hard on this part.

The missing kid story (I want to say what it is about, but it would give too much away) was a step or two above the ghost story. I felt it was executed a bit better for what it was. It had gory scenes, but not enough to be off-putting. I wish they would have slid a little more of the budget towards the creature effects. If I had a complaint about this part, that would be it.

Krampus: it was just gorgeous in design and much like I would expect one to look like, even more so than Michael Dougherty's version in KRAMPUS and I totally loved that one as well. The creation of it and the Zombie Elves is where most of the money went and you can tell. George Buza's Santa Claus came off as more warrior like and less like the fat, roly-poly version we are all used to seeing during Christmas. This was a refreshing take on the mythos and gave St. Nick more of an old-world vibe. I like when any production takes the time to deliver a character of his stature to a whole new/old school level that is well thought out and is an obvious labor of love.

Shatner. Shatner is Shatner. What else can you say?

Bottom Line: If the sum of all parts equaled to others, this would have been something else to see. I enjoyed it, but the experience could have been so much better. It has been in the holiday rotation at my house for five years now and I doubt it will ever not be.

Three Shriek Girls

This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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