A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

A Christmas Horror Story: Directed by Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, Brett Sullivan. With William Shatner, George Buza, Rob Archer, Zoé De Grand Maison. Interwoven stories that take place on Christmas Eve, as told by one festive radio host: A family brings home more than a Christmas tree, a student documentary becomes a living nightmare, a Christmas spirit terrorizes, Santa slays evil.

“Ah…, now this is the kind of fun, Retro Fantasy Horror film that I like. As opposed to your sadistic Eli PHUKu0026#39;n Roth brutality films (not to disrespect those of you though who DO happen to like that kind, but Eli Roth wouldnu0026#39;t know how to bloody ENTERTAIN if his life depended on it. All he knows how to do is highlight suffering and disgust…) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film however, although truly entertaining and funny at times, used humour very sparingly (well, maybe except with the Elves…) It was not self-referential and there was absolutely NO winking at the audience. There was a lot of genuine suspense during the movie. IF you happen to like this type of fun old fashioned Horror film, I honestly feel that there is a lot to like in it. As I mentioned, the humour thankfully is not overdone. There are parts that are genuinely funny, but I feel that for the most part, the film leans more heavily towards Suspense and Horror. This movie has a vibe slightly similar to say u0026#39;CREEPSHOWu0026#39; Good, solid, scary Horror at times, but along with touches of humour here and there. Perhaps this one is a BIT more serious…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eProbably, what will determine if you like this movie will be whether you enjoy more Fantasy based Horror films or not. Personally I do very much. I mean, donu0026#39;t get me wrong, I am also an avid fan of absolutely dead-serious, Scary as $hit Horror films too. Some of the greatest Horror movies of all time are quite serious. But, I have a real affection for Horror films that truly are entertaining along with being scary. Films for example like u0026#39;CREEPSHOWu0026#39;, u0026#39;LOST BOYSu0026#39;, u0026amp; u0026#39;FRIGHT NIGHTu0026#39; (the original) to name a few. But, some of my favourites are chilling ones like the Classic u0026#39;LEGEND OF HELL HOUSEu0026#39;, the deeply Psychological u0026#39;SESSION 9u0026#39;, or the recent extremely well done u0026#39;BANSHEE CHAPTERu0026#39; (dude, I seriously had to change my PANTS after that one!)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs I have mentioned in many other reviews before, I personally lean much more so towards the Fantasy based Horror films. Ones either with a serious Supernatural slant, or ones based on Classic Gothic Lore like the Hammer Horror films, for example. So, I would be one who REALLY loved the 2010 film u0026#39;THE WOLFMANu0026#39; with B. Del Toro, where many people did not.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyway, sorry to digress there a bit, but when it comes to Horror movies, people can REALLY be different in what they like, so if I am going to recommend a Horror film, I want to make SURE that I am clear about the kind that I like so that you can hopefully determine whether YOU would like it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think what I personally really liked about this movie was that I appreciated the quality performances which the director was able to draw out of his cast, some of them quite young. Usually it is the HORRENDOUS acting that puts me off many of these modern Horror films, especially the low budget ones. But quite honestly, I felt that all here did an above average job in their roles. Oh yeah… there was ONE thing that I wanted to SURE to address (although, I would LOVE to UNdress that one young actress! Sorry… just something about those boots, skirt and wool stockings… 😀 ) Anyway, uh (cough) sorry about that… as I was saying… One thing that I want to mention that I VERY MUCH DISAGREE with that some here said, is that they didnu0026#39;t like the way that the stories were intercut together. Well, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I personally felt that the director did a friggu0026#39;n EXCELLENT job in doing that, seeing that that is quite difficult to attempt, much less pull off as well as he did. No, I honestly VERY much liked the way they did that because, to me, what it accomplished was that it kept the audience hanging between each story as it cut to another. I felt that it was extremely effective in further ratcheting up the suspense than if they had just done the conventional thing of telling each story separately. In that, I fully disagree with what others stated about not liking that aspect of the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, there you go… I hope that I have been able to describe my personal impressions of the film clearly enough to be able to give you an accurate idea of what it is like and whether you might like it like I did. I really thought it was a very fun, scary, well put together Fantasy based Horror film; especially one about the Christmas holidays, of which there havenu0026#39;t really been THAT many good ones lately…”