A Christmas Horror Story

Image Entertainment | Release Date: October 2, 2015

6.8	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

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SpangleDec 8, 2016

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A Christmas Horror Story of four short stories added to together that jump from story-to-story, rather than focus on going one-by-one. These stories intertwine and take place in the fictional town of Bailey Downs. Sitting high above the town is DJ Dangerous Dan (William Shatner), who is hysterical in the role. Though a mixed bag and the stories jumping between one another does hurt momentum a good bit, A Christmas Horror Story is a generally fun and entertaining horror ride that may not be the best thing I have ever watched, but it is certainly scary and more than worth your time.

The first story concerns three teenagers, Dylan, Ben, and Molly. The local school had a murder the year before in the basement, which was once an old convent. The three go to investigate for what is presumably a news report for a broadcast journalism course. The murders had a particularly religious bend to them with a Biblical quote from the Book of Isaiah proclaiming the birth of Christ written in blood on the wall. A guy and girl were found murdered, with the guy being crucified on the wall. As the night progresses, the three get locked in this section of the school and begin seeing things, namely a girl who had been in the convent, claimed to be a virgin yet pregnant, and died while trying to abort her baby. It turns out in this section that this demon girl wanted somebody to carry her baby for her, no matter the price. Given the quote on the wall, the time of year, the abortion, the persistence, and the bloody eyed Mary statue, I interpreted this baby to be the Antichrist. Given the presence of Krampus, the anti-Santa Claus, in the film, this is hardly far fetched and makes this section of the film make a whole of sense. As it stands, I did enjoy this section actually. Though pretty typical, it was one of my favorites and I was itching to get back to it whenever it cut away.

The second story concerns Police Officer Scott, his wife Kim, and their son Will. A cop at the scene of the crime last year, Scott is still incredibly shaken by what he saw. While on a trip to cut a Christmas tree from the woods, Will is possessed or something by a changeling. Chaos ensues and this section was not that interesting, honestly. At least with the first part, there was a great mystery as to what was happening. Here, it was pretty obvious Will was possessed and that everything was not as it seemed. It just depended on how long it took for Scott and Kim to realize their son was not with them. Overall, it is passable, but simply took too long and was largely quite dull.

The third story comes back to the people in the first story again with one of their friends, Caprice, stuck going on a family trip with her dysfunctional family. A run in with Krampus makes all of their problems come to the surface and also teaches the fundamental lesson of Christmas: Santa may not be real, but the spirit of Christmas is real and is within us all. Similarly, the spirit of Krampus can enter you and cause serious harm. Though not an absolutely stellar section, it does have some touching family moments, as well as moments of sheer terror.

Finally, the last one is set in the North Pole, but actually relates to DJ Dangerous Dan. With the elves turning into zombies, Santa must kill them all before they kill him. The same even goes for Martha Claus ("SAVE....MARTHA!" - Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Batman v. Superman). Orchestrated by his archrival Krampus, the ending of this section is a bummer, even if it does make sense. During the parts with DJ Dangerous Dan, it is revealed that there is a hostage situation at the mall. As it turns out, it is just Norman - the meteorologist for Dan's show - thinking that he is Santa with the zombie elves. Thus, this whole section occurs in Norman's head and is really just a dream. Though it has great production design and is a very cool concept, the ending is a let down. That said, it does gel well with the other sections and the ideas about the Christmas/Krampus spirit. However, even with the bad ending, this section is still far and away the most raucous fun presented by this film with good zombie design and then the promised battle between Santa and Krampus.

Overall, A Christmas Horror Story is a fun and diverting film that, while flawed, has some very scary parts and is a largely entertaining film about the Christmas spirit and the birth of Christ.… Expand

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smiyamotJan 30, 2016

A typical scary movie with a twist, it has a Christmas theme. Well done from that point of view, but there are 4 story lines, maybe 2 of them connect, but the other 2? Made watching the movie a little disjointed. Won't be joining myA typical scary movie with a twist, it has a Christmas theme. Well done from that point of view, but there are 4 story lines, maybe 2 of them connect, but the other 2? Made watching the movie a little disjointed. Won't be joining my Christmas DVD collection.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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