A Christmas Horror Story

Dir: Steve Hoban, Grant Harvey, Brett Sullivan

2015

****

Steve Hoban, Grant Harvey and Brett Sullivan Christmas horror opus is a huge welcome addition to the sub-genre. Christmas horror are either about killer Santas, Krampus or are barely Christmas related at all, and even though the same can be said about A Christmas Horror Story, it incorporates all these ideas and really runs with them while adding more to the mix. Split into four separate stories (or chapters), each tale is linked thanks to the inspired addition of a radio DJ (played by the brilliant William Shatner) who gets more and more drunk as he plays festive tunes and reports on the news. Horror fans will have noted that all these events take place at Bailey Town, the very location that the Ginger Snaps films take place. There are four stories in total and while two of them aren't that great, the other two more than make up for it. The first one sees three friends sneak into their school (which used to be a convent) to investigate two murders that happened there the previous year. It's a fairly boring story if I'm being honest, with a predictable ending and fairly bad acting. There is nothing that links this story of the others or indeed Christmas and the film could probably done with it being cut and the other stories extended. The second story is slightly better and involves the abduction of a child by changelings. One of the changelings decides to impersonate the young boy and after he begins eating strangely and murders his father, his mother becomes suspicious and set about finding her real son. It's not the best but it does have a pretty decent conclusion. The third story starts off fairly slowly and I worried it would be as uninspiring as the first two but once Krampus shows up it gets really good. This is one of my favourite versions of Krampus so far and the conclusion of the story is unexpected and utterly brilliant. Krampus also turns up in the final story, as he takes on Santa who is fresh from killing all his own Elves after they rather tragically fall foul of a zombie infection. This is what Christmas horror is all about. Lapland looks ace and George Buza makes a brilliant Santa - he looks the part, is kind and sincere but can also roll up his sleeves and kick butt when he needs to. If the final battle wasn't climactic enough, the twist of all movie twists comes out of nowhere and the whole film comes together fantastically. From rather average beginnings comes one of the best endings to a film ever. Most Christmas horror films are a bit cheap and rubbish and only get watched thanks to great cover artwork. A Christmas Horror Story had a fairly rubbish poster in the scheme of things but my goodness it doesn't disappoint. One of the very best in the sub-genre.