Blood Tidings (AKA Good Tidings)

Dir: Stuart W. Bedford

2016

***

The original title of the film is Blood Tidings but it seems to now be known as Good Tidings, which is odd, as Blood Tidings works much better in my opinion. Christmas movies is now big business it seems, although no one seems to spend any money making them. Cheap horror is the same, sell the film on a great title and a fancy poster and spend little money or effort on the film itself and it sells itself. Viewers, like myself, know its not going to be good but we watch anyway. The Christmas horror film is a niche sub-genre that I have developed a soft spot for but most of them are dreadful. The better Christmas horror films are the ones that actually set the story during Christmas, rather than just stick a Santa hat on the villain. Blood Tidings isn’t particularly christmassy in the classic sense but it is an interesting and original alternative. It’s no masterpiece, as expected, and it has the lowest of low budgets, but, it has a lot going for it. I’ve watched many Christmas films and so many of them are bad and are the same as each other, Blood Tidings however is different. The acting isn’t brilliant but some of the characters are convincing. The direction is poor and the editing is horrible but the idea is actually pretty good and overall it is a horror that packs quite a punch. The story focuses on a close community of homeless people who are squatting together in a disused court building. Our protagonist is Sam, an ex-solder who has find himself homeless as so many have, who invites another homeless man back to the squat against his better judgement. The man tried to fool Sam but Sam, in the spirit of Christmas (it is Christmas day), offers him, food, shelter and companionship. The big message here is that killer Santas aside, some people are ‘surviving’ as best they can all year round, with Christmas being harder for most. When back at the squat we meet some of the residents and learn a little bit about why they are there. The squat is then invaded by three villains in Santa suits, who lock everyone in and begin to kill the homeless indiscriminately. They take their time over the killings, reveling in each and every death. They are there to feed off people’s fear, just as much as they are there to kill. We never find out who the masked men are or what their motives were, which I think is a brilliant move. You can decide for yourself who they are or what they represent, personally I see it as a slight criticism on how the homeless are treated by society in general. Of course it could just be all about the literal horror but I don’t think so. Not knowing is often far more scarier then having all the answers, indeed mindless killing is far more terrifying than premeditated murder ever is. The three evil santas (with demon masks) are fairly frightening in their unpredictability, one brandishing a machete, the other a bat while the small one seems to like sticking candy canes in people eyes. It’s an idea that really could have thrived, had the right people made it and if the budget had been bigger. However, money aside, the editing and choreography is appalling. It really lets down the overall film. The character development is surprisingly good but the acting isn’t always that great. It’s not bad, and the dialogue isn’t bad either, it’s just that so much of it is woefully melodramatic and the characters often behave in such an unrealistic manner, that it is hard to overlook. There is a clever and striking slasher in there that is both original and effective, it’s just let down by amateurish film making. It certainly isn’t the slap-dash cheap horror I thought it was going to be though and I think it deserves far more credit than it has thus far received.