Directors
Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, and Brett Sullivan
Cast
William Shatner - DJ Dangerous Dan
George Buza - Santa Claus
Rob Archer - Krampus
Zoe De Grand Mason - Molly Simon
Recently, an article showed up on Ripley's Believe or Not's website speaking of an old tradition of ghost stories told around Christmas.
Just as the lyric goes in the Christmas jingle The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, "There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and caroling out in the snow. There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago."
One of the most famous Christmas ghost stories in history centers around an old money lender who's visited by three ghosts just before Christmas day. Charles Dickens wrote this story at a time when, as the Ripley's article suggests, ghost stories were common at Christmas.
This tradition may have disappeared for the most part, save for the continual popularity of Dicken's novel, A Christmas Carol being adapted into film over and over again, year after year. But it might still exist as the random Christmas horror movie released around the holidays.
I've seen the Christmas anthology horror flick A Christmas Horror Story pop up in a lot of my streaming services - Shudder, Netflix (I think?), Hoopla. I keep seeing the cover with a powdery white Krampus figure (he suddenly became a thing in horror, didn't he), locked in battled against a ragged looking Santa Claus show up as a movie suggestion.
I think the ghost of Christmas Past Horror Movies has been shoving this movie in my face for reasons I have yet to figure out. Needless to say, I watched it. And now that I watched it, the ghost of Christmas Past Horror Movies can go back to hell where it belongs.
The movie consists of four stories happening simultaneously, rather than back to back like most anthologies.
Radio DJ, "Dangerous" Dan (William Shatner) is immersed in the holiday spirit as he sips some Brandy with his egg nog and brags to his listeners how much he loves Christmas.
While he's on the air, shortly after his call-screener leaves abruptly telling Dan to "F--k Christmas," messages start coming in about a disturbance at the mall.
Dan tells his listeners to stay clear of the mall while continuing to play Christmas music. This ties in with the end.
The first story involves three high school students, Molly, Dylan and Ben, surreptitiously recording a documentary on the murder of two students the year before in their school's basement. One of their friends, Caprice, is invited but unwillingly has to take a road trip with her family to visit their old Aunt Edda.
They sneak into the school, which used to be a Catholic convent, during winter break to shoot their film. They barely escape getting caught by their principal by sneaking into the basement.
They end up locking themselves in.
Molly (Zoe De Grand Maison) sees an apparition of a bloody young girl - the girl who was murdered in the basement. She possesses Molly and forces her to seduce Dylan (who is Caprice's boyfriend). He resists her advances, so she turns her attention to Ben. He's more of a pushover and ends up getting her pregnant...immediately! Fast work.
Why the ghost possessing Molly wants her to get pregnant isn't well explained. All the audience knows through flashbacks is that there was an unwanted pregnancy and nuns performed an abortion on the now dead teen. Again, nuns performing an abortion? Never look to Hollywood for accurate depictions of religion. But why this constitutes the need for Molly's pregnancy is as mysterious as the ghost herself.
Meanwhile, Caprice (Amy Forsyth - Hellfest) and her brother Duncan (Percy Hynes White - 11.22.63) are reluctantly heading to visit their elderly Aunt Edda with their parents.
During their visit, old Edda tells the children about the legend of Krampus - the demonic adversary of Santa Claus.
Duncan intentionally knocks over a figure of Krampus Edda keeps on an end table. She's placed it there in order to annoy Edda's caretaker who wholeheartedly believes the creature's folklore.
Their aunt then insists they all leave. On their way home, the father has a car accident forcing them to walk out in the cold, snowy weather. It doesn't take long before they all realize they're being followed by someone or something otherworldly. So, they hide themselves in a small church.
The third story taking place at this time centers on a police officer, Scott Peters (Adrian Holmes - Red Riding Hood) who's the same officer that investigated the murder of the two students.
Due to the traumatizing nature of the case, he takes a necessary leave of absence.
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| George Buza as Santa Claus in A Christmas Horror Story |
Scott soon finds his boy in the hollow of a tree. They finally return home, but it becomes clear that Will isn't quite acting like himself. And it turns out, he actually isn't their son.
On top of all these stories is the one centered on Santa Claus himself as he's preparing his sleigh for Christmas.
One of his elves has become infected by a virus causing him to turn into a raging, ravenous zombie. The other elves quickly become infected, as does Mrs. Claus, and Santa is left to take care of this problem alone.
I love a good anthology movie. They remind me of the nostalgic, straight-to-the-horror EC comics such as Vault of Horror, Tales From the Crypt, or DC Comics' Ghosts: Tales of the Weird and Supernatural.
The anthology horror movie Trick R' Treat is a favorite of mine that I make a point to watch every October 31. So, I was naturally curious to see another holiday get the horror anthology treatment. With Christmas, it has certainly been done before - The Holidays (2016), All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), and Deathcember (2019).
When it comes to tying all these stories into one connected thread, it's quite a stretch. Characters alone tie the stories together, but each of their storylines don't seem to. It left me expecting something big by the end, but the movie certainly didn't deliver in that regard.
The suspense, twist and intrigue for most of the stories is done rather well, especially surrounding Krampus.
On top of all these stories is the one centered on Santa Claus himself as he's preparing his sleigh for Christmas.
One of his elves has become infected by a virus causing him to turn into a raging, ravenous zombie. The other elves quickly become infected, as does Mrs. Claus, and Santa is left to take care of this problem alone.
I love a good anthology movie. They remind me of the nostalgic, straight-to-the-horror EC comics such as Vault of Horror, Tales From the Crypt, or DC Comics' Ghosts: Tales of the Weird and Supernatural.
The anthology horror movie Trick R' Treat is a favorite of mine that I make a point to watch every October 31. So, I was naturally curious to see another holiday get the horror anthology treatment. With Christmas, it has certainly been done before - The Holidays (2016), All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), and Deathcember (2019).
When it comes to tying all these stories into one connected thread, it's quite a stretch. Characters alone tie the stories together, but each of their storylines don't seem to. It left me expecting something big by the end, but the movie certainly didn't deliver in that regard.
The suspense, twist and intrigue for most of the stories is done rather well, especially surrounding Krampus.
However, the story of the students locked in the school's basement drags on with an effortless fizzle of a payoff. This story in particular leaned too far into the area of convolution. It made me think something big would tie everything together.
The acting in this particular story seemed tired and mundane, even for typical teenage shenanigans leading to fear. It seems like this story should have been the big payoff.
All the while, Santa taking on his zombie elves becomes the center story (so it seems). While its ending is certainly an unexpected one, the story itself takes a more comedic and different tone than the rest of the stories. It's the grittiest part of the film unlike the rest which are scarier, suspenseful, and intriguing.
Watching Krampus and Santa go head to head was a fun experience cut too short.
There's a lot of room for improvement within A Christmas Horror Story. It has potential, and did well in some regards, but failed in others.
The acting in this particular story seemed tired and mundane, even for typical teenage shenanigans leading to fear. It seems like this story should have been the big payoff.
All the while, Santa taking on his zombie elves becomes the center story (so it seems). While its ending is certainly an unexpected one, the story itself takes a more comedic and different tone than the rest of the stories. It's the grittiest part of the film unlike the rest which are scarier, suspenseful, and intriguing.
Watching Krampus and Santa go head to head was a fun experience cut too short.
There's a lot of room for improvement within A Christmas Horror Story. It has potential, and did well in some regards, but failed in others.
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| Krampus attacks Diane (Michelle Nolden). |
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