{"id":7761,"date":"2024-10-30T22:42:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T02:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7761"},"modified":"2024-10-30T22:42:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T02:42:41","slug":"a-christmas-horror-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/30\/a-christmas-horror-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Horror Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong> (2015)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RLJ Entertainment\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (gory horror violence, language, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban and Brett Sullivan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Kee, Sarah Larsen, Doug Taylor and Pascal Trottier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alex Khaskin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gavin Smith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 2, 2015 (US & VOD)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: William Shatner, Zoe De Grand Maison, Alex Ozerov, Shannon Kook, Jessica Clement, Amy Forsyth, Percy Hynes-White, Jeff Clarke, Michelle Nolden, Corinne Conley, Julian Richings, Rob Archer, Adrian Holmes, Olunike Adeliyi, Orion John, Alan C. Peterson, George Buza, Debra McCabe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Up until this year, I had never heard of Krampus, that malevolent figure of Alpine legend who punishes naughty children on Christmas, kind of an anti-Santa Claus. This season, he\u2019s figured prominently into two horror movies, Krampus and A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The first title can currently be seen at a multiplex near you; it\u2019s actually doing pretty good business. The second can be seen on VOD right now (it had a limited theatrical release in October). It\u2019s an anthology movie consisting of four interwoven stories, all set in the small bucolic town of Bailey Downs on Christmas Eve. That the town is named for the protagonist of It\u2019s a Wonderful Life should tell you all you need to know about the humorously warped mentality behind A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>. Not only is it darkly funny at times, one story in particular, it\u2019s also generous with the violence and gore. It even has a few decent scares. It also features William Shatner (Star Trek) as an increasingly inebriated radio DJ presiding over the bloody goings-on and ranting about the true meaning of Christmas while pulling a double shift at the local radio station. Shatner, that\u2019s a deal maker right there!<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the first tale, a group of teenagers- Molly (Maison, Orphan Black), Ben (Ozerov) and Dylan (Kook, The Conjuring)- sneak into their school to film their investigation of two murders that took place in the basement exactly one year ago. They get locked in the basement; Molly starts acting strangely. Their friend Caprice (Forsyth) was supposed to join them, but she got roped into visiting an elderly relative with her insufferable family- Dad (Clarke, Mad Men), Mom (Nolden, RED) and younger brother Duncan (White, Murdoch Mysteries). Reclusive Aunt Edda (Conley) wasn\u2019t expecting guests, so they\u2019re not exactly welcome. While there, Duncan purposely breaks a glass figurine of Krampus prompting her to throw them out. En route home, they get stuck in the snow after narrowing avoiding hitting something that ran in front of the car. As they try to get somewhere safe, Krampus starts picking them off one at a time. That\u2019s the second story.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The third centers on the police officer, Scott (Holmes, Elysium), left traumatized by the murders at the school. He and his family- wife Kim (Adeliyi, Flashpoint) and young son Will (John)- illegally chop down a Christmas tree and pay for it dearly when Will starts behaving strangely after getting lost in the woods. Meanwhile, at the North Pole, Santa (Peterson, Sucker Punch) finds himself fighting off zombie elves on his busiest night of the year. Yes, you read that right, zombie elves. How can I not like A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Remember the \u201cone of these things doesn\u2019t belong here\u201d bit from Sesame Street? That\u2019s what I was thinking of with that fourth tale of holiday terror. How does that tie in with the rest of A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>? Well, I\u2019m not going to tell you, but I will say it\u2019s actually clever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Usually with anthology movies, there\u2019s one story that\u2019s weaker than the rest. That\u2019s not the case with A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>. All of the stories are pretty good. Okay, the first story is standard teens being stalked by some unknown force stuff. If forced to pick a weak link, that would be it. But it holds up because of the narrative. I like how the makers intertwine the stories. Rather than telling one tale at a time, they intercut them with each other. Some say that it undermines the movie\u2019s ability to generate any real suspense. I disagree. I think it works rather well. It keeps you interested in the movie; you want to see how they\u2019re going to bring it all together at the end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The gore and makeup effects are very good, especially in the North Pole sequence. It\u2019s a total bloodbath! That\u2019s the kind of scary movie I like. It\u2019s also the funniest story of the bunch. The acting is no great shakes. The only performances that stand out are Peterson as Santa and, of course, Shatner. Why? Because he\u2019s Shatner, that\u2019s why!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I had a great deal of fun watching A Christmas Horror Story<\/strong>. It\u2019s one of the most twisted Christmas movies I\u2019ve ever seen. It ranks right alongside Gremlins, the cult favorite Christmas Evil, Silent Night, Deadly Night and The Nutcracker in 3D. I do believe I\u2019ve acquired another annual Christmas film.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Christmas Horror Story (2015)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RLJ Entertainment\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (gory horror violence, language, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban and Brett Sullivan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Kee, Sarah Larsen, Doug Taylor and Pascal Trottier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alex Khaskin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gavin Smith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 2, 2015 (US & VOD)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: William Shatner, Zoe De […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holiday-movies","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-Christmas-Horror-Story-PI.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7775,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7761\/revisions\/7775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}