A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

Expected more

A Disappointing Continuation

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I'm one of those people that will usually watch anything as long as Shatner's in it. So when i saw he was in a Christmas horror movie, I knew I had to give it a shot. Reading the synopsis, I knew Shatner wasn't going to be the star focus, but i was okay with that. I thought a Christmas horror story would be a fun idea. And then I actually saw the movie. This story is really 4 in one. Santa with elf zombies, changling kid, krampus against family, and haunted basement. All of this is connected by Shatner who is a radio DJ. And he's the only real saving grace of this film. Hearing Shatner as a mildly drunk Christmas loving radio DJ is amazing. Besides him and perhaps santa, every single character in this thing is annoying. There's seriously no character that I rooted for or even wanted to stay alive. Every single character is a pain in the butt level of annoying. I also have to say. This, this was a chore to get through. I didn't enjoy a single moment of this movie (With the rare exception of the Shatner scenes) When we're introduced to the characters we see them as unlikable jerks, and just because they're put in danger doesn't make them any more likable.Plot points are just kind of....there and quickly forgotten. The endings of most of these wrapups are RIDICULOUS and are at odds with what they're trying to convey. 1. The kid being a changeling story wraps up with the mother going to return the changling to where they took it from in the forest. She meets up with this guy that says "they won't harm you here because they're afraid of me." she sees she's surrounded by a bunch of changlings, and proceeds to shoot the guy and he dies by accident. The changlings, instead of killing her go "oh! okay! here's your son!" Wait.....what? That's the end? no twist? no...'she dies and the kid was already dead'? seriously? this mother character was one of the worst freaking characters! I was actively hoping she WOULD die. the fact that she or the kid DIDN'T die actually dropped this from a 3 to a 2. 2. Okay so with the santa story I was all for it when i was writing this review. Then i saw the ending 'twist'. it completely ruined it. look. you can't have a twist like "oh, of course this guy is really just crazy for no reason and is NOT santa fighting krampus because that makes more sense" when you have KRAMPUS ALREADY IN YOUR MOVIE. It's not far fetched to have him be the villain when he already IS killing people in your movie.3. The krampus family thing had development that lead nowhere. you find out that the son who is a giant asshat is in actuality a sociopath who kills animals, but the mother and father were actually understanding each other and then developing as characters then "poof. dead." thanks for that? It reminds me of the actual Krampus movie. except....you know, even stupider. 4. okay, basement possession baby didn't even have anything to DO with Christmas. That could have literally taken place at any time of the year. The fact that it was Christmas had NOTHING to do with the plot. it almost feels like this was made for a different story but ended up being too short so they tacked it onto this and had the characters say "oh by the way it's Christmas!" a few times during their scenes. These were the most boring of the bunch as 3/4 of the scenes were slow walking with no payoff. Speaking of payoff, with the exception of the santa scenes, none of the deaths were on screen and it looked stupid and cheap. If it weren't for Shatner this movie would get a 1, but god help me, Shatner can make even the worst piece of garbage worth it. So Shatner, I toast you with a wassail. As for the rest of this stupid nonsense, it can go right in the trash bin. 2 out of 10.

This is great - Krampus; The Changeling; Superhero Santa; Night of the Living Dead Elves; Horror; Terror; Gore; and, it's creepy!It's also a sort of guide for parents not to spoil their children into becoming little sh*ts who believe they can do whatever, whenever, wherever they want and expect everyone else to tolerate that bad behavior...Go Krampus!Krampus is the German/Austrian predecessor to the modern-day "Boogie Man." Parents telling children, "Misbehave, and, the Boogie Man will get you!"There are also a lot of twists and turns to this story that you won't see coming, and, you'll never come to realize until the moment they're exposed.Very close to the original stories and fairy tales, except -Krampus comes on December 5th, not Christmas Eve. He also returns the bad children to their homes after a serious attitude adjustment. He's also a companion of St. Nicholas, not an adversary. Santa's 'naughty' list is handed over to Krampus on December 5th so that the bad children will be 'born-again-good-kids" by Christmas Eve."The Changeling" from The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales (they didn't mention cooking the 'eggshell' meal and how this makes the elves come to take the changeling away and return the mother's real child).The writers changed the details a bit, but...Who cares!This is a great movie filled with creative ideas built upon legendary myths and stories from Germany, Austria, and, other European nations.If you have an interest in old European folklore and stories with a moral for bad people and sh*thead kids; or, if you just enjoy satirical horror with the AWESOME William Shatner...this movie is for you.

A Christmas Horror Story is the third in a trio of Amazon Prime Christmas horror films I've watched this year (the others being A Christmas Slay and CAESAR AND OTTO'S DEADLY XMAS). I hated the first two and hoped that this film would be the best of the three, which it is, but unfortunately it's still not a good movie. Instead this Canadian anthology film is muddled and unfocused, going for gore and action over really effective storytelling.William Shatner plays a DJ in the linking scenes and is a delight; certainly the best thing about the otherwise lousy production. There are four stories here and the problem is that instead of telling one after the other, which is how anthologies should play out, they're all mingled together with repeated cutting back and forth between the narratives. It's confusing and messy, repeatedly taking you out of the stories just when they're getting interesting.The material is sub par too. There's a half-hearted found footage exercise which goes nowhere and another re-run of the now popular 'Krampus' legend which feels like a cheesy '80s horror. One story is a mini-slasher while the brunt of the screen time involves a Santa battling zombie elves with a taste for human flesh. The horror is noisy and gruesome but never scary; in fact, I started getting a headache at the sheer inanity of it all.

On one hand, as a horror movie, it was okay. Not spectacular, but I've seen worse. But I feel compelled to warn viewers about something that slowly dawned on me as I watched the movie unfold, which is that the creators of this film are clearly trying to hide a deeply conservative message in the subtext.This is the point at which the spoilers begin, so if you wish to avoid these, you should stop reading now.In the first story, three teenagers break into their high school, which is closed because of winter break, but also because murders have recently happened there. Early in, the group finds a giant plastic nativity scene in the basement, and the girl (Molly) complains about the "war on Christmas." Later in the story, they find out that a girl died in the building while it was a convent, because the nuns forced her to undergo an abortion at their hands. This is the ghost that is killing people. Further, the ghost possesses Molly and has her try to seduce the first male, who is killed when he refuses. So she gets impregnated by the second guy, and is the only person spared by the ghost, and only because she agrees to carry the baby to term.The second and third stories may have skipped the subtext (or it's better hidden), but the fourth story is dripping with it at the end. For most of the story, you have a straight forward story about Santa killing zombie elves, ending with a showdown with Krampus. Right when that showdown is about to go down, the scene switches to a mall, and we see that a normal schlubb went crazy and started killing innocent people, until he gets gunned down by police. And what caused this psychotic break? The normal schlubb was an atheist who hated Christmas, but his work forced him to dress up as Santa, which of course drove him crazy. The movie ends with Williams Shatner begging people to embrace Christmas, suggesting in a sideways manner that respect for other religions and belief systems is the root of violence.