Red Christmas (2016)
** (out of 4)
This bizarre film starts off at an abortion clinic where someone walks in with a bag, which eventually explodes. Flash-forward twenty years and Diane (Dee Wallace) has her family at her home where they are preparing a big Christmas event. Before long a strange man wrapped from head to toe shows up. He wants to read a letter to his mommy and before long brutal murders are happening.
RED Christmas starts off with an abortion bombing and it grows every bit weirder as it moves along. I'm not going to say this movie is a complete success but there's no question that it contains some pretty bizarre ideas and a bizarre execution. This film isn't what I'd consider good but there are enough weird ideas that make it entertaining to watch and then you throw in the graphic violence and you're probably looking at something that is going to gain a cult following.
As I've said throughout, I give writer-director Craig Anderson credit for attempting to go to a very dark place and create a bizarre holiday tale. The killer here is a deformed creature and also a haunted human who just wants to know why his mother was willing to kill him and not love him. A lot of horror films try to give their killers origin stories or some sort of weak backstory but this film here actually delivers something rather strong and something that can make you think. I mean, for a horror picture that's really saying something.
With that being said, the execution wasn't the greatest and there's a point around the forty-five minute mark where things get rather stale and slow down to a very big crawl. I'd also argue that some of the points of the story could have been expanded on but the 82-minute running time didn't allow for that. Performance for the most part were good and especially Wallace as she gets a good meaty role to work with and she does a very good job with it playing a character who must face her face and see the damage it has had on her future.
As I said, gore hounds will be extremely happy as there are some pretty brutal murders here that have all sorts of CGI blood being thrown around. Technically speaking the film was well-made and has a very professional and good look to it. RED Christmas isn't a masterpiece or even a good movie but there are enough good moments to make it worth sitting through.
