Holiday Hell

Holiday Hell is like a sack of presents on Christmas morning: some stories are as entertaining as a new Commodore 64 computer game (yes, I'm old); others are the equivalent of a jumper hand-knitted by an auntie (multiple colours, slightly too large with uneven arms). It's a mixed bag, for sure, but with a fun performance by horror icon Jeffery Combs, and some gore and nudity, it's still worth delving into.

Combs plays the proprietor of a curiosity shop, who tries to help last-minute customer Amelia (Meaghan Karimi-Naser) to choose a gift for her sister. As Amelia deliberates over several potential gifts, the shopkeeper tells her the story behind each of them.

In the first story, a mysterious killer wearing a doll-mask murders a group of youngsters partying in an abandoned house. It's a really uninspired way to kick things off, with very little to offer beyond its trite premise, but fortunately things get better with the next tale...

A young Jewish boy, Kevin (Forrest Campbell), is given an old, one-of-a-kind rabbi doll by his parents, who leave their son in the care of babysitter Lisa (Amber Stonebraker) while they spend the weekend in Germany. Not long after his parents have gone, Kevin overhears Lisa talking to her boyfriend Trey on the phone: the pair are planning to empty Kevin's home of its valuables. When Lisa catches Kevin listening, she locks him in his room, but Kevin's doll comes to the rescue when the boy reads from an old scroll hidden in the toy's box. Springing to life, the creepy wooden rabbi ensures that Lisa and Trey get their just desserts. A murderous living doll might not be all that original, but this is a well-handled story with a decent pace and a smattering of gore.

Talking of gore, there's more in the third story, which centres around a blood-stained Santa suit. Owner of the initially pristine costume is down-trodden pharmaceutical company office-worker Chris (Joel Murray), who is overlooked for promotion and then sees his wife Susan (Ailsa Marshall) cheating on him at the Christmas office party with his work rival Tom (Jeff Bryan Davis). Hitting the bottle at a nearby bar, and hoovering up some of his company's experimental tablets, Chris turns homicidal, visiting a local hardware store before returning to the party. Gratuitous nudity, drug-taking, and a nail-gun to the crotch: sophisticated it isn't, but it sure is fun.

The final tale sees a young woman, Anna (the lovely McKenna Ralston), renting a room at a farmhouse, and finding work in the nearby town, only to discover that the locals are murderous moon worshippers. It's a fairly blood-free story, but benefits from an eerie atmosphere and solid performances, and ends in a shocking manner that successfully segues back into the wraparound story, where Combs' shopkeeper turns out to be far less amiable than he seems.

With such an uneven movie, rating it as a whole isn't easy. I'd give the doll-face story 2/10, the rabbi doll 6/10, the killer Santa 6/10, the moon worshippers 5/10, and the book-ends 4/10. That's a total of 23, averaging out at 4.6/10, which I'll round up to 5 for naming Chris's tablets Black Sunshine, which I assume is a reference to Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine (1977).

I didn't know what "Holiday Hell" was before I sat down to watch it, aside from it being a horror movie of some sort. Which, actually, was enough to make me have an interest in sitting down to watch it.

Turns out that "Holiday Hell" is a horror anthology, and actually a good one at that. Needless to say my surprise and excitement when I saw Jeffrey Combs appear on the screen. I didn't know he was in it, and he is definitely one of my all-time favorite actors in the horror genre. And I must say that he was quite good in the role of the shopkeeper, the one presenting each individual segment of the anthology.

Without going too much into detail with each segment, I will say that they individually were interesting. Sure, they weren't the most fulfilling of storytelling and could seem a bit shallow at times. But they were entertaining enough and that served the purpose for me. Some segments were, of course, better than others. Personally, I actually found the in-between-segments to be the most entertaining and enjoyable, as it was a story in itself, and it had Jeffrey Combs in it.

The had a good ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list for the various roles in the segments. And that definitely helped to lift up and carry the segments afloat.

The effects in "Holiday Hell" were fair enough, and served their intended purpose. Don't expect to be blown away by over the top impressive special effects and CGI, because then you'll be disappointed. However, the effects were there and they fulfilled their function.

I enjoyed "Holiday Hell" for what it was, and it was definitely nice to sit down and watch this one. My rating for the 2019 horror anthology "Holiday Hell" is a six out of ten stars.

This low-budget, indie horror film has some genuinely impressive filmmaking in it. I'm not a horror aficionado, but I know the tropes and these film-makers clearly have had some fun playing with them. Yes, there's some questionable dialogue, and the "don't go into the basement" (in a suburban split-level, ha-ha!) moments are schlocky, but there's definitely thought put into this, and some admirable and hilarious twists. As in many indies, the acting is a bit uneven, however, there are notable exceptions, and Joel Murray's performance is outstanding, by turns poignant, funny, terrifying. Jeffrey Combs is perfect as the smarmy owner of a creepy little shop of horror stories. And a special shout-out to Meaghan Karimi-Naser as the young woman seeking a last-minute gift for her sister. Karimi-Naser plays the slightly-too-innocent/what's-going-on-underneath role with wonderfully hinted-at layers. There's also a fantastic pay-off to her performance. (Whatever you do-stay for the last frame. You may know something's coming, but I promise, you are not going to guess the exact form it takes!) I hope to see more films by this group of indie filmmakers.

I think a 12 year old boy wrote this! It's really stupid and NO ONE talks like that! It's so bad, I can't tell if the stories are even good! 2 thumbs down! 👎🏼👎🏼

There are warning signs when a movie is going to be pretty bad. The biggest one is when the same people are the writers, directors, and producers. This is a sure fire sign that a bunch of bored rich people are about to make a movie for the fun of it and it is going to be a dud!

This one had the telltale signs, but it also had some pretty innovative story lines. One storyline pretty much followed the ancient legend of the Golem from Jewish tradition, but the others were pretty original and deserve credit for being good ideas.

Now, the crime of the situation is that they were played out by a pretty amateurish cast with the exception of the shopkeeper!

The ending was pretty standard and stale. The kind of thing you pretty much see coming from a mile away.

I did enjoy the tales woven into the overall plot, but I cringed every time the casting spoiled the moment!