Movie begins, oddly, with a delivery guy encountering the Nutcracker, then rolling back two days until the events get back up to the delivery guy. Unclear why that was done, other than perhaps to pad running time, or someone wanted a kill scene moved up closer to the beginning than the script had it.
Beatrice Fletcher and May Kelly have lovely looks and voices, and both are above average actors for what in many respects seems like a low-budget movie. The latter's (external to this movie) "Bacco" tattoo and modeling shots with cigarettes make one worry about her looks and voice! Get help with that, please; you should have a long life and career! Prematurely aged skin, lip pursing wrinkles, raspy voice, and deep phlegmy coughs aren't things to aspire to obtain.
Picture quality is decent for a low-budget Christmas horror movie. So many of them lack anything even close to top-of-the line cameras that they look cheap from the outset. Pacing was on the slow side, possibly compensating for lack of sufficient action and dialog.
The wobbling of the nutcracker when standing inanimate by the tree is impossible not to note. A dummy should have been used, or a post or preacher's bench for the actor to lean against.
The Nutcracker has two faces, a shattered "normal" one and fanged angry one. That look of a poor repair job to the "normal" head was peculiar: if explained, I missed it. Maybe they should have added some Kintsugi to the plot somehow to justify it.
There's no transformation between the two Nutcracker heads, just edits. A morph, or stop-action accomplished via miniature or something would have been a worthwhile investment; it could have helped. Maybe they should have hired Charles Band or the like for some insert shots. (Speaking of insert shots, there's a gorgeous foggy landscape one about 24 minutes in; stock footage, or actually by the cinematographer?) The angry head's fangs are, ironically, pointless in that the Nutcracker never bites.
A nut pick and candy canes are used as shivs. An ordinary V-shaped metal nutcracker is not used to crack nuts so much as... well, the man with the bag ain't Santa in this one, and he isn't with it for long though the shot does linger on it. Strangling by garland. But also hammer, knife, and gun which don't seem as Christmassy, not as Christmas horror-y, anyway. Slowed-down Nutcracker music periodically is effective; possibly more use should have been made of such recognizable, quality elements of the ballet.
I'd met one of the screenwriters, Joe Knetter, a number of years back; super-friendly guy. I do wish all involved luck on future projects, even though this one was largely a disappointment. Some more script polishing and fundraising could have helped considerably.
