A Christmas Horror Story

A Christmas horror anthology with four tales that are untraditionally told all at once, and that’s the core of the problem. Harvey, Sullivan and Hoban aren’t the Wachowskis with Tykwer and therefore are not able to meaningfully weave the narratives of several very different stories in a way that would add some value to them. The stories here are chopped to pieces and their parts are thrown willy-nilly next to each other without any purpose, on the contrary, they end up hammering each other and, when an unsettling scene with a possessed child is followed by a funny one where Santa Klaus massacres zombie elves, the effect of both is devalued. I’m actually convinced that if the stories were told separately (which wouldn’t change anything), I would have liked the film better and would have given it one more star. The one thing that this narrative structure is good for is to prepare the stage for a surprising twist in one of the stories (the one with Santa, in fact), but could have been easily done differently. As a B-movie, A Christmas Horror Story is still likeable, fun, pleasantly scary at times, and the stories are fairly capably wrapped-up. That’s why it’s quite a shame that most of the time is dedicated to the one story that has the least to do with the Christmas atmosphere. (26/09/2015)

Nice stuff and it's going to the top immediately. The opening theme song is fantastic, there’s a beautiful Christmas atmosphere, excellent make-up and visual effects, fun, a good pace and not only is the gore nicely done, but even the scares work (one of them made me fall out of bed). We have four stories intertwined but not interconnected. The best is definitely the one with Santa Claus fighting zombie elves, and there is no shortage of severed heads or scalps. In the second, we get to see an evil child with a crave for blood and the closest thing to hand are his parents. In the third, we have a group of friends who break into a school to film a documentary, only to be haunted by a ghost. And in the last one we have a family going on a Christmas trip, but instead of having a wonderful holiday they meet Krampus himself and have to fight for their lives. There are holes in the script in places, some of the acting and stories don't make sense at times, the ending in particular is very strange, but we only get such nicely made Christmas-themed horror films once every 10 years. Story 6/10, Atmosphere 8/10, Gore 7/10, Visuals 8/10, Action 7/10, Entertainment 8/10. 80% (23/09/2015)

I decided to watch A Christmas Horror Story a few days after watching Krampus in the cinema, which intrigued me, so I wanted to see another film with this Christmas monster. It reminded me a lot of Trick 'r Treat in its structure, which also consisted of several short stories more or less loosely connected to each other. Of all the stories, I was most intrigued by "badass Santa vs zombie elves" and least intrigued by "African-American family vs shapeshifters". All in all, an uncharacteristically tuned Christmas movie that, while mediocre, still has its charm and to some extent a stamp of originality. (30/01/2016)