Movie Review: A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

The movie stars William Shatner, George Buza, Amy Forsyth, Michelle Nolden and Rob Archer.

I came across this movie on Netflix a couple days ago and, partly because it had been a short while since my wife and I had seen a horror film, was intrigued enough to watch it. However, even though the description made the film sound interesting, my decision to watch this movie did not come without hesitation and I did, ultimately, have a few doubts about it. As it turns out, it was actually a pretty good film.

The movie wasn't quite as scary as I hoped it would be, partly because the monsters looked a little fake. But, despite that, I thought this was an entertaining film.

One thing, in particular, that intrigued me was the way the four, completely separate, stories were happening at the same time with the only possible connection being the DJ (Shatner) hosting the holiday music marathon. It made me wonder if the stories would remain separate or if there would be some sort of final twist that connected all of them together.

In either case, the four stories proved to be entertaining even without that connection. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised when the stories turned out not to be as predictable as I thought they would be. In fact, the one about the college students in the haunted school and the story about Santa (Buza) fighting zombie elves had endings I can honestly say I didn't see coming (though the Santa one probably shouldn't have surprised me the way it did). This mystery did keep me much more interested than I thought I would be.

Another thing I found I liked about this movie was the way it didn't try to cheapen things by having excessive blood and gore or gratuitous nudity. The gore was kept to a realistic necessity (most of it was the result of Santa and the zombie elves) while there is only one, relatively short (and, as the movie later reviews, necessary), sex scene that takes place with the participants pretty much fully clothed. Considering this is something that tends to be a pet peeve of mine when it comes to this film genre (especially when the movie is entertaining to watch without stuff like this), I did appreciate the moderation.

As I said, it's not overly scary. But, the movie still proved to be much more entertaining than I thought it would be and is a film I would recommend as a result.

My Grade: B