Hey gang, Valkor here. Though Halloween has long past and the holiday season is well underway, there's never a bad time to watch a scary movie. With the next film on the MediaView deck, Killer Christmas, you get a mixture of frightening along with some holiday “fear”. Actually, it's nothing special really. And, if anything, I'd recommend giving this one a pass. Read on.
Killer Christmas centers on a group of 20somethings, who are out shopping for a Christmas tree at a tree village as well as getting into some shenanigans (drinking, smoking weed, and some kinky shit). One of the workers named Rudy (PeterPaul Shaker) advises the group that the place would be closing soon and to keep an eye out for the truck to pick them up. But the group stays well past closing time, so with nothing else to do they decide to check out an abandoned hotel. And once inside, it then becomes a game of survival as someone wearing a Santa Claus mask is picking them off one by one. Who in the group will survive the night? And who is this mysterious killer? You'll find out... right now!
No one survives! Plus, one of the members of the group named Art (Malcolm Xavier) is the main killer. Why? Because he thought he had a thing with one of the girls, but she went and moved on to someone else. So he decided to fake his own death and just kill everybody! Also, Rudy takes some credit in this as he's the one who kills Art, not as the group's savior but to keep on with his own nefarious deeds. Killer Christmas may sound like a crazy film with all the deaths and such, but really it isn't. And I'll tell you why in the TOV Breakdown.
The Good:
There's a couple of positive bits that Killer Christmas has going for it and deserve some mention; first up is the use of the song “Jolly Old St. Nicholas”, which, by the how it was done, sounds like the “Freddy Krueger chant” (1, 2 Freddy's coming for you). It's super creepy, but I think it would have worked in a better Christmas/horror film. Plus, it's played often enough that it'll stay with you long after the film is over. Second, I gotta give props on the use of what appears to be a legit old hotel or some kind of abandoned building. It really adds to the overall creepiness of the film and adds a nice touch of realism as you watch the actors move and stumble about. I'd even be cool with exploring a place like that... during the day.
The Bad:
On the surface, Killer Christmas might appear to be a horrific yet fun flick, but overall it's an uneventful mess of a film. My main gripe is that no one dies for the first 45 minutes. Let me take that back, ONE person sort of dies in the beginning. But we later learn that that person was being held hostage in the old hotel all along. After that, you have to sit through a bunch of nothing dialogue before the killer makes an appearance. And that brings me to my second gripe; since no one dies straightaway, the film has to be rushed to kill EVERYONE in the last few minutes. For instance, when we first enter the hotel, the killer Santa was slow in his stalking of everyone. But once we get down to the last few minutes before the end credits, the dude was practically running everywhere. Not only that, he appeared from one place to another with the quickness. There's really only one killer, so how was Art able to move about so quickly? I know it's fiction and I shouldn't put too much thought into it, but come on! Overall, this is a film that needed some "pop" to make things interesting. In the end, it's lacking in anything that's remotely fun.
The Ugly:
N/A
Killer Christmas is available on the digital front such as the Google Play Store or Amazon Instant; I'm usually OK when a film has a slow build up (Hereditary is a good example), but ultimately something has to happen to make the trek worthwhile. Unfortunately, with this film, it's an uneventful slow road to nowhere. So, out of TOV 5 stars, I'm giving Killer Christmas a 1.
