Curse of Jack Frost

I watch a lot of horror films - and most of them are pretty low budget. Yes, they're bad, sometimes so bad I eventually turn them off too early to even review. However, 'Curse of Jack Frost' is an especially bad type of bad. Most awful low budget straight-to-streaming-service horror movies don't show how bad they really are until at least 15-20 minutes into their runtime. Not this one - it was bad from the opening shot.

It begins with a selection of hand drawn images, which are basically one hell of a long exposition dump about how Father Christmas was once a bad-a$$ warrior fighting the forces of darkness (led by Jack Frost, in case you hadn't guessed). Now, besides going on for waaaay too long, they're played straight. The whole idea of jacked-up warrior Santa sounds like it belongs in 'South Park' to be laughed at, not a horror film in which we're supposed to be afraid of.

Then we're introduced to the usual 'flesh-sacks' at the beginning of every horror film ever made. They're there purely to die - and die they do. But, being one of the worst horror movies ever made, the 'Jack Frost' antagonist is revealed to be one of the worst-looking monsters ever. Seriously, the mask is okay if you're going to an average Halloween party, but the real problem arises when he speaks. His lips don't move. The film-makers actually didn't have the budget to animate any part of his face. It's just a mask. No more, no less - like I say... as scary as any you can buy around the end of October every year.

And that was about when I knew I was going to want to turn this film off. I stuck with it, simply because I wanted to see if it actually had any redeeming qualities. It didn't. I really wish I could get back the hour and a half I spent watching this film. It's not scary. It's not gory. It's not self-aware or in any way clever. It's really one of the worst horror movies I've watched online recently.

Arriving at her relatives' house, a woman hoping to spend the holidays with them finds the festivities crashed by the freed spirit of Jack Frost looking for retribution after their family's way with him centuries earlier and must find a way to stop the diabolical figure from finishing his mission.

There was more going on with this one than expected. One of the finer features here comes from the solid background lore established here which is all highly enjoyable due to the background established. Taking place after a massive war for power had taken place in a separate kingdom populated by the spirits of the holidays and the outcome takes place at such a point in the rivalry that the particular figure is banished and a strain over the holiday as a result feels earned and realistic. As the family is aware of the implications to themselves due to this and the ways to circumvent the holiday's seasonal trappings as a result are explored, this comes off rather well. That gives the film a nice baseline to string some decent action and stalking scenes together. The opening chase through the woods into their home for the confrontation there where he gets banished is an intriguing way to get things going, while his appearances to torment the family are quite fun alternating between shock ambushes or genuine stalking scenes. That is enhanced quite nicely in the latter half where he strikes at the sleepover being held in secret as it begins taking out the rest of the friends to get to the family members it's hunting, which provides a few fun encounters and some genuinely brutal kills to cap it all off. As a whole, these manage to provide a lot to like while the film does have some drawbacks to it. This is mostly let down by a rather bland and lethargic pace which makes it feel much longer than it really is as the conversations here depicting the family trying to celebrate the holidays or discussing the impact of the curse on them grinds the film to a halt considerably. The other issue here is the confusing series of rules at play for the killer who seems to be under supernatural guidance, can control dead bodies when it suits him or move through space as if by teleportation yet each of these factors are only employed whenever it's convenient so it feels quite contradictory to what's going on. On the whole, these factors are the few drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I honestly don't know what I watched. I may only be 16 but this movie in itself made me honestly want to kill myself it was so bad. I mean the CGI was awful the acting was horrendous and I feel like the budget for this movie was less than $20. This movie was so bad I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies I wouldn't even wish this on Hitler. Don't know why peacock would ever sign a deal for this movie to stream on their platform and I'm honestly 100% the people who created this movie did not watch the final product screw that I don't even think they watched it at all ngl I think I could do better on my mobile editing software.

This movie is inexplicably bad...and not in any sort of good way.

It tells the story of a family that has inherited a curse relating to Jack Frost- who is apparently one of Santa's children, turned demonic entity.

This curse has something to do with a guy refusing to bury a piece of Jack's body, after he was forced to endure an Osirian fate...or something.

Either way...what ensues is an a criminal travesty of filmmaking.

Which is a shame, because the quality really is quite decent (when compared to a lot of the other Christmas horror films out there).

It has a professional feel to it, in regards to picture quality, but it's really quite amateur on every other level.

Particularly in regards to the writing, the plot, the special effects...and quite annoyingly, the audio balancing.

The Jack Frost character, himself, is palatable from a creature-effects perspective...being somewhat reminiscent of the joker character from the 90's film Funny Man.

But the effects they use on his voice are ridiculous...and rather unnecessary.

As it sounds like he is using the voice changer from the Scream films.

Even worse, however, are the effects...which amount to some really bad CGI, and an attempt at gore that isn't even PG.

Every time you think something sweet is going to happen...dude just clicks his fingers and people just disappear amidst some really bad CGI snow effects.

It keeps building up your expectations...and then disappointing you every single time.

So, it seems like they didn't even try.

An observation further evidenced by the horrible soundtrack- which kicks in every time Jack is about to make an appearance- consisting of incredibly generic (and rather out of place) chugga-chugga metal riffs.

On top of all this...it has one of the most poorly conceived plots I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing (the worst I've seen since the awful Netflix film Slayers).

To be fair, they do make an attempt to insert lore (including redundant efforts to remind you about it, after forcing you to sit through a tedious amount of filler, that nearly puts you to sleep)...however, it's not good lore.

Thus, it doesn't have the desired effect needed, to drive the action forward, in any sort of enjoyable way.

Worst of all, though, has got to be the audio balancing.

The audio capture is so bad, that characters on the periphery of the scenes are so low...that you find yourself constantly needing to adjust the audio levels just to hear them...only for other characters to end up being too loud as a result.

This is particularly a problem with the insufferable mother character- who persistently mumbles in almost a whisper- which left me wishing for her death, pretty much, from the get-go.

In all honesty, there really is nothing good to say about this film at all.

Because, plot structure aside, even the character development is bad.

With you caring so little about the characters they do make an attempt at developing...that you are simply unconcerned with what happens to them one way or the other.

Which is a cardinal sin, when it comes to filmmaking.

At barely over an hour...it's all a very cinemasochistic experience.

Coming off as a chore to watch.

So I can't say that I recommend it.

But I can definitely recommend passing it by.

As it's another bottom of the barrel Christmas horror...that fits right in alongside the other trash that surrounds it on TubiTV.

I give it a 1.5 out of 10 (but that's being more than extremely generous).

I feel into a thriller/horror film binge and this ended up being in that bucket of films. I have came across the name Jack Frost before. Not sure if it is a common folktale of the guy. This film was easy to watch and the storyline was simple to follow. It had some blood pumping scenes, I think because of how the character looked. The cast was all new to me or do not see them in films too often. The setting was fitting and limited to a general location from what I recall, a church. There was not much leading up the climax of the story. Not much a before or after the main plot if that makes sense. Mainly focused on the horror event. I found the main character Jack Frost to be entertaining and fit for a horror film. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a horror film that doesn't have a complex plot to it. It isn't super length either which is a bonus.