Holiday Hell

Holiday Hell (2019) is another holiday gem I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a morbid shop keeper closing up for the night on Christmas Eve when a persistent shopper comes in to buy a girl for her sister. As the shopper finds various interesting things in his store, the shop keeper tells her the short story behind the item and he how he acquired it.

This movie was created by four directors and stars Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Jeffrey Arrington (All Too Human), Mandy Baker (The Alliance), Lisa Carswell (Z Nation), Lisa Coronado (Z Nation) and Forrest Campbell (Mr. Bleachers).

Jeffrey Combs was awesome in this from beginning to end with great narrations, storytelling and as an overall performance. As with any short story anthology some are better than others. The first story with the mask wasn't that great, the second story with the doll was pretty good, the Santa storyline was awesome and the final story wraps up the movie perfectly. There's inconsistent gore in these but the better stories obviously have the better kills.

Overall this is far from a classic but a worthwhile holiday horror short story anthology. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it at least once.

I didn't know what "Holiday Hell" was before I sat down to watch it, aside from it being a horror movie of some sort. Which, actually, was enough to make me have an interest in sitting down to watch it.

Turns out that "Holiday Hell" is a horror anthology, and actually a good one at that. Needless to say my surprise and excitement when I saw Jeffrey Combs appear on the screen. I didn't know he was in it, and he is definitely one of my all-time favorite actors in the horror genre. And I must say that he was quite good in the role of the shopkeeper, the one presenting each individual segment of the anthology.

Without going too much into detail with each segment, I will say that they individually were interesting. Sure, they weren't the most fulfilling of storytelling and could seem a bit shallow at times. But they were entertaining enough and that served the purpose for me. Some segments were, of course, better than others. Personally, I actually found the in-between-segments to be the most entertaining and enjoyable, as it was a story in itself, and it had Jeffrey Combs in it.

The had a good ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list for the various roles in the segments. And that definitely helped to lift up and carry the segments afloat.

The effects in "Holiday Hell" were fair enough, and served their intended purpose. Don't expect to be blown away by over the top impressive special effects and CGI, because then you'll be disappointed. However, the effects were there and they fulfilled their function.

I enjoyed "Holiday Hell" for what it was, and it was definitely nice to sit down and watch this one. My rating for the 2019 horror anthology "Holiday Hell" is a six out of ten stars.

There are warning signs when a movie is going to be pretty bad. The biggest one is when the same people are the writers, directors, and producers. This is a sure fire sign that a bunch of bored rich people are about to make a movie for the fun of it and it is going to be a dud!

This one had the telltale signs, but it also had some pretty innovative story lines. One storyline pretty much followed the ancient legend of the Golem from Jewish tradition, but the others were pretty original and deserve credit for being good ideas.

Now, the crime of the situation is that they were played out by a pretty amateurish cast with the exception of the shopkeeper!

The ending was pretty standard and stale. The kind of thing you pretty much see coming from a mile away.

I did enjoy the tales woven into the overall plot, but I cringed every time the casting spoiled the moment!

Holiday Hell was an entertaining romp through the infernal holiday seasons. Great film to watch with friends at gift exchanges while munching on cheese logs and quaffing spiked egg nog. I had a blast watching a kid (Forrest Campbell) battle his babysitter with the help of a possessed Rabbi doll (WTF? and YESS!), and a drug-impelled miserable husband/Santa (the amazing Joel Murray) becoming the life, er death, of the office party. Check this one out.

This low-budget, indie horror film has some genuinely impressive filmmaking in it. I'm not a horror aficionado, but I know the tropes and these film-makers clearly have had some fun playing with them. Yes, there's some questionable dialogue, and the "don't go into the basement" (in a suburban split-level, ha-ha!) moments are schlocky, but there's definitely thought put into this, and some admirable and hilarious twists. As in many indies, the acting is a bit uneven, however, there are notable exceptions, and Joel Murray's performance is outstanding, by turns poignant, funny, terrifying. Jeffrey Combs is perfect as the smarmy owner of a creepy little shop of horror stories. And a special shout-out to Meaghan Karimi-Naser as the young woman seeking a last-minute gift for her sister. Karimi-Naser plays the slightly-too-innocent/what's-going-on-underneath role with wonderfully hinted-at layers. There's also a fantastic pay-off to her performance. (Whatever you do-stay for the last frame. You may know something's coming, but I promise, you are not going to guess the exact form it takes!) I hope to see more films by this group of indie filmmakers.