Deathcember

Oh, I grew to strongly dislike this fast! The only short I really liked was the one with Tiffany Shepis as a very angry Christmas shopper who had a rather brutal violent punch up with an employee who was only doing his job, I love Shepis she's really cool and a bit of an unsung modern scream queen, she's been in a lot of indie horror gems for a lot of years and she was awesome in this, it was a surprisingly bloody and over the top crazy little slugfest, and I thought it stole the show by a mile! Apart from that though it was just painfully boring for me and I was angry yawning and looking at the clock and everything, and some of the shorts didn't even remotely fit into a Christmas theme and were there just to fill out the time, by the end this screaming barnacle of an anthology made me want to weep, and if flies right out of your head almost as soon as you've seen it, I wouldn't recommend it! Absolutely pitiful zero effort excuse for an anthology, just twenty four too many mediocre-to-terrible short horror films sloppily taped together like so much shoddy wrapping paper around an unwanted gift that ultimately contains nothing. You can shove this one back up your stocking!!

Acknowledging "Deathcember's" low-budget background, I still thought it's going to be a somewhat of a hit with me. Its closest relative, "The ABC's of Death" franchise, although always a violently shaken mixed bag, has been quite fine by me. And I love seasonal horror movies very much. However, "DeathCember" ultimately had a little more charcoal than gifts.

24 short films from 24 directors internationally, all horror, all tied to Christmas one way or another, smaller or bigger. A present wrapped in a rather enormous runtime of 2 hours and 25 minutes. A couple known directors include Lucky McKee ("May", "The Woman"), Polyanna McIntosh ("Darlin'"), Ruggero Deodato ("Cannibal Holocaust") and Julian Richards ("The Last Horror Movie"). The rest I had never heard of before. A few familiar faces from the horror world glimpse through too, including Barbara Crampton, Matt Mercer and AJ Bowen.

It really is a very mixed bag, and unfortunately for the pacing, to me it felt like it used up most of its big, flashy fireworks before halfway through. Out of the 24, there were about 6 that I'd say I liked and really enjoyed, 10 more sliding up and down on the line between "alright" and "mehh", and the rest were simply misses for me. There was at least one short that had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, winter, or any element of this season. But, there is gore, there is violence, there is sci-fi, there is silent cinema, a western, criminal schemes, cannibals, killer deer, all kinds of mischievous ghouls and, of course, santas. And more. There is fun to be had, if you keep in mind that, on many levels, a lot of them are hard not to describe as cheap.

I'm quite sure I'll never re-watch it, but I'm glad I watched it, because it would torture me further sitting on the watchlist. Anthologies always win me. If you are a true seasonal horror maniac and brave, too, then check this out. It's on Amazon Prime. My rating: 4/10.

The problem with anthologies is that naturally you'll get some better than others. Some had cool concepts that would have been better if they got a bit more time for you to get into them. Others were painfully bad.

The overall production value seemed decent enough too, it wasn't amazing. But I've seen much worse, and it was more polished than an amateur effort.

I did enjoy the animation inbetween to tie them together. But I think it might have been better to maybe have 12 days of Christmas, rather than 24, and let the best of ideas get explored more.

Well, I didn't really know what I was in for when I sat down to watch the 2019 movie titled "Deathcember". But I sat down to watch it and gave it a chance.

First of all, it should be said that "Deathcember" is 24 short segments based more or less around a Christmas theme, some more than others. And while that was interesting enough in concept, it didn't really translate all that well to the screen for many of the segments.

I managed to sit through 17 segments, before I just gave up. I was by no means entertained by what transpired on the screen. Sure, some segments were better than others, but the overall feel to this was not one of overly enjoyment. There simply were just way too many bland or pointless segments that were dragging the ones that were interesting down.

In "Deathcember" you will find segments of all manners, types and contents. And I am sure that there is even a segment that will offend people in the audience, the one with the claymation - or whatever it is called. I found it to be funny, but the contents of that segment can so very easily offend a lot of people.

Something that was impressive about "Deathcember", though, was the fact that they actually had segments spanning wide and far across the continents, so there is a chance that there might just be something suitable for you among the 24 segments.

At one point I thought I briefly saw Barbara Crampton in a segment, but I thought it was just someone looking a lot like her. But it was actually her, and I was really surprised that she showed up in something like "Deathcember". I had to check here on IMDb to see if it was her or not.

"Deathcember" is hardly a horror anthology classic in the likes of "Creepshow" or "Tales from the Crypt". Nor was it something that I will ever be attempting to sit through again, nor even return to watch the few remaining segments.

My rating of "Deathcember" lands on a more than generous three out of ten stars.

I like anthology horror. I like holiday horror. Many anthology movies suffer from being either too short if they're good or too boring if they're long. 26 very short horror stories, some are genuinely entertaining, some are just "good-bad" enough to laugh at... These stories are much shorter than usual in the genre, which manages makes it all bearable. The good stories are artistically efficient and whimsical with some fun twists and turns. The not-so-good stories are mercifully quick to get through.

26 international horror stories that are short and sweet... Not a bad a deal. Pick and choose. Enjoy. It's literally like a box of chocolates.