Merry Little Christmas

Caught this at the Edinburgh Dead By Dawn festival yesterday, and man... when this film was over, you could hear a pin drop. People looked slightly dazed and drained after it.

An absolutely shocking short Spanish horror film on domestic abuse, it's certainly not for everyone, with some deeply upsetting, wince inducing ultra violence, and a nightmarish quality to it. It also has some surprisingly decent FX, for a short film.

A relentlessly grim and brutal nightmare, it comes across like an unholy combination of Irreversible and an Aphex Twin video.

NOT for everyone's tastes (and I do mean this), but I personally found it a depressing, horrific, but very well made film, with a pertinent message to go with its savagery. 8/10, an extremely nasty but great short film.

Domestic rape/violence is a dark and socially relevant subject matter.That's why "Merry Little Christmas" is one of the gloomiest and most disturbing horror shorts I have ever seen.It explores savage brutality and mental and physical effects of horrible domestic abuse."Merry Little Christmas" reminded me of equally disturbing and powerful horror short "Cutting Moments" made by Douglas Buck.We see scenes of self-loathing/cutting and ultra-violence from child's perspective.There are some truly brutal scenes of rape and domestic abuse in "Merry Little Christmas" plus some hellish and disturbing imagery which reminded me Aphex Twin's infamous "Come to Daddy" video.8 vicious beatings out of 10.

I caught this film at Dead By Dawn 2011 and this has to be one of the most disturbing and harrowing short films I have ever seen.

The film follows the day to day lives of a family haunted by the physical and psychological abuse performed by the father, I will not go into too much depth on what is seen as to spoil the overall effect of this little gem of a movie.

This Spanish short was originally commissioned by the Spanish government to highlight spousal and child abuse. It was then banned by the said government for being to harrowing.

The film is lit in such a way as to make you feel unnerved all the way through, the director is very competent and understands the medium well utilising many tricks of the horror genre for a film that is impossible to pigeon hole in one genre. The acting is very solid and extremely believable, and you find yourself holding your breath and praying the characters escape the horrendous abuse they suffer during it's short 20 minutes.

Seeing this film in a festival environment is probably the best way to consume a film such as this. As you are present with like minded people who enjoy the horror genre, and it was easy to tell how this effected people. Normally after walking out people were chatting, laughing and applauding the film, in this film's case people were silently moving out of the theatre and in the bar after the film the tension was palpable, people were honestly moved by what they had seen.

I can highly recommend this beautifully shot, acted and directed short film. But only on one viewing. It is very hard to get the horrific scenes out of your mind once you have seen it but it is a film that should be seen by everyone as it shows the true horror of abuse and it's effects on people's lives.

Marry Little Christmas...

Ohh, how could a title be so misleading.

This might be the most sadistic, misanthropic and sad dark short films I've seen in a long time. Its horrific, realistic and sadly things close to this happens daily for some people in real life.

For a short horror/drama film about domestic abuse I have to say it gave me a hard punch to the guts, but this is not a movie you want to like or enjoy at all for most parts.

A very well made short that will definitely leave a strong impression on most viewers.

(...just don't watch this if you're in a good Christmas mood!)