Good Tidings

I watched this expecting a laughable deranged Santa movie, a genre I love. I was shocked to find I was warching a really good slasher movie. I cared about the characters, and the acting was good! I was greatly surprised that it was not the typical Deranged Santa Killing People At Random film I expected.

Kudos to the actors, (especially Adam and Roxy) director, and writers, and thanks for a movie I cared about!

Stop reading now. It tells me I need a couple hundred more characters to submit my review, but I have said everything I want to say. I have nothing else I want to say. We wish you a merry Christmas.....

I saw Good Tidings at the Grindhouse Planet Film Festival.

It was pretty standard horror fare. A group gets locked in a court house during the Christmas season and gets tormented by three killer men in Santa suits. A couple of pretty effective grizzly moments aren't enough to balance out the over-long, boring sequences of the Santas staring and cackling as their hostages say things like 'please don't do this' etc.

You could cut out half an hour easily and although that wouldn't leave you with much of a film, that is kind of the problem. There is simply not enough plot and not enough imagination to justify this being feature length. In a year which has seen so many brilliant (admittedly higher budget) single-location horrors come out, (Green Room, Don't Breath, The Invitation) Good Tidings simply can't complete.

A trio of sociopathic serial killers, wearing santa claus outfits and masks, target a group of squatters who are held up in a vacant courthouse building for the holiday season.

We follow the de-facto leader of the squatters as he; a recovering addict; one of the main organizers of the group; and a guy they just met and took in; try to survive and attempt to exact justice...or vengeance...for their now deceased friends.

Clearly the largest and most intimidating santa is the dominant force of the trio; with the two others coming off as probably inbred- definitely mentally-ill- twins. There's not much context given to the narrative...it's all just a senseless violence splatterfest.

But the characters are developed pretty well.

The acting from the two female leads- particularly the woman who plays the main organizer- is excellent. Her trauma feels truly genuine.

However, what the guy goes through requires some suspension of disbelief...though, by this point you are invested in their survival...so it's not too bad.

There's quite a bit of gore- which is hit or miss. The use of sausages as intestines was pretty cheesy, but the finale was badass. And overall the special effects are pretty good.

In the end, it's entertaining enough, if you are just looking for senseless Christmas violence.

But I felt it could have had more depth with a little more attention to detail. 5.5 out of 10.

Independent Horror film-maker Stewart W. Bedford is sinfully spreading some good blood smear, his three psycho Santa's slay merrily, bringing gore-ious gut-spill, and good kill to all men! Amen!!!! This grisly 'Good Tidings' is a gruesome gift to Yule-snide slasher fans, while undeniably cheap and deliciously nasty, with Gorgonzola-garlanded goof-ball amateur acting calamity, this frightfully festive fright flick, while far from a silent night is certainly a night to dismember! 'They're cutting people's phooking heads off!'

I would have loved to have been more generous But I really could not give this more than three stars. In spite of apparently being made with a budget of only £15,000 and with a fine allegorical undertone of Christmas being cruel to the poor, I have to be honest and cannot rate it higher.

This whole homage to exploitation and slasher movies of decades gone by simply does not work. The acting and special effects were decidedly dodgy and at times I felt like I was watching a Home movie.

Of course I can feel a little bit guilty by not offering a little bit more praise but I also feel I must be honest. After all, what can one expect for £15,000?