Red Christmas

I generally like aussie horror films a lot, quite a few gems in the outback and such & this one, despite the ratings, was a very intriguing choice - A directional debut by an aspiring filmmaker who put his all, financial and mental, in making a low-budget slasher about an aborted fetus seeking revenge on his family. How did it go? Considerably well, I'd say.

"Red Christmas" is, overall, quite the messy amateur horror flick, a comic slasher that's, for the most part, self-conscious enough. The plot is morally questionable, I suppose that's where some of the bad ratings come from - the movie tackles subjects of abortion and down syndrome in not exactly the most sophisticated ways. However, I'm not taking points away from it because of those themes. I take points away for the entirety of story simply being average. The first half an hour is decent, the dysfunctional family theme works, the introduction of the villain is decent - but all gets more murky as the movie goes on. Basically, in the core it's a Slasher, so, everyone's familiar with the tropes. I thought the cast did a pretty good job, there were definitely enough over-acting moments and the characters can be cartoon-ish, but the performances provided some entertainment. Dee Wallace gave her best as the life-tired and caring mother, confronted by her past traumas. "Red Christmas" has some cool and creative kills while also managing not to rely solely on violence - gorehounds will find something to their liking. Visually it was equal parts good and chaotic, muddled - we got dynamic and creative camera work that sometimes goes well overboard, candy-colored and contrastive cinematography with lighting that raises an eyebrow every now and then & inescapably, a vibe, a sense of student-like filmmaking.

I believe that by any general/objective standards "Red Christmas" is average at the most, but for the genre fans & b-movie fanatics it can be a fun holiday horror that smells like independence, effort and both defeated and lost filmmaking challenges. My rating: 5/10.

Most Christmas horror movies revolve around psychopathic killers dressed up in Santa suits or feature mythological Holiday season creatures. Some others feature dysfunctional families butchering each other over Christmas dinner, and a few noteworthy exceptions deal with satanic elves. "Red Christmas", on the other hand, has a totally unique premise... In this bonkers movie, Aussie family members gathering around the matriarch's Christmas tree are getting slaughtered one by one by a freak in bandages and a cloak who turns out to be an aborted fetus!

All this may sound awesome (and the main premise most definitely is), but "Red Christmas" is nonetheless a huge disappointment of a Christmas horror movie, and this also despite a couple of gory kills and the presence of a bona fide horror cinema icon; namely Dee Wallace ("The Howling", "Cujo", "The Hills have Eyes"). What went wrong? Mainly the awful editing, shaky camerawork, and the dreadful overuse of hideous green-red-blue color patterns. The screenplay often makes bizarre leaps in logic, and creating suspense or atmosphere never seems to be a priority for writer/director Craig Anderson. Two or three great murders and colorful decorations aren't enough to make a good holiday-horror classic, unfortunately.

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I AM HONEST! I REVIEW Christmas MOVIES AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN!

Horror legend Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters) stars as the stressed-out mother of a squabbling family, gathered together in a remote Outback estate on Christmas Eve. When a mysterious, deformed young man named Cletus appears at their door, things soon change from petty insults to bloody, imaginatively orchestrated violence as Wallace attempts to protect her family from the vengeful intruder. The film deliriously infuses comedy, dark family secrets with outlandish gore and adds the always controversial subject of abortion in its blood-stained mix.

This film is amateur hour. The camera work is terrible. The director thinks his low angles and weird color schemes add mode but they are a distraction.

If you want to see a good horror film that has a Christmas setting then watch the original "Black Christmas"

Love Christmas/Christmas-themed films and have an appreciation for horror with shades of thriller. So despite hearing a lot of negativity, 'Red Christmas' premise did really intrigue. Plus the cover was an attention-grabbing one. Really wanted to like it and for it to not be another waste of decent potential.

Watching it, unfortunately 'Red Christmas' turned out to be exactly that...a waste of decent potential. Not how to execute such an intriguing idea. It's not irredeemably awful by any stretch, there are a couple of good things. Those good things are sadly eclipsed by the numerous things 'Red Christmas' gets catastrophically wrong. Killer is the completely wrong way to describe it, the Christmas theme didn't seem relevant and was bland, the more serious elements (i.e. abortion) the film tried to include were diluted and the horror elements were predictable, not scary and too tame.

Lets get the good things out of the way first. The best thing about 'Red Christmas' is the villain's look, it is great. So cool and menacing, not goofy at all.

Dee Wallace brings heart, class and dignity to the film, something that was so lacking elsewhere that her presence was in a different league to everything else and put them to shame, she deserved a much better film.

Generally the acting ranges from very bad to truly terrible, Wallace excepted. Their cringe-worthy, unintentionally silly dialogue (one deserves a prize if they succeed in not bursting out laughing when they're not meant to, that is a challenge), annoying characters with stupid and illogical decision-making and behaviours and indifferent direction gave them no favours.

Neither did the story, where there is no warmth, cosiness, charm or magic to the Christmas theme (the Christmas spirit just isn't there). The more serious elements didn't feel like they belong and felt trivialised and cloying, when reading about the film initially admired that the film was including mature and sensitive subjects but it does nothing with them. There is no tension or suspense here, no surprises, no creativity, no wit and the only thing that is scary is the look of the villain and the scare factor ends there. The kills are un-creative, instead of biting the nails one is shrugging their shoulders, and the whole horror atmosphere feels tame and leans towards being dumb.

'Red Christmas' is an eyesore visually. With the lighting, colour schemes and camera work, it seemed to striving for the showing off or experimenting with supposedly arty to them feel but instead it comes off amateurish and nauseating. Cannot remember the music.

Overall, not irredeemable but very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Red Christmas (2016)

** (out of 4)

This bizarre film starts off at an abortion clinic where someone walks in with a bag, which eventually explodes. Flash-forward twenty years and Diane (Dee Wallace) has her family at her home where they are preparing a big Christmas event. Before long a strange man wrapped from head to toe shows up. He wants to read a letter to his mommy and before long brutal murders are happening.

RED Christmas starts off with an abortion bombing and it grows every bit weirder as it moves along. I'm not going to say this movie is a complete success but there's no question that it contains some pretty bizarre ideas and a bizarre execution. This film isn't what I'd consider good but there are enough weird ideas that make it entertaining to watch and then you throw in the graphic violence and you're probably looking at something that is going to gain a cult following.

As I've said throughout, I give writer-director Craig Anderson credit for attempting to go to a very dark place and create a bizarre holiday tale. The killer here is a deformed creature and also a haunted human who just wants to know why his mother was willing to kill him and not love him. A lot of horror films try to give their killers origin stories or some sort of weak backstory but this film here actually delivers something rather strong and something that can make you think. I mean, for a horror picture that's really saying something.

With that being said, the execution wasn't the greatest and there's a point around the forty-five minute mark where things get rather stale and slow down to a very big crawl. I'd also argue that some of the points of the story could have been expanded on but the 82-minute running time didn't allow for that. Performance for the most part were good and especially Wallace as she gets a good meaty role to work with and she does a very good job with it playing a character who must face her face and see the damage it has had on her future.

As I said, gore hounds will be extremely happy as there are some pretty brutal murders here that have all sorts of CGI blood being thrown around. Technically speaking the film was well-made and has a very professional and good look to it. RED Christmas isn't a masterpiece or even a good movie but there are enough good moments to make it worth sitting through.