Secret Santa

Christmas comes but once a year, and within this year of prolonged absents of family trivialities one may just use this time of abstention to mould past angers, past resentments and embittered grudges; time here is certainly not the healer of festive cheer.

An examination of an unsettling character study of a family gone awry during this festive period of togetherness and tolerance is set against a family reunion that besets the inner circle with bitter hostilities and sour truths. It is quite frankly a boiling-pot of frustrations and indifference to any form of respect and love toward one another; these blood-lines have been severely severed during time and this winter solstice celebration of Christmas tidings have reached the equinox and irreversibly tipped into a state of perpetual darkness.

This disturbing dark comedy has a rich, if not too seemingly cliché, contemporary, and most notably, fractured, middle-class nuclear family at its epicentre and with a varied personality clash as the middle-classes values and moralities we see a notorious and foreboding nucleus imploding resulting in old and fresh wounds opening with a vengeance.

The writers' here have prepared a wonderful dish of an evil and sardonic flavour that cuts with a fervour of pure malice; the essence of hate and jealousies convey an ambiance of uncomfortable resilience of portraying what exactly lies under the surface of this family get-together. Notwithstanding the diverse cast of characters, it is really the script that hits home and does its utmost to deliver a plentiful feast of derision, scorn and contempt. It is more than a dialogue but a central nerve that teeters on the brink of insanity; sharp, focused and predacious in nature.

The team of Mr. Robert Kurtzman and Ms. Marcia King-Kurtzman have added a palate of equal measure of gore to the festivities, pushing a strong combination of horrific sights and wonting violence. It is all fitting in very well in conjuncture of said vicious script and its violent sequence of events that push home the narrative of how much integrity can both inflict pain and relief anguish. To paraphrase the old adage that "many a true word is said in jest" or that truth is often found in comic utterances is that drives its agenda.

This is an exceptionally cruel and unpleasant film to watch, notwithstanding, and not necessarily because of, the bloodshed but simply because of this feuding family. The grinch like tone has come and taken the spirit of Christmas and turned this festive mood into a moot point of family ethics and tolerance.

The Christmas horror film genre has come a long way since the days of Scrooge (1951), Black Christmas (1974), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) and Mercy Christmas (2017) for example, it is all a varied style of Yuletide horror, and being a mixed bag of festive frights, all this fun and frolics only add to the delight of Santa's secret bag of goodies: enjoy.

Not a bad film but certainly not a ten . The majority of the actors are good the story's well written and there's plenty of gore .

This movie is schlock at its absolute schlockiest. Terrible over-acting, goofy one dimensional characters, mean spirited people as far as the eye can see.

But if you watch it with an eye toward absurdist, over the top grotesquery, it works.

It truly is a movie so bad it circles back around to good again.

For a B-horror film it has enough blood and nudity one would expect but with a plot that makes no sense and the end point is just a waste when it's all said and done. If you want to be entertained and you are looking for a watchable Christmas film this will fill the void.

I've read the reviews, and while some folks "got it," many did not. So...for those of you expecting to see a "legit" horror film, check yourself before you wreck yo...er...the movie. It is painfully obvious that the writer and director's intent for this flick was to follow in the grand tradition of making a rad, fun, culty, schlocky b-flick with just enough "wrongness" to make it right. In many ways, this has "cult classic" written all over it. For the future, that is.

Everything about this flick SCREAMS "cheesy b-flick" and they hit the mark. The constant clichés, the intentionally awkward dialog, the over-the-top EVERYTHING...it just succeeds at being bad, so well!

Surprisingly, for a b-flick, it was pretty well made. I mean, don't expect Oscar caliber, but as b-flicks are made, the money was spent in the right place...the effects (which were practical fx for the most part).

Really, the reviews needed one that let folks know that this is not a movie to be taken as a serious film. It must be taken in the grain it was meant for. With that, just get your popcorn, don't judge the flick like you would judge a "serious" film, and enjoy.

Coupla notes on content:

• I don't recall seeing any nudity beyond one scene that is relatively close to the beginning. It's not lengthy, but it's there and it's mildly graphic.

• Enough profanity to make a sailor blush. Most of it is beautifully scripted in to some completely over-the-top scenes and dialog.

• While there is some good blood and gore, I wouldn't call it a gorefest, and most of the "action" is saved for the second half of the film. Nonetheless, if you don't like blood (in rather copious amounts and in some pretty gross ways) then this is not for you.

• I don't recall any drug use, but all these people were nuts by the end, so they didn't need it!