Director: Phil Herman, Joel D. Wynkoop, Marcelo Fabani, James Panetta, Derek Braasch
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Trying to escape his lot in life, a troubled man runs away to a forest where he finds several pine cones that soon reveal dark fates for several individuals.
Review:
All Chopped Up and Nowhere to Go-Upset about the holiday season, a sleazy stepfather trying not to spend time with his kid soon turns deadly after the incidents cause him to snap violently. Overall, this was a rather fun way to start this off. The sleazy atmosphere present involving his treatment of his wife and stepson sets him up to be one of the most despicable people in the world who gets everything that’s directed at him, the cheesiness of the kids’ point-of-view interacting with the stepfather sets up the impending twist in the second half where the series of stalking and chasing take place. Some of this escalates quickly without proper warning or build-up but it’s not a huge problem with this segment.
The Best Company-Trying to find some company for the holidays, a man pressured to be with someone during Christmas thinks he’s found it with a woman with an ulterior motive for the situation. This was an intriguing enough segment. The setup here involving the custom and tradition of everyone finding some company to be with during the holiday so they’re not alone during Christmas is a great idea that’s given a nice setup to the meeting he has with the woman and the subsequent dinner date they have. That sets up a fantastic twist as the concurrent serial killer story in the background has a fine reveal twist at the end that might not be logical but is based more on the shock of that happening to work quite nicely.
Re-Gifting-Excited about her new relationship, a woman trying to find the perfect gift for her boyfriend is soon confronted with the deadly truth about her psychotic charge. This was a fine if slightly disappointing entry. The build-up is perfectly fine and sets this up really well with the exploits of the relationship they’ve set up giving the proper context for the twist that occurs once they meet up which has some fun back-and-forth efforts trying to play everything out. It just feels slightly underwhelming as you have to wait for something to happen here since the main part is waiting for the date to occur so it’s a little sluggish waiting for the good parts to start that leaves it being the main drawback to this one.
Christmas Revenge-Taking Santa Claus hostage, a delusional grief-stricken man begins to torture him for the misperceived destruction of his family as a kid that requires a special helper to save him. This was an immensely fun and enjoyable segment to close this out. The use of the popular saying as a means of spurning a long-simmering hatred for Santa and being the basis for a series of brutal and somewhat more extreme-than-expected series of brutal tortures makes this quite enjoyable by diving into Torture Porn for a holiday-themed segment. Armed with some fun reveals in the finale where the nice twist is utilized effectively, this one is an immensely enjoyable entry to close this out on.
Overview: ****/5
A solid and generally enjoyable holiday-themed indie anthology, there’s not a whole lot really affecting this one as only one segment is a bit underwhelming so this comes off as really likable overall. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort, are big anthology fanatics, or are fans of the creative crew will have plenty to enjoy here while only those turned off by the approach here should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment