Secret Santa (2015) by Mike McMurran

Director: Mike McMurran

Year: 2015

Country: Canada

Alternate Titles: Christmassacre

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

Living in a small town, a group of college students are trying to prepare for the holidays with a special party and gift-exchange at their house which brings out a slew of secrets, hidden personalities, and a savage killer who starts to target the group one by one forcing them to fight back.

Review:

Overall, this was a decent enough slasher throwback. Among the better features here is the simplistic setup that works well enough at being this particular style by detailing the lives of the people involved in the community. By bringing a series of clues about who they are and what the individual points of their various relationships with not just having to deal with their normal college duties but also trying to work through discreet online personalities, clandestine hookups, and the general burden of their lives, it creates a fairly intriguing setup that starts the film off quite nicely. When this is all matched alongside the series of clues about the strange killer in their midst who uses a great tactic of introducing a Secret Santa gift exchange to cause division in the group while these stories play out, it’s a generally solid setup that’s worthwhile enough in this type of feature.

That leads to the other enjoyable aspect of this one that works quite well here is the rather fun finale where the killing finally gets going. While featuring the opening attack on the students in their house, the only thing that happens until a massacre at the end is a singular ambush sequence that shows off a hint of what’s to come in the big finish with cheesy effects in a brutal concept to bring about their death. The rampage in the house is handled quite well with the idea of the previous build-up of the characters helping to provide some hint of the type of activity to come with the style of impressive shock ambushes that take place involving a slew of cheesy features to help tide this one over as the slew of encounters here provides a rapid-fire pace in this section of the film. Combined with the solid ending twist that’s effective if not entirely necessary, these are enough to enjoy here.

There are a few issues with this one that hold it down. One of the main aspects of this one is the generally glacial pacing that never provides much of anything until the finale. By focusing heavily on the different members of the group and going through each of the various stories involved here with the rocky relationship involving the one being a webcam model, a jealous ex trying to get with her boyfriend, a stoner trying to get the drugs out of his system to party, and the teacher trying to perv on everyone at the party, the set pieces here are given much more room in the running time that happens at the expense of the killer’s presence knocking people off. It’s all generally lackluster and doesn’t make the film that enjoyable, much like the incredibly underwhelming reasoning for the killer to go for the rampage which is immensely stupid and lame, has no connection to anyone, and makes for a highly non-threatening time here. These all manage to hold the film down.

Overview: **.5/5

An enjoyable enough if somewhat flawed slasher throwback, this one has enough to hold it up over a couple of big issues that do pop up to bring this down. Those who appreciate this kind of style presented here or are big fans of indie slashers will have a lot to like here while most others turned off by these features should heed caution.