Director: Airell Anthony Hayles
Year: 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Returning to her hometown, a TV show host hoping for a quiet evening with her parents on Christmas finds the holiday season damaged forever when they capture a werewolf attack on Santa Claus, which turns him into a werewolf rampaging through the town, forcing them to stop the creature.
Review:
This was a somewhat disappointing, if still worthwhile, genre effort. Among its better features is the strong setup that goes for such a wild and outlandish storyline that allows for a wild enough experience. The central idea of how the figure is turned and transformed into a ravenous beast is immensely fun and silly, starting this off on a wholly appropriate tone to go along with the show host coming home to visit, which gets interrupted by a series of mishaps about how awful her life is or how messed up her family life is. This makes the ensuing race to stop the turned creature running wild through the woods and into the town, where it has some great confrontations with the confrontations in the park, in the town hall, or on the haunt attraction, which provide the necessary cheesy action and gore to come through here. With this all culminating in a fine twist at the end that makes for a rather fun time here in addition to the cheesy antics displayed elsewhere, it does manage to have a lot to like overall.
There are some issues with this one that hold it down. One of the main problems with the film is the nature of doing this as a found-footage feature when it didn’t need to be. The fact that there are so many scenes here kept from really registering because it’s being filmed for some bizarre notion and kept from landing with the shaking camera or obscure angles hiding the scenes from being able to tell what’s going on. With the film following the couple around the entire time to make sure it’s all filmed properly, there’s also plenty of opportunities where something fun could’ve been shown but it never comes together since it’s not around them and therefore can’t be filmed so some of the chances at really selling how wild and over-the-top this could’ve been had it not gone for the found-footage route. As well, the family drama that constitutes the first half of this one is just not that fun to get through, full of the traditional bickering and snapping at each other that it becomes tedious and painful to watch it play out. These factors, along with the cheap look, are what end up bringing this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
An intriguing enough if somewhat troublesome genre effort, there’s a lot to like here which holds it off just enough from the few flaws on display that are enough to keep it down overall. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach or who are big fans of the style will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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