A Christmas Horror Story Review

4 stars for this highly entertaining festive horror film.

A Christmas Horror Story is directed by Grant Harvey (She Made Them Do It), Steven Hoban (Ginger Snaps) and Brett Sullivan (Border) and is set in the small town of Bailey Downs (you may recognise it from Orphan Black).

This delightful community is introduced to us by late night radio presenter Dangerous Dan (William Shatner – Star Trek, T. J. Hooker), who is desperately trying to instill a bit of Christmas spirit amongst his listeners on Christmas Eve. His efforts are somewhat thwarted by weather man Norman, who is clearly not keen, but happily he heads off to the local mall to report on the Christmas Food Drive, leaving Dangerous Dan to his whiskey and Eggnog.

There are four individual stories told in this film, each taking place on Christmas Eve in Bailey Downs, a town with a chequered past and some very dark secrets.

Three high school students, Molly (Zoé De Grand Maison – Orphan Black), Ben (Alex Ozerov – What We Have) and Dylan (Shannon Kook – The Conjuring), are embarking upon a grisly class project, breaking into the local school in order to make a film about the gruesome murders of two of the students one year ago to the day.

A young family are off to visit their estranged Aunt Edda (Corinne Conley – Wolfcop) without warning. Taylor (Jeff Clarke – Chicago, Coconut Hero) and Diane (Michell Nolden – The Time Traveler’s Wife) and their two children arrive but are not made welcome and after a run in with the very strange manservant, Gerhardt (Julian Richings – Wrong Turn, The Cube) they find themselves stranded in a snowy wilderness, at the mercy of the evil spirit of Christmas, Krampus (Rob Archer – Bulletproof Monk, Pixels).

A family set off on an illegal outing to steal a Christmas tree from some private woods belonging to the creepy Big Earl (Alan C. Peterson – Shooter, Narc). But when Scott (Adrian Holmes – Debug, Elysium) and Kim (Olunike Adeliyi – The Returned, Flashpoint) turn their backs for a moment, their young son, Will (Orion John) mysteriously disappears and when they find him, he doesn’t seem quite right.

And finally, poor old Santa Claus (George Buza – X-Men, Maniac Mansion), who is having a very bad day at the toy factory when all of his elves suddenly become infected with something very nasty and turn into tiny undead killing machines.

A Christmas Horror Story is really good fun, doesn’t take itself too seriously and it has a great twist that is well worth the wait. The four intertwining stories flow nicely and keep the interest going, while William Shatner shines as Dangerous Dan and holds the whole thing together really well, as he gradually gets more inebriated over the course of the film. The special effects are pretty good and there are a fair few scary moments.

The perfect gift for the horror fan in your life this Christmas.

“Hey Norman. Hey, he’s writing me a little Christmas card. This is exciting. Wow, Norman. Susan, did you see that? You know who saw that? Jesus saw that. And his Dad. He saw that.”

A Christmas Horror Story is available to order online now and will be released on 09th November 2015