"Holiday Hell" is a festive seasonal nightmare anthology. The film brings together shorts from directors Jeremy Berg, David Burns, Jeff Ferrell, and Jeff Vigil. It stars Jeffrey Combs, Joel Murray, Jeff Bryan Davis, Lisa Coronado, and Meagan Karimi-Nase.
On Christmas Eve, a woman enters a curiosity shop looking for a last-minute gift. There, she meets a mysterious shopkeeper who tells her the horrific stories behind four objects in the shop. As he weaves tales of killer dolls, witches and psycho Santas, the woman senses she might be in danger. She has until midnight to choose her gift, but will she choose wisely?
"Holiday Hell" is a mix of holiday stories that range from Valentine's Day to Christmas and with heavy emphasis on winter solstice. I was totally expecting a complete dedication to Christmas horror but the fact that the film mixes it is fine.
The film is your stereotypical anthology movie. There is a wrap-around and several shorts featuring different stories. There is "Dollface", "The Hand That Rocks The Dreidel", "Christmas Carnage", and "Room To Let". Also "Holiday Hell" has a little twist at the end that connects to one of the stories which is cool.
"Dollface" is by far the weakest of the shorts. Mostly with acting and character development. The cast are obviously on the low-budget end of the indie spectrum. At times the acting is over-the-top, and lacks personality. Also the characters are too cliche with lame one liners. The one thing this short has going is the doll faced killer and that character's backstory.
"The Hand That Rocks The Dreidel" is so the best in the anthology. Reminiscent of Charles Band and the Puppet Master franchise, it is creepy but playful. The acting is quality and the writing is, for the most part, level work. Especially the kid, I don't even think he knows just how much of a Damien vibe he gives off.
"Christmas Carnage" is the standard psycho in a Santa suit fare. It is a decent slasher styled story that reminds me of "Christmas Evil". It is also the bloodiest and has the biggest body count. Plus Joel Murray really gets into the killer spirit of the season. The writing is passable stuff, I mean some is less effective but there is a couple of really cool lines in it.
"Room To Let" is a cult horror celebrating the winter solstice and has a definite "Nothing Left To Fear" vibe. I feel it deserved more development and character depth, I felt that not enough attention to being authentic to pagan cultism was given, but still- dialog aside- I am a sucker for witchy stuff. I think this may have been the darkest in the anthology.
The wrap-around is reminiscent of classic "Tales From The Crypt" , slightly campy storytelling. It does offer some entertaining relief from the main horror shorts. Plus Jeffrey Combs. It is also connected to "Room To Let" in almost sequel fashion. Overall "Holiday Hell" is mixed as far as what's worth watching. A lot of anthologies have that problem. Still there is some value in checking this movie out. (3/5)
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