During
Christmas morning two siblings fight over a
present and then their Dad (Douglas Myers) is
dressed as Santa to entertain his children. Yet
afterwards he has an affair with the children's
Nanny named Inga (Noa Geller) and both are
stabbed to death while being caught in bed
together and their son is framed for the
homicide.
Many years later the mother of the family named
Mary (Felissa Rose) visits her son Devin (Samuel
Nathan Hoffmire) at the mental institution and
tries to talk to him but he won't respond.
Meanwhile, her two daughters named Talyor
(Monique LaBarr) and Noel (Leah Grimson) are
preparing for a Christmas play but still wonder
about their brother and the mess behind the
murder of their father. When they try to talk to
their mother about this she goes ballistic
towards them.
Suddenly Devon escapes from the institution and
Detective Hughes (Eric Fischer) tries to look for
him when Mary is obsessively telling him how
dangerous her son is.
Meanwhile people involved with the play are being
slayed by a hooded killer wearing a mask. Not
only that, it seems when someone dies this death,
Mary isn't with her kids to help them out with
the play and it's up to Hughes to put the missing
pieces together.
This film looked very low budgeted
barely carrying a budget plus it tried to carry
in the same vein as Halloween
but this one is a true ripoff. Yet it's not
overly terrible and can be fun to watch but it
doesn't fit in the same vein as Halloween
or even Silent Night Deadly Night.
At least these people tried their best with what
they had.
It was mysterious wondering who the killer
actually can be I can credit them for that with
nice cheesy flashback scene's which brings the
puzzle together on what really happened along
with a killed wearing a cheesy looking mask which
I got a kick out of but at the same time the
killings looked awfully phony plus you can tell
the knife that was used for stabbing was a fake
knife.
There's many good moments showing the teenage
kids preparing for a Christmas play as well as
the detecive trying to find the son that escaped
from the mental asylum too.
Close to the ending was impressive too on who the
killer actually is and who will survive next in
order to save their necks.
So you can tell these filmmakers really tried to
make this a tribute to those retro slasher flicks
but with the lack of the budgeting and some of
the direction it failed to do so.
Monique LaBarr as the
oldest sibling in the film does very well with
her serious attitude as the director of the
Christmas play and seemed to really know her
craft by portraying this part along with showing
aggressions about the memories of her brother.
She put everything together nicely.
Leah Grimson plays her younger sister and
brought alot of great characteristics to her part
in the film showing a nice outgoing attitude to
her part. Really convincing as a nice girl but a
very upfront type.
Next up we have the Sleepaway Camp veteran
Felissa Rose who as usual is way too
over the top. She really looked phony crying on
set of the film but knew how to act disturbed at
times when being questioned about her son. She
also had a nice cold voice too during certain
scene's of the film. Her part was necessary for
the film and it's interesting by seeing her do
another type of slasher film even if it's made on
close to a no budgeter.
Samuel Nathan Hoffmire shows a good
expressionelss type not saying a word and really
bringing it out in the end during a confrontation
scene near the end of the film. He brought out
some nice characteristics even if the story was
cheesy.
Anthony Compeno played a great detective and
had the perfect looks as a clean cut big guy
type. He brings out alot of spunk to his role of
the film and acts very charming too. I can see
him getting more work in bigger shows.
Eric Fischer really made his part necessary
as a nice teenage kid in the film bringing on a
great charm which suits his part in a slasher
film in which you wonder if he will be killed or
not. Normally the good one's do get murdered. He
had the perfect looks too.
Bit part actress Noa
Geller briefly exposes her breats in a
prologue scene of the film while doing a
fornication.
Some
phony looking bloody stabbing with blood
splurting out
Bloody slit throats
A bloody stabbing in the ear
Bloodied dead bodies
Novin
Shakiba seemed very trashy and cheesy with
alot of his work on this film as he shows a
beginning on the film with shots on bit part
child actors Shane Carther Thomas and Charlotte
Barrielle acting excited and opening
presents on Christmas morning with Felissa
Rose as the mother joining them. Then
there's close up shots on the two kids fighting
over a present which needed to be a bit more
energised.
Then there's a shot on bit part actors Noa
Geller and Douglas Myers
fornicating with a hand stabbing Geller
which looked extremely phony and she looked too
comfortable when she was falling dead and Myers
looked very phony screaming and getting stabbed.
Then we spot a shot out in daylight with Thomas
bloodied and holding a knife outside which did
not look gloomy and horrifying like it was
supposed to be. Instead it looked like Shakiba
was making a fun home video with his family.
Then on present day there's cheesy camera shots
on both Felissa Rose talking to Samuel
Nathan Hoffmire acting silent and
expressionless with her crying and trying to talk
to him which wasn't convincing at all.
There's a scene with Hoffmire in a
silent room and then acting crazy and then a bit
part actor Manuel
A. Ruiz Garcia trying to grab him and shots
of them struggling in which all of this looked a
bit lacking but not over the top terrible.
There's a very good direction on Monique
LaBarr as a director for a Christmas play
with everyone gathering around as cast members
talking about what to do for dress rehearsal in
which all of this looked believeable.
There's a nice strong argumentive dialogue
between LaBarr and Leah Grimson
as siblings when they talk about their brother
and what had happened on that Christmas day.
Next there's a dialogue between Rose and
LaBarr as mother and daughter having a
discussion about her Christmas play at a parking
lot which looked natural.
There's a phony scene with two supporting actors
played by both Grant Keledjian and Alan
Morataya as two crew members from the play
smoking up and acting stoned backstage which
looked way too acted out. Then there's real phony
shots on them being slaughtered and their
reactions before dying.
There's a good scene with both LaBarr
and Grimson trying to talk to Rose
as their mother about their brother in their
house and then she goes crazy and overly reacts
which looked like a good direction for a drawing
card on who could be the actual kille rin this
movie even if some of the directing looked a bit
cheesy at times.
There's a good scene in the mental hospital with Rose
trying to talk to both supporting actors
Lynne Newman and Eric Fischer as
detectives blocking her and telling her what is
happening and her just losing control and anxious
with good shots on both her and them. Then
there's a nice close up shot on Rose speaking
coldly about praying that nothing happens which
was overly impressive. This is the best direction
in the film I found.
There's a nice shot on Anthony
Campanello in the street and then a nice
close up shot on the hooded killer in the mask
coming in to kill him in the ear. He does very
well with his wide eyes and choking to death
while falling to the ground spitting out blood.
There's a nice moment with both LaBarr
and Grimson entering a room spotting
corpses with nice screaming reactions as well as
good close up shots on the cast as dead bodies.
There's a nice showdown involving Rose, LaBarr,
Grimson and Hoffmire in the
room which looked quite tense and well done.
So folks not all of the direction was terrible
just some odd spots and most of the killings
especially which needed a huge improvement.
There's
very trashy high pitched icy sounding synthesizer
playing which sounds overly annoying alot of the
times as well as the odd low piano pounding as
composed Jason Peri tried to make it
sound like a traditional slasher theme type of
music but didn't go very far with it. However, he
has some great chanting music during certain
parts of the story which was the only good thing
he used.
|
