Christmas Nightmare

I'll be brief and to the point with my review. The first half hour of this movie is well designed, and actually works. I rent many low budget horror films from my local video store, most are cheesy, campy, or just trash. I expected no more than that from this movie, but after the first few minutes I was kinda surprised at how well it was made. I didn't even mind the obvious digital effects, because the story was allowing me to suspend disbelief, and the acting was above average for a movie of this kind. The problem is after the first half hour everything had been said. The movie began to repeat itself over and over, and the tension that was built within the first half hour just sat there. It didn't continue to build mind you, IT JUST SAT THERE. Overall I'll give this film 6 out of 10 for at least trying to be more than a blood, guts and breast film. And just so you know, there is only blood in this film neither of the latter, which is, to a degree, refreshing.

Lifeless horror film that did not keep me interested. It's very slow moving with inane dialogue and long stretches in which nothing happens. The main characters were listless and undeveloped, and I couldn't care less what happened to them.

Cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap...*sigh* this is a beyond low budget low budget film. My guess is they only had about $50 spending cash and used it all on the effects, which wouldn't surprise me because of how terribly moronic they were. I think, out of the whole film, only one effect stood out as almost decent: The scene where the small wooden horse coming to life and walks across the table...sad, I know. The other reason (besides that one decent effect) why I decided to give this a 2 instead of a 1 were because of the small amount of surprise scenes that actually did what they were supposed to do...surprise you. Of course, those were too far and few between. Overall this movie was extremely slow paced, with a load of cliché's bad directors use to make shitty horror films (if you could even call this horror...more like borer *yawn*) Vince Di Meglio must have had a fascination with the "stare at each other or over your shoulder at each other" cliché because pretty much that was the only interaction between characters...obviously not providing enough character buildup so that you can feel sorry for them and not want them to die. I wanted everyone to die in this crapfest...well...maybe not the leading lady...OK yeah including the leading lady. Don't watch this I warn you! Only watch it if you have a liking for movies with really bad effects and actors. 2/10

I can take a good slow-paced horror film with no problem as long as there is some plot point being developed or some character being studied, but this one is just a complete yawner. Did you ever stay up really late as a kid to catch some rare scare film on a late show and then kept nodding off trying to watch it? Well, this will make you do that even if you watch it in the early afternoon. The concept could have been promising with more development, more characters involved and in danger, and if it had been less cerebral and more visceral, but alas it was not, and so it is one that I will purge from my nice collection of Christmas-themed horror films, sadly. I suggest you do not see it unless you need a cure for insomnia, or if you do want to see the attractive leading lady who should be doing better things.

For a low budget direct to video horror film, this was quite good! It actually looks like the people who made this cared about what they were doing. The acting was really good, it reminded me of a low-budget version of The Shining. Definitely worth renting.