User reviews

I watch a lot of horror films - and most of them are pretty low budget. Yes, they're bad, sometimes so bad I eventually turn them off too early to even review. However, 'Curse of Jack Frost' is an especially bad type of bad. Most awful low budget straight-to-streaming-service horror movies don't show how bad they really are until at least 15-20 minutes into their runtime. Not this one - it was bad from the opening shot.

It begins with a selection of hand drawn images, which are basically one hell of a long exposition dump about how Father Christmas was once a bad-a$$ warrior fighting the forces of darkness (led by Jack Frost, in case you hadn't guessed). Now, besides going on for waaaay too long, they're played straight. The whole idea of jacked-up warrior Santa sounds like it belongs in 'South Park' to be laughed at, not a horror film in which we're supposed to be afraid of.

Then we're introduced to the usual 'flesh-sacks' at the beginning of every horror film ever made. They're there purely to die - and die they do. But, being one of the worst horror movies ever made, the 'Jack Frost' antagonist is revealed to be one of the worst-looking monsters ever. Seriously, the mask is okay if you're going to an average Halloween party, but the real problem arises when he speaks. His lips don't move. The film-makers actually didn't have the budget to animate any part of his face. It's just a mask. No more, no less - like I say... as scary as any you can buy around the end of October every year.

And that was about when I knew I was going to want to turn this film off. I stuck with it, simply because I wanted to see if it actually had any redeeming qualities. It didn't. I really wish I could get back the hour and a half I spent watching this film. It's not scary. It's not gory. It's not self-aware or in any way clever. It's really one of the worst horror movies I've watched online recently.

Given my love of all things horror, of course I opted to watch the 2022 movie "Curse of Jack Frost" here in 2025, as I had the opportunity to do so. Sure, I had never heard about, and I can't claim that the movie's cover wasn't all that enticing. Yet, I still opted to check it out and see what writer Craig McLearie and director Liana Failla had to offer. And the fact that the movie had scored a staggering 2.9 rating here on IMDb when I sat down to watch it, didn't exactly promise well of a grand movie experience.

Writer Craig McLearie managed to put together a chilling tale of... wait, that was not the case here. In fact, he managed to put together a flaming dumpster fire of a storyline that is driven by an insanely slow paced and pointless narrative. So yeah, you're not in for anything grand, should you opt to brave the chill and sit down to watch "Curse of Jack Frost".

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actress Nicola Wright. Yeah, I've seen enough low budget horror movies to actually be familiar with her.

Dear god, the character design of Jack Frost in the movie was pretty stupid. Especially since his face was inarticulate, yet he was still able to talk. This just didn't play out well in favor of the movie, and it was so difficult to take it serious. It was nothing more than a stupid Halloween latex mask. But the problem with the Jack Frost character didn't end there, no, there were the long and rubbery fingers as well.

I will be generous here and say that the special effects in the movie were exactly that; special. But not in a satisfying manner.

If you enjoy horror movies, take heed and don't waste 80 minutes on watching "Curse of Jack Frost". Some of us suffered through this ordeal, so you don't have you; you're very welcome.

My rating of director Liana Failla's 2022 movie "Curse of Jack Frost" lands on a chilling two out of ten stars.

This movie is inexplicably bad...and not in any sort of good way.

It tells the story of a family that has inherited a curse relating to Jack Frost- who is apparently one of Santa's children, turned demonic entity.

This curse has something to do with a guy refusing to bury a piece of Jack's body, after he was forced to endure an Osirian fate...or something.

Either way...what ensues is an a criminal travesty of filmmaking.

Which is a shame, because the quality really is quite decent (when compared to a lot of the other Christmas horror films out there).

It has a professional feel to it, in regards to picture quality, but it's really quite amateur on every other level.

Particularly in regards to the writing, the plot, the special effects...and quite annoyingly, the audio balancing.

The Jack Frost character, himself, is palatable from a creature-effects perspective...being somewhat reminiscent of the joker character from the 90's film Funny Man.

But the effects they use on his voice are ridiculous...and rather unnecessary.

As it sounds like he is using the voice changer from the Scream films.

Even worse, however, are the effects...which amount to some really bad CGI, and an attempt at gore that isn't even PG.

Every time you think something sweet is going to happen...dude just clicks his fingers and people just disappear amidst some really bad CGI snow effects.

It keeps building up your expectations...and then disappointing you every single time.

So, it seems like they didn't even try.

An observation further evidenced by the horrible soundtrack- which kicks in every time Jack is about to make an appearance- consisting of incredibly generic (and rather out of place) chugga-chugga metal riffs.

On top of all this...it has one of the most poorly conceived plots I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing (the worst I've seen since the awful Netflix film Slayers).

To be fair, they do make an attempt to insert lore (including redundant efforts to remind you about it, after forcing you to sit through a tedious amount of filler, that nearly puts you to sleep)...however, it's not good lore.

Thus, it doesn't have the desired effect needed, to drive the action forward, in any sort of enjoyable way.

Worst of all, though, has got to be the audio balancing.

The audio capture is so bad, that characters on the periphery of the scenes are so low...that you find yourself constantly needing to adjust the audio levels just to hear them...only for other characters to end up being too loud as a result.

This is particularly a problem with the insufferable mother character- who persistently mumbles in almost a whisper- which left me wishing for her death, pretty much, from the get-go.

In all honesty, there really is nothing good to say about this film at all.

Because, plot structure aside, even the character development is bad.

With you caring so little about the characters they do make an attempt at developing...that you are simply unconcerned with what happens to them one way or the other.

Which is a cardinal sin, when it comes to filmmaking.

At barely over an hour...it's all a very cinemasochistic experience.

Coming off as a chore to watch.

So I can't say that I recommend it.

But I can definitely recommend passing it by.

As it's another bottom of the barrel Christmas horror...that fits right in alongside the other trash that surrounds it on TubiTV.

I give it a 1.5 out of 10 (but that's being more than extremely generous).

I honestly don't know what I watched. I may only be 16 but this movie in itself made me honestly want to kill myself it was so bad. I mean the CGI was awful the acting was horrendous and I feel like the budget for this movie was less than $20. This movie was so bad I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies I wouldn't even wish this on Hitler. Don't know why peacock would ever sign a deal for this movie to stream on their platform and I'm honestly 100% the people who created this movie did not watch the final product screw that I don't even think they watched it at all ngl I think I could do better on my mobile editing software.

There seems to be a lot of hate for this film, but I liked it. It's only 81 minutes, so it doesn't really drag on that long. The story is pretty straightforward, Jack Frost is trying to regain part of his body that has been kept by a women for many years. These bones will give him more power. While there's nothing really that is going to make this movie stand out as an all time classic, it just not that bad. The monster hat is Jack Frost has an interesting look, even if you can tell that it's basically just a high-end mask.

If you're a fan of B Horror Movies and you're looking for Christmas horror, I'd say check this one ouy!

Arriving at her relatives' house, a woman hoping to spend the holidays with them finds the festivities crashed by the freed spirit of Jack Frost looking for retribution after their family's way with him centuries earlier and must find a way to stop the diabolical figure from finishing his mission.

There was more going on with this one than expected. One of the finer features here comes from the solid background lore established here which is all highly enjoyable due to the background established. Taking place after a massive war for power had taken place in a separate kingdom populated by the spirits of the holidays and the outcome takes place at such a point in the rivalry that the particular figure is banished and a strain over the holiday as a result feels earned and realistic. As the family is aware of the implications to themselves due to this and the ways to circumvent the holiday's seasonal trappings as a result are explored, this comes off rather well. That gives the film a nice baseline to string some decent action and stalking scenes together. The opening chase through the woods into their home for the confrontation there where he gets banished is an intriguing way to get things going, while his appearances to torment the family are quite fun alternating between shock ambushes or genuine stalking scenes. That is enhanced quite nicely in the latter half where he strikes at the sleepover being held in secret as it begins taking out the rest of the friends to get to the family members it's hunting, which provides a few fun encounters and some genuinely brutal kills to cap it all off. As a whole, these manage to provide a lot to like while the film does have some drawbacks to it. This is mostly let down by a rather bland and lethargic pace which makes it feel much longer than it really is as the conversations here depicting the family trying to celebrate the holidays or discussing the impact of the curse on them grinds the film to a halt considerably. The other issue here is the confusing series of rules at play for the killer who seems to be under supernatural guidance, can control dead bodies when it suits him or move through space as if by teleportation yet each of these factors are only employed whenever it's convenient so it feels quite contradictory to what's going on. On the whole, these factors are the few drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.