Once Upon a Time at Christmas

Pretty sure I'm at the "scraping the bottom of the barrel" point with the holiday horror movies! This wasn't outright terrible, but it was pretty bad.

This has a killer Santa AND Mrs. Claus! Mrs. Claus looks like she's somebody's mom trying to channel Harley Quinn in a Christmas costume for Halloween because yeah she's still got the body but absolutely no self esteem and all she really knows how to do is make terrible choices and kill people. I wanted to slap her every time she popped up on the screen. Not sure if that's a case for or against her honestly I was conflicted.

At least it's gory? Although some of the cgi gore was unforgivable. It actually looks pretty decent for the budget, but then the writing is so awful and the acting is worse so every scene where two people have a conversation was just embarrassing and I kinda loved it.

The acting is terrible from most of the cast especially from the victims. Aside from the painful obvious cartoon-like CG blood, most of the victims who are being murdered have this half smirk/smile as they die or as they're dead. It takes away from the movie more than anything. The only good part from this is the boonies like Santa Claus. He at least acted well, but not Mrs Claus, she was like a porn hybrid of Mrs Claus and Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn and not in a good way.

I am not going to write a in depth long review of this movie because a few words will sum it all up, it sucks. im glad it was free on VUDU because I would really hate to spend any on it, even a penny....it was that awful. The story was horrible. The acting was really horrible. it was not scary at all....so do yourself a big favor, pass on this...i wouldn't even watch this garbage even if i didnt have anything to do, I rather sit and look at a wall for 2 hours than watch 15 minutes of this pile of poop.

Unsure if this was meant to be a deliberate so bad it's good B Movie but it's mostly just bad. Awkward dialogue full of cliches. Inconsistent performances with some actors trying hard for a serious tone and some trying to wink at the camera.

Someone clearly wanted to make a serial killer Santa Claus and then added a Mrs Claus in the style of Harley Quinn. It's hard to get the tone right for a B Movie but even harder to do a decent Harley Quinn impression.

Even those with a high tolerance for cheap horror films will find this hard to love. Perhaps save yourself the time watching this and seek out a better Xmas horror like Anna and the Apocalypse or Krampus.

I do not know Jeff Ellenberger (who played Deputy Fullard). I have never seen him in any other film, nor even heard of him. But I know this about him: He deserved better than this film. He seems like a good actor trapped in a bad film and it saddened me. In fact, his presence just highlighted for me how bad everyone (and everything) else was in the film. I hope he has better luck in future films.

I am still puzzling over the sheriff talking to a coroner with a VERY heavy British accent who uses an unfamiliar British slang word that causes the sheriff to say, "Oh, right, I keeping forgetting you're a Brit." Of all the many hard to believe things in this film, THAT one really knocked me for a loop.