Deathcember

⭐ "Deathcember" (2019) - The Drunk Uncle of Holiday Horror

Deathcember is a cinematic advent calendar that invites twenty-four directors from eighteen countries to celebrate Christmas the only way horror knows how-by losing its mind. The result is chaotic, visceral, and occasionally brilliant, but just as often incoherent and off-theme.

A handful of the shorts are genuinely great-clever, creative, and striking in how much they accomplish in just a few minutes. Most are okay, strange little curiosities that feel like dark postcards from different corners of the world. And then there's the rest: short bursts of gore, misery, and confusion that seem to exist purely for shock value. A fair number of them don't even pretend to have anything to do with Christmas or December.

Still, I can't help but respect the ambition. The diversity of countries and voices gives it an unpredictable energy-part film festival, part fever dream. It's messy, yes, but also fearless in a way that's hard not to admire.

Then again, some entries push so far past "unsettling" that they land squarely in "what the hell were they thinking?" territory. There's one short in particular that should've never made the cut-it's not edgy, it's just repulsive.

The film thanks The ABCs of Death in the credits, and that's fitting: Deathcember feels like its seasonal drunk uncle. It shows up to the family holiday gathering, throws up in the punch bowl, and sits on grandma's lap dog. You'll roll your eyes, maybe gag a little, but you'll also admit-deep down-it was kind of entertaining to watch it happen.

Verdict: A deranged, international Christmas experiment that's as fascinating as it is frustrating. Equal parts brilliance and nonsense, wrapped in blood-stained tinsel.

Oh, I grew to strongly dislike this fast! The only short I really liked was the one with Tiffany Shepis as a very angry Christmas shopper who had a rather brutal violent punch up with an employee who was only doing his job, I love Shepis she's really cool and a bit of an unsung modern scream queen, she's been in a lot of indie horror gems for a lot of years and she was awesome in this, it was a surprisingly bloody and over the top crazy little slugfest, and I thought it stole the show by a mile! Apart from that though it was just painfully boring for me and I was angry yawning and looking at the clock and everything, and some of the shorts didn't even remotely fit into a Christmas theme and were there just to fill out the time, by the end this screaming barnacle of an anthology made me want to weep, and if flies right out of your head almost as soon as you've seen it, I wouldn't recommend it! Absolutely pitiful zero effort excuse for an anthology, just twenty four too many mediocre-to-terrible short horror films sloppily taped together like so much shoddy wrapping paper around an unwanted gift that ultimately contains nothing. You can shove this one back up your stocking!!

Sure, it may not be an 8 to most people, but this is a really well done, sometimes spooky anthology. There are people making negative reviews because they were insulted my a segment or two. That should be all the reason you need to watch it.

Well, I didn't really know what I was in for when I sat down to watch the 2019 movie titled "Deathcember". But I sat down to watch it and gave it a chance.

First of all, it should be said that "Deathcember" is 24 short segments based more or less around a Christmas theme, some more than others. And while that was interesting enough in concept, it didn't really translate all that well to the screen for many of the segments.

I managed to sit through 17 segments, before I just gave up. I was by no means entertained by what transpired on the screen. Sure, some segments were better than others, but the overall feel to this was not one of overly enjoyment. There simply were just way too many bland or pointless segments that were dragging the ones that were interesting down.

In "Deathcember" you will find segments of all manners, types and contents. And I am sure that there is even a segment that will offend people in the audience, the one with the claymation - or whatever it is called. I found it to be funny, but the contents of that segment can so very easily offend a lot of people.

Something that was impressive about "Deathcember", though, was the fact that they actually had segments spanning wide and far across the continents, so there is a chance that there might just be something suitable for you among the 24 segments.

At one point I thought I briefly saw Barbara Crampton in a segment, but I thought it was just someone looking a lot like her. But it was actually her, and I was really surprised that she showed up in something like "Deathcember". I had to check here on IMDb to see if it was her or not.

"Deathcember" is hardly a horror anthology classic in the likes of "Creepshow" or "Tales from the Crypt". Nor was it something that I will ever be attempting to sit through again, nor even return to watch the few remaining segments.

My rating of "Deathcember" lands on a more than generous three out of ten stars.

Well this is not related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the social distancing and the Quarantine. No this is about the calendar doors that have horror shorts inside. Now all kidding aside, we get a mixed bag (no pun intended) of presents here. Some of the shorts are really good, others not so much. The best thing is, that they are quite short overall.

This is a german production and anthologies always find an audience. There are way better ones outside this, though if you do watch this, stay for the extra story during the end credits. There's a bonus one can get behind with - especially if you don't mind the blood and violence included in most of these