A Christmas Horror Story

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Director: Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, Brett Sullivan Year: 2015 Runtime: 99 min IMDb: ⭐ 5.8
Movie Poster

Synopsis

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, peace and goodwill. But for some folks in the small town of Bailey Downs, it turns into something much less festive.

Dangerous Dan is a radio DJ stuck pulling a long shift at the Bailey Downs radio station on Christmas Eve. During his broadcast, he begins receiving notices of a disturbance at the local mall, where the station's weatherman, Stormin' Norman, is hosting a charity food drive. Telling his listeners to stay away, Dan keeps playing holiday music while a series of four stories unfolds. First story[edit] Dylan, Ben, and Molly Simon have decided to break into their school, which used to be a convent, to investigate the murders of two students that occurred in the school's basement the year before. Their friend Caprice, Dan's granddaughter, was supposed to go, but she instead has to go with her parents out of town. The three of them end up getting locked in the basement. Molly becomes possessed after witnessing a bloody ghost and tries to seduce Dylan. When he refuses her, Molly kills him. Molly successfully seduces Ben and after the act is finished, the ghost leaves Molly's body. Upon waking, Molly reveals that the ghost was actually a pregnant teenager named Grace who died when the school was a convent after the nuns gave her a gruesome abortion. The ghost is only interested in having someone give birth to her child and if they refuse, they are murdered – explaining last year's deaths. Despite having successfully gotten Molly pregnant, the ghost sees Ben holding a weapon which is viewed as a threat, and the ghost kills him. The ghost then unlocks the door and allows Molly to leave. Second story[edit] Scott Peters is a police officer who worked the murder case of the two students the year before, but had to take a leave from the force due to the trauma of it. On Christmas Eve, much to his wife's reluctance, Scott convinces his family to go into woods owned by "Big Earl" to chop down a Christmas tree for their house. During the trek, Scott's son Will wanders off and gets lost. He and his wife Kim find Will inside of a tree and are overjoyed, but their joy is short lived after Will begins to act strangely, culminating in Big Earl contacting the family to warn them that Will is actually a changeling. Earl demands she return the changeling to the forest, but she refuses until it kills Scott. Kim finally brings the changeling to Big Earl. He scolds the creature for leaving, but says he's unable to help Kim find her son because it's "up to the trolls". This ultimately ends with Kim shooting Big Earl, who was containing the changelings in the grove. Finally free, the changeling returns to its home and frees Will. Third story[edit] Caprice and her younger brother Duncan are traveling with their parents Taylor and Diane to visit their elderly Aunt Edda. During their visit, Edda tells them about the mythological creature Krampus, a punisher of evildoers, which frightens Caprice – especially after Duncan purposely destroys a Krampus figurine in an attempt to irritate Edda's caretaker, Gerhardt. Their parents take the children home at Edda's insistence, but on the way they get into a car accident, forcing them to walk. Aware that they're now being hunted by Krampus because they acted badly, the family members take refuge in a church where they attempt to confess their sins in belief that Krampus will leave them if they do so. However, they are picked off one by one until only Caprice remains. Caprice manages to flee to Aunt Edda's house. She is successful in killing Krampus who transforms into Gerhardt. It's revealed that he transformed into Krampus due to his anger over the family's actions and that Edda was fully aware that this would happen. Furious, Caprice's anger causes her to transform into Krampus, and she attacks Edda. Fourth story[edit] While preparing for a busy Christmas, Santa Claus discovers that all of his elves and his wife Martha have turned into zombies after one of the infected elves dies following a fit of rage. He manages to kill them all, but is then forced to fight against Krampus. However, right when he's about to kill Krampus it's revealed that "Santa" is actually a mall Santa named Norman, the weather forecaster on Dangerous Dan's radio show, who had a psychotic break while working overtime that caused him to see regular mall goers as zombies . The police arrive and manage to gun him down just as he goes to kill "Krampus", revealed to be the mall's manager, Mr. Taylor. This is the disturbance at the mall that Dangerous Dan has been mentioning through his broadcast.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

someone is sexually assaulted
spoiler Demon in shape of kid is shown as "pleasuring" their mother in their sleep. Underage kids also have sex while possessed (asaault, the girl is possessed and not consenting and the boy is uninformed).
animals are abused
spoiler Off-screen but mentioned
a cat dies
spoiler Not on screen but it is described that a kid killed their cat.
a pet dies
spoiler Daughter describes how her brother abused and killed multiple family pets and smiled when caught killing their cat.
an animal dies
spoiler The family of four talk about the son killing family pets. Mildly descriptive but no visuals, it happened in the past.
a child is abandoned by a parent or guardian
spoiler Not intentionally, though, parents are tricked into leaving their child lost in the forest in exchange for a changeling.
there's child abuse
spoiler Father with anger issues takes off belt to beat son. Belt does make contact.
there's domestic violence
spoiler Dad abuses kid and hits wife when pushing her away (changeling storyline).
there's abusive parents
Yes
the abused becomes the abuser
spoiler After her family is murdered, the only surviving daughter embraces turning into Krampus to murder her aunt in revenge.
someone is stalked
spoiler The family of 4 is stalked by Krampus, and Santa is stalked by zombie elves.
someone is abused with a belt
spoiler A child is beaten with a belt
alcohol abuse
spoiler Radio person heavily drinks through his shift mixing eggnog and liquor. Other person, father after belting kid starts drinking liquor tons.
someone is sexually assaulted onscreen
spoiler Changeling in shape of child is briefly shown "pleasuring" his mother in her sleep. Two teenagers have sex while possessed (assault since the girl is possessed and cannot consent, and the boy is uninformed and manipulated).
rape is mentioned
spoiler Not explicitly but when Molly’s possession ends, she immediately realizes that she lost her virginity and asks the boy what he did to her.
someone is restrained
spoiler The changeling child is trapped in a bag, but no one is tied up.
there's eye mutilation
spoiler Someone dies by having a cross shoved through their eye.
there's excessive gore
Yes
there's body horror
spoiler Elves turn into zombies and are pretty messed up looking. I wouldn't really describe anything else as body horror
heads get squashed
spoiler shows a close-up of a head that was presumably bludgeoned and the teen was hung up in a seemingly ritualistic killing
someone is burned alive
Yes
there's decapitation
Yes
there are hangings
spoiler Not shown, but the abusive father is choked and killed with a belt
someone's throat is mutilated
Yes
someone is crushed to death
spoiler Yes, an elf zombie is crushed in the mail room.
there's amputation
spoiler Numerous elves have limbs amputated, and the abusive father’s hand is cut off.
someone asphyxiates
spoiler Not shown, but the abusive father is killed using a belt around his neck. His neck could have been broken (or he could have bled to death from his amputated hand), but presumably he asphyxiated.
someone struggles to breathe
spoiler A young boy has asthma and takes his inhaler.
hands are damaged
Yes
somebody is choked
spoiler Not shown, but the abusive father dies from strangulation using his belt.
someone has a seizure
spoiler It's not actually a real medical seizure, it's more like a possession, but it does present like a seizure
Someone becomes unconscious
Yes
someone falls to their death
spoiler Dwarf is thrown out window as they are infected by a zombie virus, no visual of fall just a splat noise after the glass breaks and the person goes through the window.
there's finger/toe mutilation
spoiler Elf hand gets with an axe, and a son stabs a father with a fork in the hand.
someone breaks a bone
spoiler A couple of necks are broken
someone is stabbed
Yes
a minor is sexualized
Yes
a kid dies
spoiler Several kids die in the past and present stories, but only one teenager’s death is shown in action. The young brother is dragged away and presumed dead, but his actual murder is not shown on camera. Other teenagers’ bodies or ghosts are shown.
an infant is abducted
spoiler Not an infant, but a young boy is taken by the fae and replaced with a changeling.
someone dies
Yes
someone sacrifices themselves
Yes
a non-human character dies
Yes
a major character dies
Yes
A child's dear toy is destroyed
Yes
a parent dies
Yes
a family member dies
Yes
someone is kidnapped
Yes
there are jump scares
Yes
someone is possessed
Yes
there's ghosts
Yes
there are mannequins
spoiler There are life size figures from a nativity scene.
there are shower scenes
spoiler Mother showering, young child is found to be in the bathroom watching/listenning.
There's audio gore
Yes
there is copaganda
spoiler No, a main character is a cop but he's shown as abusive towards his son and not nice to his wife so not really a positive depiction
there's live gunfire
Yes
a priceless artifact is destroyed
Yes
there's a hospital scene
spoiler Hospital miscarriage scene.
someone suffers from PTSD
spoiler It’s not well-depicted at all. An officer had to go on leave after being traumatized in a crime scene he later has anger issues and beats his family.
reality is unstable or unhinged
spoiler Spoiler… Santa character fighting zombie elves and Krampus is actually a mall Santa having a psychotic break and murdering volunteers at a charity drive.
there's dissociation, depersonalization, or derealization
spoiler Santa character fighting zombie elves and Krampus is actually a mall Santa having a psychotic break and murdering volunteers at a charity drive.
someone has a meltdown
Yes
a mentally ill person is violent
spoiler Traumatized father violent towards family. Someone having a psychotic break slaughters dozens of people.
someone has a mental illness
Yes
shaky cam is used
spoiler Santa fight scenes use a lot of shakey cam.
there's flashing lights or images
spoiler Some of the lighting effects may be aggravating, the closest to a strobe effect is police lights at the end of the movie.
there are sudden loud noises
Yes
there's screaming
Yes
there is obscene language/gestures
Yes
a baby cries
Yes
a baby is stillborn
spoiler Inconsistent: maybe aborted, maybe stillborn but the image of a ghost mother holding a dead newborn is there. Seems like a Republican movie that knows nothing of non-Christians, gestation of fetuses, etc.
someone miscarries
spoiler Dead baby is shown in ghost mothers hands fe9m the miscarriage.
a pregnant person dies
spoiler Abortion equipment/table shown bloody with handprints.
there's childbirth
spoiler Blood and nuns delivering teen baby is shown. It is already assumed the baby died with the mother.
someone has an abortion
spoiler One is discussed and implied.
there is a baby or unborn child
spoiler There is a graphic scene with a bloody unborn fetus.
there's fat jokes
spoiler I guess it’s not a joke but the zombie elves call Santa things like “you fat bastard” and it’s either meant to be funny or just cheesy
an LGBT person dies
spoiler No one was described as LGBT in this kovie or shown to be.
the black guy dies first
spoiler The black child does not die (neither the genuine nor changeling version). The abusive father who dies is black, but he is not the first to die.
there's antisemitism
spoiler In my opinion, yes. “You can’t display a nativity scene anymore. It’s the east on Christmas.” No Jewish people are even acknowledged as existing beyond this supposed infringement (ie, respect for other cultures).
someone speaks hate speech
spoiler Credits sequence uses slurs for asian people. So, as soon credits roll turn it off to avoid.
religion is discussed
Yes
there's demons or Hell
Yes
there are incestuous relationships
spoiler Not a full relationship, but a changeling as a son does touch their mother sexually while asleep.
there is sexual content
Yes
someone is sexually objectified
Yes
someone loses their virginity
Yes
someone has a chronic illness
spoiler Aunt Etta says she has one of her “spells” coming and can’t entertain guests
there's anti-abortion themes
Yes
the ending is sad
spoiler All of the endings are bad endings, the big one is a mall massacre by a mentally ill mall santa. Mall santa is then shot to death by the police.
Santa (et al) is spoiled
spoiler Santa is not “spoiled”, but the Santa character in the North Pole is revealed to be a fake mall Santa.
a car crashes
spoiler A car does spin out in the snow.
a car honks or tires screech
spoiler Tires spin out in the snow.
there's blood/gore
Yes
there's gun violence
Yes

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