Holiday Hell

source: Holiday Hell

I love Jeffrey Combs, plain and simple, and the remarkable intelligence and charm he brings to his role as shopkeeper Rosemont is gratifying. The concept of the wraparound segment that defines the feature is fetching from the very start, and whatever else is true, 'Holiday Hell' boasts high production values through and through, letting every detail and aspect of the craft come across with vivid clarity. With that said, I do certainly appreciate the care put into this when it comes to elements like blood and gore, hair and makeup, costume design, props, lighting, and so on. Though sometimes over the top, I also like Semih Tareen's score as it adds atmosphere and helps set the mood at any given time. Visually, and from a technical standpoint, I think 'Holiday Hell' is pretty solid. From there it becomes a tad more of a mixed bag. At some times the cast illustrates able range, physicality, and nuance, with some especially impressing in one segment or another; Cami Ottman, Meagan Karimi-Naser, Charnie Dondrea, Joel Murray, Lisa Carswell, and McKenna Ralston are all actors I wouldn't mind seeing in other features. On the other hand, presumably on account of the directors' guiding hands, it feels like more than a few of those before the camera are coerced into ham-handed, over the top portrayals that too often forsake subtlety and generally don't otherwise sit well with me. There are some good ideas scattered throughout these segments, but not always originality. The scene writing varies as it struggles with the same dichotomy as the cast and performances - sometimes dynamic and absorbing, at others blunt and flavorless. There are few likable or sympathetic characters throughout this anthology, occasionally making the feature difficult to engage with or care about. 'Holiday Hell' is regrettably uneven and inconsistent, with some points striking me as quite excellent and engrossing, and others contrived and middling. None of this is to say that this is bad, or not enjoyable. Though not without deficiencies, I think it's roundly well made. The first two standalone segments, "Dollface" and "The hand that rocks the Dreidel," don't give a strong impression - and, I admit, are between them the most significant source of my ire here. But the third ("Christmas Carnage") and the fourth ("Room to let") stories are gratifyingly robust and entertaining, in contrast, balancing out the tales within a tale. And, once again, the wraparound segment ("Nevertold Casket Co.") is a great, cheeky bit of clever fun, not least of all with Combs as an anchor. In fact, I think that wraparound is written and executed so well as to help compensate for what shortcomings may present. More so than not I think this is a good time; I just wish it were a more reliably steady, smooth ride. It won't be for all viewers - everyone has their own opinion - and I begrudge no one who checks it out and finds it's not to their liking. Yet while I had mixed expectations and didn't necessarily think much of the movie as it began, by the time the end credits began rolling I was quite pleased with the picture overall. Anthology films are always very hit or miss, whatever the connective theme, but I'm happy to say I think 'Holiday Hell' is, though imperfect, one of the better ones. One needn't necessarily go out of their way to see this, but if you're looking for a little horror fun, especially centered around the holidays, then this is ultimately worthwhile, and not a bad way to spend 100 minutes.

Holiday Hell is like a sack of presents on Christmas morning: some stories are as entertaining as a new Commodore 64 computer game (yes, I'm old); others are the equivalent of a jumper hand-knitted by an auntie (multiple colours, slightly too large with uneven arms). It's a mixed bag, for sure, but with a fun performance by horror icon Jeffery Combs, and some gore and nudity, it's still worth delving into. Combs plays the proprietor of a curiosity shop, who tries to help last-minute customer Amelia (Meaghan Karimi-Naser) to choose a gift for her sister. As Amelia deliberates over several potential gifts, the shopkeeper tells her the story behind each of them. In the first story, a mysterious killer wearing a doll-mask murders a group of youngsters partying in an abandoned house. It's a really uninspired way to kick things off, with very little to offer beyond its trite premise, but fortunately things get better with the next tale... A young Jewish boy, Kevin (Forrest Campbell), is given an old, one-of-a-kind rabbi doll by his parents, who leave their son in the care of babysitter Lisa (Amber Stonebraker) while they spend the weekend in Germany. Not long after his parents have gone, Kevin overhears Lisa talking to her boyfriend Trey on the phone: the pair are planning to empty Kevin's home of its valuables. When Lisa catches Kevin listening, she locks him in his room, but Kevin's doll comes to the rescue when the boy reads from an old scroll hidden in the toy's box. Springing to life, the creepy wooden rabbi ensures that Lisa and Trey get their just desserts. A murderous living doll might not be all that original, but this is a well-handled story with a decent pace and a smattering of gore. Talking of gore, there's more in the third story, which centres around a blood-stained Santa suit. Owner of the initially pristine costume is down-trodden pharmaceutical company office-worker Chris (Joel Murray), who is overlooked for promotion and then sees his wife Susan (Ailsa Marshall) cheating on him at the Christmas office party with his work rival Tom (Jeff Bryan Davis). Hitting the bottle at a nearby bar, and hoovering up some of his company's experimental tablets, Chris turns homicidal, visiting a local hardware store before returning to the party. Gratuitous nudity, drug-taking, and a nail-gun to the crotch: sophisticated it isn't, but it sure is fun. The final tale sees a young woman, Anna (the lovely McKenna Ralston), renting a room at a farmhouse, and finding work in the nearby town, only to discover that the locals are murderous moon worshippers. It's a fairly blood-free story, but benefits from an eerie atmosphere and solid performances, and ends in a shocking manner that successfully segues back into the wraparound story, where Combs' shopkeeper turns out to be far less amiable than he seems. With such an uneven movie, rating it as a whole isn't easy. I'd give the doll-face story 2/10, the rabbi doll 6/10, the killer Santa 6/10, the moon worshippers 5/10, and the book-ends 4/10. That's a total of 23, averaging out at 4.6/10, which I'll round up to 5 for naming Chris's tablets Black Sunshine, which I assume is a reference to Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine (1977).

I enjoyed this more than any recent anthology I've seen. The stories got better with each one. The wraparound story featuring Jeffrey Combs (in a role very much like he played in Necromicon) was great. It was nice to see practical effects with barely, if any cgi. Worth a watch, especially for fans of Mr. Combs.

Holiday Hell (2019) is another holiday gem I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a morbid shop keeper closing up for the night on Christmas Eve when a persistent shopper comes in to buy a girl for her sister. As the shopper finds various interesting things in his store, the shop keeper tells her the short story behind the item and he how he acquired it. This movie was created by four directors and stars Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Jeffrey Arrington (All Too Human), Mandy Baker (The Alliance), Lisa Carswell (Z Nation), Lisa Coronado (Z Nation) and Forrest Campbell (Mr. Bleachers). Jeffrey Combs was awesome in this from beginning to end with great narrations, storytelling and as an overall performance. As with any short story anthology some are better than others. The first story with the mask wasn't that great, the second story with the doll was pretty good, the Santa storyline was awesome and the final story wraps up the movie perfectly. There's inconsistent gore in these but the better stories obviously have the better kills. Overall this is far from a classic but a worthwhile holiday horror short story anthology. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it at least once.

I watched the holiday themed horror anthology movie, Holiday Hell, on Amazon prime and I liked the stories and characters. Especially the characters portrayed by Meagan LaBrasseur, Amber Stonebraker & Brian Sutherland. Check out these holiday horror stories. I could think you'll like, or even love them. :D

Holiday Hell was an entertaining romp through the infernal holiday seasons. Great film to watch with friends at gift exchanges while munching on cheese logs and quaffing spiked egg nog. I had a blast watching a kid (Forrest Campbell) battle his babysitter with the help of a possessed Rabbi doll (WTF? and YESS!), and a drug-impelled miserable husband/Santa (the amazing Joel Murray) becoming the life, er death, of the office party. Check this one out.

I'm really not trying to be hyperbolic when I say that this might be the worst movie that I've ever watched. I know there are worse movies out there but this was personally the most miserable viewing expiernce I've had. The movie fails on basically every level. It just sucks. The budget is clearly non-existent and the whole thing just oozes cheapness. Low budget horror movies can be fun, but this one isn't. The majority of the acting is downright terrible. And for a movie called Holiday Hell, the shorts barely have anything to do with Holidays. The first segment is easily the worst. Like a minute into it you realize what kind of movie this is going to be. It, without a doubt, contains the worst acting and dialogue I've ever seen in a movie. No human being talks the way the characters in this segment talk. It's one of the most nothing pieces of film making I've ever seen. It has absolutely no reason for existing. Just some laughably bad characters getting killed off and then a CrAzY tWiSt that doesn't matter, followed by a god awful fight scene. There's nothing scary, nothing funny, nothing unique, nothing original. Completely and utterly pointless. The second segment is just barely better than the first, but still terrible in every conceivable way. Bad acting, a few failed attempts at humor, the complete absence of anything scary or suspenseful. The killer doll is the most nonthreatening killer doll ever put to screen. Just miserable all around. The third segment is the only thing slightly decent about this move and the main actor's performance is actually good. Even then, it's only okay. It got a couple chuckles out of me but it didn't make up for how bad everything else in the movie was. The last one is just plain boring and forgettable. The first two stand out more for how bad they are but nothing about the last one stands out whatsoever. It then leads into a dumb climax and the movie is thankfully over. Holiday Hell is bad on practically every level. The only thing good about it are Jeffery Combs and Joel Murray, everything else is trash. I've never regretted watching a movie more than this one, and it's the only time I've felt embarrassed for spending my time watching a movie.

This low-budget, indie horror film has some genuinely impressive filmmaking in it. I'm not a horror aficionado, but I know the tropes and these film-makers clearly have had some fun playing with them. Yes, there's some questionable dialogue, and the "don't go into the basement" (in a suburban split-level, ha-ha!) moments are schlocky, but there's definitely thought put into this, and some admirable and hilarious twists. As in many indies, the acting is a bit uneven, however, there are notable exceptions, and Joel Murray's performance is outstanding, by turns poignant, funny, terrifying. Jeffrey Combs is perfect as the smarmy owner of a creepy little shop of horror stories. And a special shout-out to Meaghan Karimi-Naser as the young woman seeking a last-minute gift for her sister. Karimi-Naser plays the slightly-too-innocent/what's-going-on-underneath role with wonderfully hinted-at layers. There's also a fantastic pay-off to her performance. (Whatever you do-stay for the last frame. You may know something's coming, but I promise, you are not going to guess the exact form it takes!) I hope to see more films by this group of indie filmmakers.

I didn't know what "Holiday Hell" was before I sat down to watch it, aside from it being a horror movie of some sort. Which, actually, was enough to make me have an interest in sitting down to watch it. Turns out that "Holiday Hell" is a horror anthology, and actually a good one at that. Needless to say my surprise and excitement when I saw Jeffrey Combs appear on the screen. I didn't know he was in it, and he is definitely one of my all-time favorite actors in the horror genre. And I must say that he was quite good in the role of the shopkeeper, the one presenting each individual segment of the anthology. Without going too much into detail with each segment, I will say that they individually were interesting. Sure, they weren't the most fulfilling of storytelling and could seem a bit shallow at times. But they were entertaining enough and that served the purpose for me. Some segments were, of course, better than others. Personally, I actually found the in-between-segments to be the most entertaining and enjoyable, as it was a story in itself, and it had Jeffrey Combs in it. The had a good ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list for the various roles in the segments. And that definitely helped to lift up and carry the segments afloat. The effects in "Holiday Hell" were fair enough, and served their intended purpose. Don't expect to be blown away by over the top impressive special effects and CGI, because then you'll be disappointed. However, the effects were there and they fulfilled their function. I enjoyed "Holiday Hell" for what it was, and it was definitely nice to sit down and watch this one. My rating for the 2019 horror anthology "Holiday Hell" is a six out of ten stars.