A Christmas Horror Story is an intertwined anthology horror story in which the four stories unfold concurrently, and the transitions between the stories are well done. The jump scares were perfect and judiciously distributed. The character development and narratives are expertly structured. If you are into TV horror anthologies like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Tales from the Darkside, then this standalone holiday themed movie should appeal to you.
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I was completely surprised that Santa’s story was not actually unfolding and did not expect that he was actually the disgruntled and apparently delusional radio station employee. Because all the other stories had a supernatural element, I just assumed that he was genuinely Santa who was a bad ass like Captain America in that elevator, but when Krampus began to appear as his arch-nemesis, I realized that it contradicted what we just learned about Krampus in the other story and expected a twist. It veered from being a delightfully irreverent zombie story to a tragic Christmas mall massacre. Stormin’ Norman indeed!
I was moderately surprised because I thought all the Christ nativity allusions was foreboding to an anti-Christ story, but was saddened when it turned into a ghost story. It was rapey on multiple levels. I’m really sorry that Dylan died. He was faithful to his girlfriend. Even with no one looking, he flushed with his elbow and washed his hands after using the urinal. He recognized that his friend was not acting like herself and correctly turned down her sexual advances, but he is not rewarded for being a good boy. Meanwhile his other friend gets raped because he has sex under false identity pretenses and is a bit of a dirt bag for not questioning her like Dylan. She is raped because she was possessed and did not consent to having sex, and now she is pregnant by some teen ghost mom with Catholic Church abuse issues. Ugh, this story was just horrific, not fun at all.
The other two were predictable to me because I see a lot of movies and read a lot of books, but well executed. I pegged the changeling story line instantly, but I was a little annoyed that the only black people had to be depicted as thieves and abusive parents. The black cop’s story line felt like it had more potential because of his link to the ghost story, but it ended abruptly, and black guy manages to die before anyone else in all the stories. The changeling also gave off an Oedipal rapey vibe and was desperate to see that black mama naked. I don’t think that it would take black parents that long to figure out that something was up. It was actually a clever twist on the typical changeling story because the mother would rather have her sick child than a healthy one. The vagina dentata tree taketh, and the vagina dentata tree giveth.
The Krampus story was also slightly predictable, but was fun. The family was awful, but becomes slightly redeemable in the face of adversity so a twisted Christmas miracle does happen. I was rooting for Duncan to die before it was revealed that he was a budding serial killer because he was rude as shit; however with the way that everyone cried out for Duncan and left dad to die in a pool of his own blood explains who is more popular in the story. The mom died a badass to save her daughter, and the approval of the daughter’s bad behavior in stealing the lighter and wanting to avenge her family’s death was a more suitably delicious twist than the ghost story.