Red Christmas (2016) Review

Sometimes in life there are certain things that you think you will never see in cinema, like in ”A Serbian film” where they make new born porn, or in the French film ”Inside” where a pregnant women burns a lady’s face off with a lighter and a spray can….classic bants.

But in Craig Andersons Red Christmas we can enjoy the pleasures of watching a failed aborted foetus in grown human form cut a lady in half, with one clean swing of an axe…you ain’t getting better than that.

Red Christmas is the story of an Australian family who have come together to celebrate the holiday at their mothers home, bringing their emotional baggage along for the ride, but if that’s not enough stress to deal with Diane, the mother who has more baggage then Heathrow airport, invites in a deformed stranger in an act of Christmas good will.

But this stranger is not just some unfortunate soul, oh no, he has connections for you see he is Diane’s aborted foetus from 20 years ago who decides to reign down a festive blood bath as he seeks justice for what has happened to him.

The start of this film in honesty is annoying, the characters bring little to the table other than being very aggravating, caught up in their personal dramas and beliefs, they offer very little in the way of development and attraction for the audience, in fact your hoping for most of them to get killed before you even know that, that may even be an option.

But as the film progresses so does their acting abilities, displaying panic and despair excellently, we are engrossed in the believability of this chaos, of their fear and of the whole insanity of the situation that these people are involved in.

Anderson uses light in an interesting way, in reality no one lights every different room in their home with primary coloured light bulbs, but since it is the festive season it becomes effective, making there family home, which seemed so safe and inviting earlier in the film, into a terrifying haunted house.

Anderson also surprised the audience with this interesting choice of topic, as comedic as it seems that a fully grown foetus is reeking havoc we also have to address the subject of abortion rights, Diane must face the choice she made head on, face to face, which of course pulls up many emotions and questions for those who may have an opinion on the subject.

Red Christmas is a dramatic black comedy, a film that does not and also seemingly does take itself seriously, with a wide range of characters to either love or hate and a subject matter that has not been tackled in such a style before, we can almost over look the B rate style and appreciate the bold choices that have been made when creating this film.

Although not the most well developed of pieces it certainly is engaging, funny at times and thought provoking, but maybe not something to sit down with the family to enjoy after you have stuffed down your Christmas dinner.

Movie Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Trailer:

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Sora

With an erotic disposition for anyone with a knife in a mask, the horror genre has a strong hold on my heart. After writing film reviews for many fanzines I have been embraced into the bloody arms of ‘’love horror’’ to unleash hell on the unsuspecting world of horror cinema. My passions lie in wait for great slashers, B rate horrors and 70’s throwbacks, or anything with Michael Myers walking at a steady pace toward a screaming lady.

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