Holidays-2016
Director-Anthony Scott Burns, Miscellaneous
Starring-Jocelin Donohue, Sophie Traub
Scott’s Review #460
Reviewed August 7, 2016
Grade: A-
While perusing my Netflix streaming new releases options, I stumbled upon an intriguing choice with an interesting premise.
Eight varying horror vignettes all set in a holiday theme, aptly named Holidays. The description of the stories harkens back to the days of the beloved Showtime Masters of Horrors series that featured macabre horror shorts.
Not all eight offerings are spectacular, but the ones that stand out are dynamic if not downright creepy.
Set in chronological order, Holidays begins with a story centered on Valentine’s Day- a clear homage to the horror classic Carrie.
A taunted female teenager nicknamed “Maxi-Pad” by her cruel nemesis is encouraged to dive into the high school pool by her male coach to retrieve a brick, presumably to conquer her fear of swimming or water. The coach, who Maxi is in love with, requires a heart transplant, so Maxi goes to morbid lengths to assist him and exact revenge on her tormentor.
In Father’s Day, a young female teacher receives a mysterious cassette tape from her long-estranged father, leading her on an adventure in an abandoned area, in an attempt to now locate her father, wonderfully voiced by actor Michael Gross. The voice tones and static sound of the audiotape lend a great deal to the intrigue and suspense of the story.
Along with the Valentine’s Day story, the Christmas and New Year’s Eve segments are my personal favorites as each is exceptional and creative.
On Christmas Eve, a young father attempts to buy the last virtual reality device for his son, but when he leaves a stranger to die to obtain it, he becomes haunted by the device.
On New Year’s Eve, a male serial killer looks for his next victim, a lonely woman desperate for an online date, but once they return to her house for sex, who becomes the hunter, and who becomes the victim?
Other holidays featured in either too bizarre to make perfect sense or less compelling stories, but still worth mentioning, are St. Patrick’s day, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Halloween.
I adore the holiday theme that this film cleverly features and the wonder of which holiday will come next and exactly how it will be incorporated into the story is wonderful fun.
Specifically, the Christmas story reminds me of a classic Twilight Zone episode in which betraying an unknown stranger for personal gain leads to guilt and conflict for the main character.
A few of the stories focus on the traditions of the featured holidays, like the legendary snakes of St. Patrick’s day or the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, as a frightened young girl becomes terrified of the folklore involved.
This is incorporated with the legend of the Easter bunny delivering candy as the confused girl cannot separate fairy tales from reality, which makes me wonder if the director’s point was to question the silliness of religion if one were to dissect it enough.
Other themes are revenge as in the Halloween and Valentine’s Day episodes. Both features bullying in one way or another, each getting their due in the end.
I wish more anthologies like Holidays were made as it was a fascinating, late-night joy to watch this feature.