This week writer Adam Holtzapfel had a chance to check out Red Christmas, the new film starring Dee Wallace and not to be confused with Steve Rudzinski’s film of the same name.
Red Christmas tells the story of a family gathering for the holiday in their home in Australia. As the story starts at an abortion clinic we see a bomb planted and explode. We see a hand reaching up from the bio-hazardous waste and a doctor smuggle the fetus out of the building.
From there we move 20 years into the future where the family begins arriving at Diane’s (Wallace) house. We meet her brother Joe (Geoff Morrell), special needs son Jerry (Gerard Odwyer) and the rest of the clan.
Jerry helps as Peter steadies his gun.
Right before the exchanging of gifts an unexpected knock on the door disturbs the family. Enter Cletus (Sam Campbell). Cletus has a note for his mother and from here you can probably guess where the story is going.
I can honestly say at a little over 80 minutes it felt 75 minutes too long. The story just seemed phoned in to me. What worked were the fx, they were great in a lot of the kill scenes. This just goes to show a strong cast can’t save a sinking film. Check it out at your own risk.
(Images taken from Google)
