Cinema antagonists always have two sides. At first glance, the creators of short films as a rule, almost complete creative freedom, not implying censorship by studio bosses or permanently disadvantaged by some minorities or majorities. Roughly speaking, do what you want, any abomination and black woman, as long as it is scary. And it works. When the human imagination is activated without deterrents, it is able to produce unique things. However, there is a downside to the coin. How many of these anthologies have I reviewed, and everyone has the same problem. One cool and interesting story goes two or three, to put it mildly, not very. Schizophasia in the last stage, which causes nothing but bewilderment.
Approximately the same was the anthology “Black Holidays”. The stories are united by one idea – each story is somehow connected with a certain holiday, from Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Day. The idea is interesting in itself, but not every story can boast the same. Of the eight small stories on the positive side, I can note only four.
Valentine’s Day is a simple but colorful story about love and hate. Simple, but with taste.
Father’s Day is an interesting mysticism, which during its small timekeeping keeps the atmosphere of mystery and mystery. Plus the short film is well shot.
Christmas is more like a little episode of Black Mirror. The story of a miracle gadget that turns fantasies into a full picture before your eyes.
And New Year. In fact, this story catches only its absurd twist. Not a bad example of black humor.
The rest are mediocre stories, some secondary, some just schizophrenic. In fact, 4 out of 8 stories turned out to be good, so the score is appropriate.
What is Black Holiday? A typical almanac with inherent disadvantages and pros. Not particularly prominent, but not too shameful. Contrary to tradition, we have a number of stories here, but without a leitmotif, even a nominal one. Short films, in other words, as they are. We'll walk through them.
Valentine's Day.
A not-too-popular schoolgirl is passionately in love with a swimming coach. The object of aspiration, meanwhile, a nice guy on the whole, encourages this fascination, albeit without ill intent. But give her a sign, damn it, very banal. Absolutely uninteresting. Swallow this filth. I assure you, it will be more interesting. And in fact, absolutely basic thing, watching which you will immediately forget it, as I did, recklessly running it a second time and until the denouement did not realize that I have already seen it. 4/10
St. Patrick's Day
Again a teacher and a student, but this time a little more interesting. But not too much. 5/10
Easter
The first association that arises with Easter? Don't think! No, that short guy's not about the killer. There's some Easter mysticism here. Prepare to see the darkness parting, plunging you into a terrifying primal fear of hares! For the first time in the almanac there is a monster! That's good. But still not very interesting, given the drama and directing. 4/10
Mother's Day
A certain rite and in it a lady of a sad image. She clearly came here for a reason, but already regrets what she did. The people around us are already freaking out. All eyes are fixed on her and, as evil, an old shaman saw her, choosing her as a vessel for their god. What is a naive soul going to do? The leaked ending proves that. Pity. The film is quite good, almost according to Asterovski, but the story fails at the end under the textures. 5/10
Father's Day
And that's really cool! A daughter who lost her beloved father too soon, decades later, receives a tape with a message from him. It says she must come to the place where they were once together and then flip the tape and hear instructions on where to go next. Really, very intriguingly done short and chicly played. But the ending does not live up to expectations, unfortunately. However, 7/10
Halloween
Here we have a typical story of retaliation for insidious egg-bearers. Fat, clumsy, no tricks. I don’t know what would make this trivial story more interesting. Nevertheless, of course, you rejoice when a cunning cisgender oppressor gets what he deserves. You can't take that away. 5/10
Christmas
Imagine a 2000 episode of Twilight Zone starring Seth Greene. Here. That's who he is. Moreover, the story, with the exception of a few minor nuances, is directly copied from the episode "SZ'2000". Why spend money and effort shooting the same, but worse? I don't know. And you? 5/10
New Year
Conceptually reminiscent of Halloween from this almanac, but made many times better. The secondaryness of the story and the simplicity of the idea more than pays off a good wager and, finally, the very uncouth spirit that I was waiting for when I started watching. Very good! What a short, concise story, my respect! 8/10.
To summarize, I would like to say that this is not the worst almanac I have seen. But the main reason why I do not take the almanac seriously here is more than noticeable. There's too much go-to. Completely unremarkable stories, banal, incompetent, or simply merged at the end here account for 75% of all submitted content. That is, the conditional 26 minutes out of 105 I was interested.
I won’t say that I was bored, or difficult to watch this collection of short films, but I can’t say that I am happy with the Holidays.
5 out of 10
But not the most disgusting horror movie. The idea is not bad - to come up with a horror film for every holiday day of the year, it turned out a few short films partly from good directors, like Kevin Smith.
Okay, all the novels in the film are stupid and very weak as horror films, but what saves is that they are short - for each short film could stretch for an hour and a half and it would turn out the same stupidity, but also protracted. You know these horror movies where the first hour of timekeeping doesn’t happen at all, and when you’re asleep or you’ve stopped looking at the screen and you’re listening to the movie in the background, something that’s promised in the description of the movie starts to happen, but you don’t care. Here at least everything begins and ends immediately, and then the next stupid story.
Again, these short films are filmed, directed and played by an order of magnitude better than most modern horror films, of course, with the same blandness of the script. So I don't support the hat on this film - I've seen horror movies much, much, much more boring and ridiculous, and this is at least some kind of creative experiment and novels connected with the idea.
I have no regrets about the time spent, but I will hardly ever reconsider.
Combining multiple stories into one common almanac is not a new idea and there are usually two options. In the first case, all the novels united by a common theme are related to each other and their characters somehow intersect with each other. In the second, each story is a separate story devoted to the main theme of the almanac. Such formats are filmed by our filmmakers and foreign ones. In 2015, surprisingly, but the fact, Canada and the United States released three such almanacs: “Christmas Scarecrows” – respectively, dedicated to Christmas and containing 4 stories, “Monster City” – 10 stories about Halloween and “Black Holidays” – almanacs of 8 novels on a variety of holiday dates.
Everyone will find both the bad and the good in them – I personally liked the first two films – they have interesting stories, and frank thrash, but the idea itself is very good, especially with “Scarlets”, where the finale was very discouraging.
With Black Holidays, things are different. Here are collected stories about different holidays - Christmas, New Year, Father's Day and Mother's Day, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter and others. And if the stories about popular and well-known holidays are quite accessible and understandable, then the novels about Easter and St. Patrick’s Day, on the contrary, have their Catholic roots and it is quite difficult to understand them, in the legends described there. Plus, some of them end with an open book - they have a lot of understatement and the viewer himself is free to think up the ending and fantasize on the topic "What did all this lead to?"
On the one hand, this is good, on the other hand it is not very, but if you evaluate the “Black Holidays” as a whole, you can be satisfied in general. This is not a horror movie in its entirety. It is a horror game with elements of black comedy, even with an abundance of similar elements. Not all stories can be considered creepy - for example, a mini-film about a pimp - in general outright vulgarity, but there are also very interesting episodes, such as "Father's Day" - this story generally deserves a full meter because it can make a great film. She lures her unknown, attracts the expectation of a long-awaited meeting of her daughter and father and forces her to come up with a variety of options for the development of events after the girl reaches her goal.
Such a film as “Black Holidays” or as “Monster City”, or as “Trick or Life”, or as “Christmas Scarecrows” is better to look at certain dates, that is, holidays, so that the effect of viewing is enhanced and the viewer can lift the veil of this significant day in the calendar and see the other side. And this side does not always drown in kindness, tinsel and sequins. She is often drowned in cries for help, rivers of blood and mass deaths.
As a result, “Black Holidays” will probably find or have already found its viewer. A movie with its pros and cons. As another positive side, I note the fact that if you do not have 100 minutes to watch the whole film, you can watch a couple of short stories, and the rest to watch later – from the fact that you pressed the pause, your perception of what you have already seen will not fade, because the stories are completely different.
But look at you. I do not impose my opinion on anyone.
The viewer is invited to watch eight stories, each of which is dedicated to the holidays.
I will tell you everything in order.
Let me start with the stories I liked the most.
Valentine's Day
The story of a teenage girl’s unrequited love for a coach. As it turned out, the best gift is the bloodied heart of the annoying bully in the group. Thus, you can make a pleasant surprise to your loved one and stop ridiculing other girls. But with all my heart. In the literal sense of the word.
Easter
What can you find at night on a festive Easter day, if you do not sleep?
Or who? Of course, the Easter Bunny is a monster who has to deliver chocolate eggs every year for curious girls. But now comes the hour of reckoning, and the hare transfers its powers in full.
Christmas
They say everyone has skeletons in their closet. Perhaps no one knows about their existence, until super gadgets come to the aid of a person who will finally show what is hidden. And it happens that the wet BDSM fantasies and theft of the husband are flowers that are difficult to compare with the bloody adventures of the wife.
Father's Day
Maybe it wasn’t worth digging into the past and listening to old tapes?
The girl missed her father very much and decided to find him.
Listening to my father’s voice, I followed his advice. And finally, I saw a strange asexual creature. “Now we’ll always be together...” and the tape breaks.
Halloween
Three girls decided to play witches.
And Halloween is the day. The girls worked in a chat room for adults, and they were terribly tired of lustful assholes who could also respond unflatteringly to them, call them whores. A thankless job. Nervous, tears and resentment. The victim who would have to pay for all the insults and humiliations of the girls, found itself.
And then there are three stories that I liked less.
Mother's Day is about a girl who has had many abortions, but did not plan to have children. Later, she turned to the services of alternative medicine.
New Year
You can almost write an epilogue to this story. And that expression would be:
A fisherman sees from a distance. There was a maniac. I didn't touch anyone. Except for the victims, of course. And one day, he ran into an even bigger maniac. Time to open the champagne.
And finally, the most incomprehensible story of the eight is St. Patrick's Day.
A school teacher finds out she is pregnant with a snake. And the whole pregnancy, her student watches her with a cheerful smile. And after the birth of a snake, a certain coven occurs. Children in animal masks jump and have fun.
I described all eight stories. Some people like it more, some less.
Reminds me of "Tales from the Crypt." If you think about it, there is a moral in every story.
I also remember the hare. Makeup artists and artists tried their best. These stories helped pass an unpretentious evening. Thank you to the creators!
The theme of the next terrible almanac was chosen more than successfully - cute, bright (Halloween does not count), family holidays are demonstrated from the dark side. But the fertile soil, in the form of a great idea, did not help the cohort of directors to concoct at least one digestible short.
I won’t say that everything is bad, some stories are still watchable, but it’s a bit boring easy. If there is a plot, this is a huge plus, but then the director will necessarily fail imagination. There is no secondaryness, sometimes the canons of the genre are observed, there is simply no desire to surprise the viewer at least a little, to shock some bloody detail. A complete lack of humor clogs the last nail.
The only plus is a decent acting pitch. No overplay and inappropriate curves, everything is so serious that sometimes too much.
Stories based only on violence are of interest, as soon as mysticism comes into play, the picture turns into a complete bedlam.
I will not recommend the film for viewing, literally every story is weak, well, may please “Valentine’s Day”, and “New Year’s Eve” and then I ask without much expectation, and Kevin Smith disappointed, to remove such primitiveness in the spirit of Eli Roth mind is not much needed. Don't waste your time!!!
Another interesting set for fans of niche cinema. Black Holidays. Horrors with different intersperses. Comedy, melodrama, love story, philosophy, religion, science fiction. Theme - well-known and therefore obliterated holidays. Eight directors are eight novels. The very idea of such a set, I think, is simple - to try to find some new trends in the genre itself and commercially implement several short meters of varying degrees of quality and talent.
Within the framework of very small time studies (from 10 to 15 minutes) are placed a variety of horror stories, which cover all sorts of manifestations of the genre. In the collection itself there are undoubted successes - "Christmas", decided in a fantastic way, and "Halloween", based on the black humor of the anthem to feminism. "Father's Day" and "Easter" claim greater depth than claimed in content. In Father’s Day, a horror thriller based on the strength of faith in family ties is clearly visible, and the author is clearly closely in the proposed format and ideas are presented dotted. The director of Easter is pretentious, tries to organize an attack against Christianity in his novel, but in the end rolls out a strange horror in which there is more grotesque than real fear.
Novels about the days of St. Valentine, St. Patrick, Mother’s Day and the unusual New Year are trivial. For their disclosure was quite enough declared timekeeping. Although in the “New Year” you can see some conditional sketches for a full meter. Separately, I note that as directors, the work on “Black Holidays” was conducted not so underground filmmakers – Kevin Smith ("Clerks and Dogma) and Scott Charles Stewart ("Gloomy Heavens and Shepherd). Acting is professional and far from amateur.
I will not hide, “Black Holidays” pleasantly surprised as a polygon of creative ideas in the first place. Eight presented sketches very accurately reveal the different potential of workers of a very conservative genre. It is a pity, but nowhere did I find an independent vote of the audience for the novels worthy of leaving in full measure. “Black Holidays” is a great example of creative competition and an opportunity to express themselves to interesting beginners along with established masters.
With age, you begin to perceive stories a little differently. As a child, it seemed that “Sleeping Beauty”, “Snow White” and “Red Riding Hood” are funny stories, after which you want to fall asleep with a sound sleep, but with age you begin to understand that their authors laid in the essence of fairy tales such frightening nightmares that they just need to make a horror film and scare the impressionable viewer. If you dig deep into the topic and trace the mythology of not only fairy tales, but also holidays, at the time you are seriously afraid. Take Christmas at least. Children and adults are used to the fact that on this bright day under the tree you can find the desired gifts, and then go to family for a festive lunch. The eternal symbol of Christmas has always been Santa Claus, or Santa Claus, depending on the culture. However, few people know that the merry beard has a dark brother called Krampus. Unlike Santa Claus, he does not come to give people gifts, but to punish their misdeeds. Almost every holiday has a frowny past that people prefer not to talk about. But you will agree that it would be incredibly interesting to learn all these legends and tell at night by the fire as horror stories. And while some of us are just thinking about it, Kevin Smith and a company of equally talented directors gave us “Black Holidays”, a collection of intriguing horror stories, whose action takes place on the most unexpected days of the year, when you want to relax and not think about anything disturbing.
The film is divided into several separate stories, each of which is unique in its own way. Some holidays, like Christmas, are depicted from a mystical point of view. Pushing Santa Claus aside, a festive demon climbs the stage, recently something frequented in the big movie. And if you think “Crampus,” the box office hit of the New Year’s Eve, has everything you need to know about this monster, then you’re wrong! “Black Holidays” will surprise you with a much tougher, uncompromising story, striking with its bloody revelations. Not without the horror associated with St. Patrick’s Day. For the first time in history, the green tones of this memorable celebration will be flooded with crimson rivers of blood of innocent victims of a brutal killer. But to me, the most tragic story is related to Valentine’s Day. Love can cloud the mind of any person, not to mention high school girls in the age of puberty. The main heroine of the story seriously fell in love with a physical education coach and can not imagine any other girl near the man of her dreams. Gradually, the mania sharpens, innocent dreams replace manic syndrome and it becomes clear that catastrophe can not be avoided.
To describe all the plot lines of “Black Holidays” is an ungrateful business. The film is divided into a dozen individual stories that deserve attention. Maybe not all of them will seem worthy to you, and you could safely get rid of some, but for the most part, horror is worth getting acquainted with it. Just before viewing, prepare for the fact that you will be shocked without requiring permission. Weak-hearted viewers better bypass "Black Holidays" side, but if you are ready to enjoy a radical horror, full of unexpected plot twists and bloody rivers, then please welcome to the viewing. Believe me, the film will not leave you indifferent.
What associations come to mind when you mention the word “holiday”? I can say with confidence that you imagine either a warm family evening, or an unrestrained party in the company of closest friends, or a banal opportunity to put things aside and in a pillow hug to watch another series of your favorite series. But cinema has its own unique opinion about the holidays. Setting aside "The Irony of Fate," "Love Actually" and "Independence Day," because they are claimed by "Halloween," "Black Christmas" and many other tense horrors that shatter the mythology of bright holidays to smithereens. Movies like this are interesting because they abandon traditional values, scaring viewers with brutal revelations that make the heart beat at a double rate. Because of the horrors of the festive orientation, it is no longer possible to calmly look at the elegantly decorated Christmas tree, and Valentine’s Day causes not the most pleasant associations thanks to all sorts of movie maniacs who choose the holiday of love as a testing ground for a bloody extravaganza. The creators of a new horror film called Black Holidays decided to go even further, shooting a series of short stories placed as part of a common project. The original almanac does not hesitate to trample the festive aura into deadly traps, preparing its own nightmares for Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day and other bright dates.
Some of the stories featured in Black Holidays are seriously scary. When you know exactly what kind of heroes you can not worry about, they suddenly get into a mess, from which it is almost impossible to get out. There will be plenty of such situations here. The film is attractive because it constantly changes its tone. At one moment you want to take and hide under the chair, so as not to see the monster inexorably approaching the camera, and at another you are already with open eyes sitting and laughing at a joke successfully inserted into the plot. Thanks to this, the Black Holidays fly by in one breath and you just do not have time to get tired of them.
The merits of the film should include not only a well-written script and masterful directing, but also a wonderful cast. Honestly, I don’t know all the performers who played leading roles in all these stories, but they coped just amazingly. When necessary, they cheered, and when the hour of real nightmares came, so powerful emotions appeared on their faces that you inevitably begin to look around and see if one of the monsters that appeared in Black Holidays was behind you! It was especially exciting to see Seth Green in the movie. Though he has little screen time, he showed himself great. I think it’s no secret that Greene mainly plays comedic roles and in “Black Holidays” he also had to have fun with the audience for joy.
You can talk about “Black Holidays” for a long time, but instead of disassembling each story separately, finding out all their advantages and disadvantages for a long time and tediously, I advise you to watch this movie yourself. The film deserves to be seen by lovers of good horrors, because it is extraordinary and bright. You will not have time to come to your senses as the final credits begin to run on the screen. I don’t know if Black Holidays will get a sequel, but I can tell you right now that I’m going to review the movie! It is not necessary to wait for Halloween night. Maybe I want to watch the movie for Easter. Why not? Judging by one of the stories, this holiday is far from as cloudless as we all think.
Holidays is a collection of short films positioned as an almanac of horror sketches based on the use of attributes and references to the most popular holidays of European culture in the range from Valentine’s Day to New Year. Licorice sticks, heart-shaped chocolate packages, colorful garlands and weekend hospitality are replaced, according to the requirements of the horror genre - with blood, violence and a sense of increasing supernatural threat.
The sketches, which last about 15 minutes, address the entire spectrum of the space of the basic themes of horror. The Holidays present: manic personality changes; the advent of a supernatural essence into the world and vice versa – moving beyond the limits of everyday reality; exposition and hyperbolization of suppressed sexual desires, as well as variations on the theme of ritualism of religious consciousness. It should be noted that the eight film sketches of Holidays are united by no formal attachment to the established attributes of the celebrations in question. The general storyline is the time of action of each of the terrible stories, covering the eve of a particular holiday, the authors do not focus, for example, on funny costumes and bright makeup on Halloween or green beer on St. Patrick’s Day.
Each mini-film here, and this is the main advantage of the Holidays, is not just an exemplary short film, perfectly tailored according to patterns, requiring conciseness, at the same time assuming the possibility of conversion into a full-length film. But illustratively proves that to perceive horror as a primitive genre, built on booh!-moments and liters of fake blood, wrong. The plot and the concept of the supernatural (both understood literally and considered as a deviation from socially approved norms of behavior) do not lead to a decrease in the quality of script drama, but only increase the requirements for the ingenuity of the author.
“Holidays” came out at a time when the festival section “after dark” ceased to be perceived as a new trend of cinematic culture, an offer of revisionism within the boundaries of the chosen genre. But, in addition to the saturation of the modern horror film market, both large and small forms, the modest rolling achievements of this peculiar horror anthology shown at the Tribeca Film Festival also contributed to the contrasting level of quality presented in the “Holidays” paintings.
According to producer John Hajeman, the original list of potential directors included 32 names. "Holidays" include both a stylish indie about the difficult teenager "Valentine's Day" and outright thrash, a clear setback with a claim to an interpretation of the "uroboros" symbol called "St. Patrick's Day." A satirical-grotesque view of the realities of Christianity, far from common sense, if considered logically and impartially, is presented in Easter. The psychological thriller about the end of the world is titled “Mother’s Day”, and there is also science fiction with Freudian motives – “Christmas”. All of these films belong to the category of "programme", do not contain innovation and any features that allow us to talk about them as original. The trio "Father's Day", "Halloween" and "New Year's Eve" deserve attention.
The film dedicated to Father’s Day, thanks to the absolute unpredictability of the plot, and the fierce focus of the author on building a separate artistic universe of his story (albeit extremely limited in timekeeping), makes you remember the work of Stephen King, behind a bright cover hiding deep meanings. Without making spoilers, we can say that if the plot of "Father's Day" will be used for the production of a full-length film, directed by the author of the short version Anthony Scott Burns, the releasing studio is not only guaranteed to get a place in the program of Sundance, but also box office success, due to the coverage of the widest target audience, because "Father's Day" as spectacular in form and twists, and is not without the subtext of the continuity of family ties.
As in "Father's Day", the expansion to the full-metre format is easily imaginable with "New Year's Eve", in which the central role was played by Lorenzo Izza, the wife and muse of modern torture porn specialist Elijah Roth. The new year, authored by promising Adam Mortimer, who put a supernatural slasher “A Type of Hate”, is characterized by twists regarding the change of roles “hunter-victim” and black humor, but not deliberate, but ironic and serving to emphasize the merits of the slasher “New Year’s Eve”.
Black humor is also present in the segment "Halloween", directed by Kevin Smith himself, an undisputed authority in the environment of independent cinema, although shaken this status with the film "Fang", an experiment about body modification. Smith’s fame, by the way, was used as the main marketing tool for Holidays. As for “Halloween”, this is an exemplary example of the anthem for gender equality, but performed both in an unexpected genre and with the use of non-trivial, humorous ways to establish this equality, which here are the vibrator and the battery from the car.
Without denying the dynamism and brightness of the overall action (which in itself is a great merit, unattainable for many directors even full-length film horrors), an extremely competent strategy for compiling this almanac, based on an unconventional view of the “red” days of the calendar, and a stylish uniformity of titles – greeting cards, it is impossible not to recognize the fact that it is very difficult to determine the target audience of “Holidays”. For fans of the genre of standardized horror, this film will seem overly gravitating to indie stylistics. For those who view horror as a potential basis for independent cinema, the originality of a la V/H/S or It Follow is evident in the vast minority of Holidays novels.
In other words, this film collection is an ideal option for replacing niches in the festival program, followed by moving to the VOD format, bypassing cinemas. Without arousing the interest of critics and audience excitement, the horror almanac offers, however, a quite acceptable option for spending an hour and a half and is a decent platform for starting the career of newcomers to the film industry, which are many of the directors and screenwriters who took part in the Holidays.
This picture was made up of a whole cohort of directors. A film about eight novels. And each segment carries a call sign story with a special message.
The first story, the first holiday, is Valentine's Day. It tells about a modest girl who is in love with a ski jump coach. She's tormented by her peers. She doesn't know how to answer them. She feels sorry for a coach who has a good heart. A heart that needs a transplant... And soon enough, patience comes to an end. Will the oppressed person, whom the viewer will definitely empathize with, dare to give the coach a valentine?
The second feast before our eyes is the day of Saint Patrick. The story tells how Patrick eradicated paganism. That's what the teacher says in class. A teacher who has her own dream. But for now, she wants one redheaded girl to start smiling. She says she'll smile when the teacher's dream comes true. Pregnancy is happiness. The baby will just be born! It's probably not an easy story. Because the meaning is not on the surface.
Mother's Day. And we have a woman who interrupts the pregnancy every time. The third story, in my subjective opinion, is a kind of confusion. After all, a woman is sent to alternative medicine. And then something happens that turns everything upside down. But to become the picture itself, this story will find its terrible end.
Father's Day was already approaching our reality. Because in her grown daughter follows the trail of her father, who left her messages: where and on what day she should go to find him. She thought he was dead. Here I would dare say that this is a fairly strong sketch. After all, in the end, the girl, as well as us, the audience, was waiting for a real revelation.
There will also be a story about Easter. And in it, the creators will link the story of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with the Easter Rabbit. How? I thought it was impossible, too. Far from ...
Well, the story with the muddles and the pimp I can not call terrible. Maybe it is, but I laughed more. Not even trying to project everything on yourself.
Is it a story about Christmas ? This is probably the coolest one. It is about human cruelty. And also about the device that allows you to see the virtual world.
After Christmas, there is New Year. This holiday turns around for someone who has a closet full of their skeletons in an unexpected way.
The actors play very, very well. I can't dig into any of them. There are questions to the Rabbit about visual perception, but the same questions disappear in the story about Christmas.
All these wild things are shown to us as a reminder. And there. He who has eyes, let him see.
8 out of 10
Of all the variety of horrors that come out on large and small screens with enviable regularity, Black Holidays are distinguished by an original approach to the embodiment of the most extraordinary, radical and even crazy nightmares. Cold blood mystical horror film flirts with a fair amount of self-irony and black humor, which instantly bribes. According to the tradition of such memorable horror projects as “The ABC of Death” and “The Eve of All Saints’ Day”, “Black Holidays” were built in the format of a bloody almanac, consisting of many separate stories representing completely different, unlike each other heroes who faced live nightmares on a particular holiday. The extraordinary idea was implemented with full enthusiasm by the creators of their business and could boast the participation of such notorious directors as Kevin Smith (“Clerks”) and Scott Charles Stewart (“Dark Skies”). In addition, “Black Holidays” also gathered under their banners a number of notable performers, among which were Seth Green (“So Vacation”), Michael Gross (“Trembling of the Earth”) and Lorenza Izzo (“Who’s There”). Without impressive studio support, the creators of the presented almanac nevertheless tried to do everything in their power, as long as "Black Holidays" became one of the most memorable events of the horror genre in recent times. And despite the inevitable flaws, the film is worthy of attention and it is worth talking about its segments in more detail.
Valentine's Day (7 of 10)
The plot of the first story takes us to the pool of one of the secondary schools located in a small provincial town. It is here that we meet Maxi, not the most attractive, but definitely cute girl, secretly in love with a physical education teacher. Experiencing constant ridicule from classmates, the heroine persistently endures humiliation, sincerely believing that the man of dreams will one day draw attention to her. And on the eve of the holiday of all lovers, this significant event takes place. Only the heroine is too early to celebrate her triumph. Unfortunately, Maxie has not yet learned to adequately assess sympathy and pity for her person, which ultimately leads to tragic consequences.
St. Patrick's Day (6 of 10)
Shortly before the celebrations associated with the most important holiday of all Ireland, a silent, unsociable red-haired girl arrives at one of the schools of the country, which is a mystery that should be worked on. Trying to talk to a new student, teacher Cullen still gets his way, not waiting for the nightmare consequences it will lead. Having concluded an unspoken contract with a student, she gets the opportunity to realize everything, even her most secret dreams. One day, Callen discovers she is pregnant. It does not matter that the baby in her womb has nothing to do with the person. The joy of motherhood smooths even the most terrible omens.
Easter (5 of 10)
As she prepares to go to sleep on Easter night, she asks her mother to tell the story of Jesus Christ and the Easter Rabbit. Experiencing one of the most important Christian holidays is not the most trembling feelings, the young heroine is worried that one day at the door of her room will appear a man who rose from the dead and his no less frightening henchman, the revived Rabbit. With a smile, dispelling the fears of her daughter about Easter, the mother with a calm soul went to her bedroom to please her daughter with chocolate eggs in the morning, but the festive breakfast was overshadowed by the disappearance of the girl who this night met a horror that defies logical description.
Mother's Day (4 out of 10)
The fourth holiday introduces us to a young girl who once again got to see a gynecologist with pregnancy. The dream of every woman to have a child turns into a nightmare for the heroine: every sexual act with a man, whether it occurs with protective drugs or without, turns into a mandatory conception of a child. Having survived at least 20 abortions, she decided to finally get rid of the unique feature of her body. Official medicine refused to grant her request, and then the heroine had no choice but to seek help from the abbot of the fertility cult. Sincerely believing that the priests of the birth of a new life can conduct a reverse ritual, the girl puts herself in their hands, but as you would expect, the results of the ceremony will be unforeseen.
Father's Day (6 out of 10)
Tired of annoying everyday life, the teacher returns to her native monastery in order to distract from thoughts about work and simply relax. However, all the attention of the heroine is captured by a mysterious package with an audio cassette inside. Putting her on the record player, the teacher hears the voice of her long-lost father, whom she thought was dead. According to the assurances of an unknown, but seemingly so dear, man, the heroine must urgently go on a journey to the places of her childhood and then she will find her father again. Risking to get involved in an unexpected adventure, the teacher is approaching the end, after which her life will not be the same.
Halloween (7 of 10)
Not the most pleasant in communication, the organizer of virtual flirtation services returns to the makeshift office in order to put the hired girls in their place. Once again mocking the dignity of fragile ladies, the head-timid did not expect that this time they will give him a worthy rebuff. On the eve of All Saints Day, the hero will have to stand in the place of his wards and show the sexually dissatisfied audience what he is really worth. Entering the epicenter of violence, the former boss finally realizes what it means to be ordinary mediocrity, which no one takes into account.
Christmas (6 out of 10)
Pete Gunderson receives an order from his son for Christmas, which is not so easy to find. Glasses that simulate virtual reality have become a real deficit and Pete has to do everything possible to please the child. Right up to unintentional murder. But Pete's misadventures don't end there. It turns out that glasses are something more than a simple toy, and are able to penetrate the most secret secrets of the subconscious.
New Year (7 out of 10)
Having dealt with the next victim, the maniac comes on the trail of a new girl exactly for the New Year. Intent on murder, the villain does everything possible to get to the victim’s apartment, but this holiday will not be as happy for him as before. A nice girl who agreed to spend the night with a stranger does not give up so easily and is able to present a couple of unexpected surprises.
The creators of Black Holidays tried to entertain the audience with an unusual mixture of styles, genres and preferences. Along with the bloody slasher, there is an instructive soul story, and after it there is an almost formal comedy. Each segment of the film is interesting and remarkable in its own way. Some stories, such as Mother’s Day, would be worth working more carefully to justify the suspense being pumped up with digestible logical conclusions, but in general, “Black Holidays” deserve to be read more closely. Humor, nightmare, absurdity and amusing insanity follow each other without stopping, reminding the viewer that nightmares are much closer than they may seem. Overall assessment of the project as a whole:
To the film “Black Holidays” had a hand more than one famous Director and it played a special role. The film turned out as if woven from different paintings, but on the same theme. The theme of stories is sweet and beloved holidays, but on the other, dark side.
The story begins with the story of a schoolgirl in love with her coach. This confident and strong novel sets the tone and successfully adjusts for viewing. By increasing, short films are dynamically gaining momentum, turning from small thrillers into chilling pictures of horrors and fears. Simple special effects and the absence of a star cast do not spoil the overall impression, just the opposite, everything looks as if you have seen a secret or saw something forbidden and very interesting.
The picture is bright, unusual and bold. In some places, the plot is just on the verge of a foul. Very unexpected endings for all stories, and some will give food for thought. I'll remember the story of St. Patrick's Day for a long time. It's just scary if you understand what the director wanted to say. The only overkill came with the Easter holiday. I really liked the rest.
In the novels, absolutely everything is good, from performance to great music. With a minimum of screen time and conversations, you get the full volume of all emotions: intrigue, sympathy, and then the action turns into a real nightmare.
Black holidays can be perceived in different ways, everything will depend on the mood. It can be as irony and a little mockery, as a horror film, or just as a black comedy, in any case, the picture is extraordinary and will certainly cause a storm of emotions.
When sweet and beloved holidays turn into a nightmare.
I was very interested in the idea of creating something scary and creepy out of something that usually makes us happy or have some pleasant emotions. I didn’t expect much from the film, I thought it would be at an average level, but it didn’t even reach that level.
8 small unrelated stories, each of which symbolizes one of the famous American holidays. Are you used to thinking that Easter is cute, that on Halloween everyone eats candy in funny costumes or that on New Year’s Eve people meet their halves? That’s not true, at least in this movie. Every holiday is filled with fear and cruelty.
An unusual idea that resulted in 8 holidays: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, New Year. In fact, in this idea there is something catching, bribing, which causes a desire to see the result, since holidays are very rarely the basis of horror films and usually it is one, not a whole set of them. It turned out to be something like stories from the crypt. None of the stories is like the other and each had a separate cast and director. But the whole picture came out strange, in this situation, of course, it is better to analyze the stories separately, because the plots are different, somewhere instructive, somewhere delusional.
To be honest, I can’t say anything about actors, it’s just play as a game, nothing special, corresponds to a crazy and stupid movie. Here are more questions for writers and directors, how they even thought of some of the plots. Most often, there was a full thrash on the screen, which was a senseless nonsense of the abnormal and had no special relation to the holiday, except for the final card, where the congratulations are signed. All too often, when you watch a story, you get to the point where you just want to ask: what is it? Of all the 8 stories, only 3 seemed more or less adequate to me, they are at least catchy, and do not cause one sheer disgust or misunderstanding. So, my 3:
Valentine’s Day is a little or even a lot of crazy teenage love, the holiday tradition is observed more than literally.
Christmas is a time when you make wishes, an instructive story that makes you think.
New Year - in the United States, on this holiday, it is customary to find a mate when it strikes 12 nights; the main thing is that during the search, one psychopathic maniac does not come across an even greater madman.
All the other stories are like complete nonsense. I just don't understand how the mind got to this and why?
Easter is a complete perversion of religion.
Mother’s Day is just one question: what was it in general?
St. Patrick's Day - I want to repeat the question as the previous holiday. Something similar to the hallucinations of a drug addict.
Father’s Day – everything started interesting, it was atmospheric, but the ending was meaningless and in the end ruined everything.
Halloween - perversions, revenge and sadism, nothing to do with the holiday found.
The film, of course, you can watch out of curiosity, how cute holidays turned into chilling souls, but rather you will be scared of how such nonsense could come to someone’s mind.
3 out of 10
Many anthologies can be called unsuccessful, a collection of various short films shoots only once a year. A great collection, in my opinion, is "Monster City", the main idea that served as Halloween. I have mixed feelings about this film. It is good, it is bad, it is even too good.
I only liked 4 stories out of 8. Exactly half.
I'll start with the stories I liked:
The first story that caught on was Valentine's Day. Properly from the directed work of two guys who gave us the "Eyes of the Star". Nostalgic music, interesting camera plans, and good acting.
The second story is about Father's Day. I like the idea of what happens when my daughter is looking for her father. However, the ending is very delusional, but still because of a good tie it got into my top of favorite stories.
The third story is Christmas. Very original story, with good humor and even some moralizing. With the participation of the creator "Robot Chicken" Seth Green.
And the fourth b> is the new year. But it was funny, even very funny. Fun fast storytelling mixed with black humor.
The rest of the stories:
Mother's Day is bullshit. St. Patrick's Day is relatively bad and boring. Easter is a mockery of religion, with backward humor. And the bottom is Halloween. So to pervert this terrible holiday could only Kevin Smith. Again perversions and sadistic inclinations, as in "Tube". It would be better not to go into horror.
Still, because of the good 4 stories, I will make the review neutral, and put a relatively high rating. But in a barrel of honey there is always a spoonful of tar, and here is half a barrel of honey, half a barrel of tar.
