Christmas without atmosphere and meaning As much as I would like to admit the opposite, but everything in the world has its own dark edge, even Christmas. Of course, this is the most coveted and large-scale holiday on the whole planet, and yet these days not everyone wants to sit at a table with their loved ones, sing songs and open gifts. Some people are completely unnecessary, from which they begin to look for somewhat different, frowning Christmas motifs that depart quite far from the usual festive canons. And as ancient folklore tells us, even such a famous and popular hero of fairy tales and legends as Santa Claus has his sinister antipode, whose name is Krampus. But this is only a small fraction of sinister revelations that are somehow connected with Christmas, and therefore it is not surprising that the number of frightening stories that shade the brightest holiday, from year to year only expands, and people accept them with special interest. Cinema is especially successful here, which in a spectacular and memorable form shows us a nightmare that can manifest itself at any moment and collect a bloody tribute without embarrassing anyone to shock. Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Santa Killer and many other famous films on the theme of the gloomy winter holidays have firmly occupied their genre niche, and yet the audience demands the continuation of the intimidating banquet, which, apparently, will not end soon. However, here it is necessary to recognize that a fair share of such Christmas pictures is frankly sad spectacle and, unfortunately, “Good News” refers to those films that promised much more than we were given.
Directly the plot of the film introduces us to the war veteran Sam Baker (Alan Mulhall), who has behind him the hardest lived years, as well as the ghosts of the past, which you want to forget, but it does not work. And yet, despite all the sorrows and sorrows that have fallen on him, Sam tries not to be discouraged and even found his true purpose in helping poor people like himself. Having established a homeless shelter in an abandoned courthouse, Sam tries to provide all the necessary support to everyone who needs it. Relying on his good friends, recovered drug addict Roxy (Claire Crossland), as well as a happy couple in love in the person of Paul (Harry McMahon) and Mona (Julia Walsh) O'Connor, Sam managed to create a rather interesting charitable organization, which may not have serious funds, but has a sincere human attitude to the homeless and the desire to change this world for the better. However, despite all his efforts, on Christmas Eve, Sam, his friends and wards face a problem that is not easy to solve. And the fact is that a trio of inadequate psychopaths in costumes of Santa Claus decides to take all those in the shelter hostage in order to later get rid of them in the most cruel way. But despite the sophistication of their actions, sadists will receive a worthy rebuff, because those people who have nothing more to lose, it is very difficult to manipulate, and therefore they themselves can turn into a serious threat to attackers.
From a film made for mere pennies, it is completely pointless to demand something incredible, and yet in the history of cinema there are at least a few cases where films without a budget have become worldwide box office hits. Examples include the notorious Blair Witch and Paranormal. However, even if one wishes, one cannot say that Stuart W. Bedford’s Good News can even come close to its fame and artistic potential. Of course, in this film there are very interesting, practical thoughts, as well as a good dramaturgy associated with the image of the main character, who has had so many misfortunes in his life that they would be enough for a dozen people, but the director does not quite correctly place accents and potentially winning storylines are cut to the root to demonstrate to the audience a frankly mediocre slasher, which is even not the most demanding viewer is quite difficult to surprise. And this becomes the biggest problem of the story, as Good News is primarily positioned as a bloody attraction, but it is rather faceless and tortured. You can see that the creators frankly do not have enough money to demonstrate sophisticated cruelty, but they had no choice and they had to at least try to impress their audience. But nothing worthy came of it. It is possible that the situation could have been saved by a deeper study of the human drama of both Sam and those who entrenched themselves in a makeshift shelter next to him, but the director decided otherwise and eventually reduced the story to a very sad slasher, in which there is no truly memorable scene.
But despite the fact that “Good News” is a film that frankly has nothing to boast of, here you can at least note a very digestible camera work. No, of course, it does not amaze with some amazing technical findings, but it is still quite confident and sometimes pleases us with angles, which at least partially dilutes the frankly mediocre spectacle, completely devoid of imagination. Not in the name of limitations in the work and given all the creative freedom of action, Shane de Almeida managed to realize his ambitions and went on a couple of experiments that were successful, but for the most part it is the only worthy aspect of the film that is really worth talking about. In all other respects, the Good News is incapable of impressing the viewer. A specially chosen Christmas theme for the film, which promised to become one of the greatest features of the production, essentially disappeared into the dark corridors of the abandoned building. And will not save the situation even periodically slipping in the soundtrack Christmas bells. They just don’t belong here.
In conclusion, I want to say that “Good news” is a frankly sad spectacle, which does not stand out from other holiday slashers. And even more, the film is so mediocre and budgetary that the authors could not even saturate their spectacle with selective thrashing, which could partially correct the situation. This work does not deserve the attention of the audience.
3 out of 10