By Simon Thompson
When a horror anthology movie is done right, it often becomes a beloved entry into the genre’s canon, with classics such as Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath, or George A Romero and Stephen King’s Creepshow, being two fantastic examples of when this method of storytelling is done to absolute perfection.
The problem with anthology narratives, however, is that a lot of them largely end up being a mixed bag, because they are beholden to the quality of each individual narrative which sometimes makes it difficult for the overall movie itself to be judged on its own merits.
This brings us to Robert Living’s and Randy Nundlall Jr’s The Christmas Tapes, a film whose consistency is the cinematic equivalent of Oliver Giroud’s goalscoring record. The plot of The Christmas Tapes centres around a family enjoying Christmas Eve trying to decide what movie to watch together until Geoff (played by The Room’s very own Greg Sestero) turns up- causing the vibe to shift from being less Bing Crosby and more Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Geoff forces the family to watch four tapes (which is where the anthology part of the story comes in) and forces the daughter of the bunch to tape her mum’s, her dad’s, and her brother’s reactions because of his desire to make a ‘Christmas classic’.
Stories one and two of The Christmas Tapes are some pretty effective little pieces of short form horror. Story one, entitled Travel Buggies, centres around a husband-wife pair of travel vloggers trapped in the woods realising they’re not the only ones there. While it does meander for a little too long it wasn’t too much of a deal breaker and I was entertained for most of the duration of it.
Story two , The Christmas Gift, is hands down the best of the lot, centring around a father trying to organise a Christmas surprise stunt for his kids, eventually finding out that the Father Christmas impersonator ( played by Aussie movie legend Vernon Welles) he’s arranged it with isn’t all that he seems. This is by far the most effective story because it’s the best acted, has the strongest sense of atmosphere and although you can see the twist developing the horror is still effective when it does happen.
Past this point the movie completely runs out of momentum and I’d honestly recommend skipping the last two stories in the anthology. The third story, of a man caught in a Saw-esque race against a time trap, and the finale about a married couple moving into a new home only to discover it’s haunted, are both completely generic and uninteresting to the point that I needed 3 tea breaks to get through the latter.
Overall The Christmas Tapes is sadly a pretty hit-and-miss affair, but if you’ve exhausted the plethora of Christmas-themed horror movies, the first two tales in this are worth a quick glance in isolation.
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