24 short films from talent around the world, all boxed up into one cinematic advent calendar of horror. Following in the footsteps of ABCs of Death and Tales of Halloween, Deathcember is as ambitious as they come. Bringing together such big names as Milan Todorovic, Pollyanna McIntosh, Ruggero Deodato, and Lucky McKee, Deathcember certainly isn’t short on talent. Or time. Clocking in at a hefty 145 minutes, that’s a whole lot of Christmas.
Nothing fills a horror fan’s heart full of dread like the horror movie anthology; and not always for the right reasons. While the subgenre has its gems, it is – by nature – a very mixed bag. Deathcember is as mixed as they come, and, given the film’s sizeable length, you’ll be rooting around for some time looking for the good stuff. Of the lot, John Cook Lynch’s Cracker, Sam Wineman’s Milk and Cookies and Pollyanna McIntosh’s Getting Away From it All are worth the investment. There are a handful of middle-of-the-road segments too, and the collection is never far away from its next smart or inventive idea.
The good, however, is vastly outweighed by the bad. Ranging from incoherent to trashy all the way through to downright repulsive (providing you get the uncut version, complete with its claymation tale of a Gumby-type child repeatedly raped by priests on Christmas), there’s very little cohesion between the shorts. None of it flows or fits together well – and some of the shorts aren’t even Christmassy at all. When Deathcember is good, it’s, well, good. But when it’s bad, it’s really bad.
