HOLIDAYS (2016)
Directors: Kevin
Smith, Gary Shore, Matt Johnson, Scott Stewart, Anthony Scott Burns, Denis
Widmyer, Kevin Kolsc, Sarah Adina Smith
It would seem that the horror anthology is trending as a
style now even more than ever and, as a subsidiary of that style, holiday
themed horror anthologies is also trending. Between the most obvious Halloween
focused films, there was a couple Christmas themed films that were worth their
weight in celluloid, but it was only a matter of time before a multitude of
holidays made it into one film. The aptly titled Holidays is that film. In a weird combination of holiday themed
horror and the ABCs of Death, Holidays is a generally entertaining
albeit roller coaster ride of quality for a horror anthology film. It certainly
doesn’t reach the heights of the granddaddy of modern anthology films like Trick R Treat, but it’s not nearly as a
mixed bag as the previously mentioned ABCs
of Death or the horrific V/H/S/3.
For horror fans, it’s a nice combination of diverse stories, but it’s also
hardly one of the best that the style has to offer. In anthologies, it’s
obvious that audiences are going to have some stories that hit home and others
that flounder. With Holidays, it’s
the same as the rest. If anything, at least all of the stories are entertaining
to some degree even if that entertainment focus fluctuates between the various
stories depending on their style.