By Horror anthologies are all the rage now. Get a couple of creatives together, pick a theme, and they’re allowed to explore one of the smaller ideas they have in their heads. At best, you’re in for a good time overall, at worst, each of the short films fail to hit their mark and the entire thing feels like a slog. But it turns out there’s an even worse fate than that.
You could have a few good shorts, but the majority are so average that those good ones seem worse in comparison. Holidays is an anthology where enjoyment of it relies on whether or not you find chopping off a penis hilarious.
[This film is playing as part of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, running from April 13-24 in New York City. For tickets and more information, click here.]
Holidays
Directors: Anthony Scott Burns, Kevin Kolsch, Sarah Adina Smith, Kevin Smith, Nicholas McCarthy, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Gary Shore, Scott Stewart, Dennis Widmyer
Rating: R
Release Date: April 15, 2016 (limited)
As its title suggests, Holidays is an anthology all based around holiday horrors. Each short is around 12-15 minutes long, with the director and holiday revealed after. There are eight shorts in total, all set in chronological horror: Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day. Easter, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Each short pretty much ends in the way you’d expect a short horror story to, so it’s all in the journey rather than the destination. Despite what I’m about to say in the next few paragraphs, I can’t ever say Holidays is bland. The film overall is a slick production with each short looking completely different from what came before or after. Each director has their own style, and while some may have better camerawork than others (St. Patrick’s Day is the standout in this case), there’s a care into getting the horror tone just right.
Out of the eight films, I especially enjoyed Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Father’s Day. Valentine’s Day is the most straightforward story, but revels in 80s synth storytelling (likening it to other big recent throwbacks like The Guest) coupled with dream-like lighting and a kickass electropop soundtrack. Father’s Day is strong and silent with very little dialogue from its main character (ably played by Jocelin Donahue) and is the creepiest film in the entire package. It’s also the one I’d argue is closest to actually being “horror” rather than the twisted joke the rest of the shorts play with. On a smaller note, Mother’s Day is much stronger given it’s paired with this testosterone laced (and somber) short. But the best overall is most definitely St. Patrick’s Day. It’s got the best camera work, quick edits do a lot with the little time it has, Ruth Bradley steals the show, and its twist ending is the most effective given how absurd and cartoonish it gets. It’s just a shame Holidays never quite reaches this peak again.
Since it’s all in chronological order, there’s no narrative cohesiveness. Other than lucking out with Father’s/Mother’s Day, the shorts never feel like they’re in the same package. With very little narrative buffer in between each short (explaining why we’re seeing these eight shorts for example), it’s disjointed. Some shorts have a humorous ending, some end on a jump scare, but regardless it’s all less effective since nothing really lingers. Since there’s no narrative flow between each short, they become all about the formula. Nothing but build-up until a pop at the end of the short. And when you’ve come to expect the same kind of ending halfway in, the last four segments lose all their pizazz. This is not at all helped by the final four’s weaknesses, either.
For example, Kevin Smith’s Halloween segment is the most, uh, “divisive.” It’s the most obscene of the shorts and its tone is unlike any other. But it’s entirely reliant on your personal tastes to succeed. It’s a revenge short that has to instantly reach for the most extreme circumstances due to its length, and since it’s not entirely earned, your enjoyment of it varies on whether or not you like seeing the guy from Epic Meal Time have a sex toy forced up his rear. And because of the film’s chronological order, Holidays just comes to an unsatisfying end. It can’t end with its best film (and furthered hindered by having the best shorts come first), and it gives New Year’s Day too much responsibility. It isn’t as bad of a short as Easter or Halloween, but it’s clearly not a short designed to bring a fulfilling resolution.
Like other horror anthologies before, Holidays stumbles more often than not. That’s just the nature of setups like these, and while the overall film is visually captivating it just doesn’t keep the same level of tension or entertainment throughout. Maybe if it were organized into a more cohesive package, the less successful films wouldn’t have seemed as bad.
But as it stands, you don’t have to go home for the holidays.