Since I usually enjoy Christmas-themed horror movies, I decided to rent "Christmas Nightmare" when I saw it on the shelf at Hollywood Video. I could've passed on it though. The movie begins on December 25, 1947 at an isolated house in the California woods, with a bright Christmas tree in the front window. A man, after brutally slaughtering his two daughters, dumps their bodies in a pond and then hangs himself from a windmill while his dog watches. Cut to present day, on December 22, a young married couple are whisked off to a safe house one stormy night after witnessing the murder of a presidential candidate. They end up at the wrong house, which is incidentally the house where the gruesome happenings occurred years earlier. While spending their holidays at the empty little house, the wife, Alice, begins seeing things, mainly visions of the sisters who were killed. Her husband thinks she's going insane, but when the agent who's guarding them begins to act strangely, the events are about to re-enact themselves.
A fairly cheesy holiday-horror film, "Christmas Nightmare" (also known as "The Damned") has a few little nice bits that are thrown into it. The story, while it may not seem like it from my synopsis, is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", only set in California in a tiny little house. You can especially see the parallels when the two little girls are seen around the property, which is very similar to the axe-murdered twins in "The Shining". There are some surprisingly chilling little bits in the film though. The opening scene was great, a really fitting way to start the movie. The murder flashback of the girls, while amateurish, is actually a little creepy, and the zoom shot of the father, who puts his bloody finger to his mouth in a shhh motion, was really haunting. I'm not quite sure why, but that quick shot really creeped me out.
Besides the minimal positives in this film, it's also overloaded with negatives. The acting was far below average, besides the woman who played Alice, who was actually not bad. But the actor who played the husband was really unconvincing. Second, are some of the special effects. There's a shot of the windmill that looked like it came straight from a cheesy video game, and the effects-laden finale was just unbelievably corny. The version that I saw was titled "Christmas Nightmare", but the Christmas-type setting isn't really present at all. The only few bits that even involve the holiday (besides the dates) are the opening with the Christmas tree, and the holiday sleigh bell music that is heard very little. Other than that, there's no snow on the ground, no holiday-related themes - the fact that this takes place during Christmas is highly irrelevant.
Overall, "Christmas Nightmare" is a low-budget, cheap little horror movie. It has a few nice touches, but it's mostly amateurish and sometimes uninteresting. If you enjoy really low-budget horror movies, you might like this, but don't expect anything that's too involved with the holiday (as the cover art might suggest). Had this film had a larger budget and a little polishing, it could've been quite good. 3/10.
A fairly cheesy holiday-horror film, "Christmas Nightmare" (also known as "The Damned") has a few little nice bits that are thrown into it. The story, while it may not seem like it from my synopsis, is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", only set in California in a tiny little house. You can especially see the parallels when the two little girls are seen around the property, which is very similar to the axe-murdered twins in "The Shining". There are some surprisingly chilling little bits in the film though. The opening scene was great, a really fitting way to start the movie. The murder flashback of the girls, while amateurish, is actually a little creepy, and the zoom shot of the father, who puts his bloody finger to his mouth in a shhh motion, was really haunting. I'm not quite sure why, but that quick shot really creeped me out.
Besides the minimal positives in this film, it's also overloaded with negatives. The acting was far below average, besides the woman who played Alice, who was actually not bad. But the actor who played the husband was really unconvincing. Second, are some of the special effects. There's a shot of the windmill that looked like it came straight from a cheesy video game, and the effects-laden finale was just unbelievably corny. The version that I saw was titled "Christmas Nightmare", but the Christmas-type setting isn't really present at all. The only few bits that even involve the holiday (besides the dates) are the opening with the Christmas tree, and the holiday sleigh bell music that is heard very little. Other than that, there's no snow on the ground, no holiday-related themes - the fact that this takes place during Christmas is highly irrelevant.
Overall, "Christmas Nightmare" is a low-budget, cheap little horror movie. It has a few nice touches, but it's mostly amateurish and sometimes uninteresting. If you enjoy really low-budget horror movies, you might like this, but don't expect anything that's too involved with the holiday (as the cover art might suggest). Had this film had a larger budget and a little polishing, it could've been quite good. 3/10.
