Couple new Christmas Horror movies are out streaming.
The Sacrifice Game:
It's bad enough that boarding school students Samantha and Clara can't go home for the holidays, but things take a deadly turn when a murderous gang arrives on their doorstep - just in time for Christmas.
A group is committing murders in a ritualistic manner, and comes across a boarding school where all but a handful of people have left for Christmas vacation. There's a really interesting twist to the formula that isn't conveyed by the synopsis or trailer, which I'll leave for people to catch themselves. The set up is pretty cool tbh.
But everything else about this is a little flat. The kills are unimaginative. Most performances are lacking, but the students are exceptions and I'm wondering if anyone else will get
Wednesday Adams vibes like I did. The dialogue is...a little forced.
It feels like they had a campy draft and a more serious draft, but couldn't decide which way to go, so they split the difference. Besides the premise, the next best thing about this is that the characters are unpredictable. You don't get to know anyone too well, so when someone snaps or takes a risk, it never feels forced.
Overall, it's mid. But it's a pretty fast watch with a really cool premise. I wish the execution were better, but this isn't bad.
There's Something in the Barn:
An American family fulfills their dream of moving back after inheriting a remote cabin in the mountains of Norway.
This is a horror-comedy pitting a family of four against an angry pack of "barn elves." It's a bit more violent than I expected, because it has a family vibe for the most part. The humor is 50/50, a sarcastic Norwegian cop got all my favorite quips. Anyway, this is a solid fish-out-of-water story that's not trying to reinvent the wheel. It's a decent watch.