There are lots of things that always leave me wanting when I watch a slasher movie. I always have questions, chief amongst them being “What now?” as the credits roll. What happens to the Final Girl or that hapless Everyman Hero who manages to defeat the big bad and return to normal life? Most importantly, especially as we move in to sequel territory, why does no one ever bother to make sure that the killer is actually dead? I’d like to think that, were I to outwit and out fight some machete wielding psychopath who has just slashed and gouged his way through the people I love, I’d be able to muster up the energy and courage to take that fucker’s head home as a trophy for my trouble. Holiday Fear offers an interesting look at that very dilemma.
Emily and Bruce have survived a hellish night of horror as a deranged, axe wielding Santa Claus has sliced his way through their friends. Standing on the ledge from a bedroom, the railing broken where killer Kris Kringle has plummeted twenty or so feet to his death, Emily -the Final Girl- is hell bent on making sure the blood and snow-covered villain is dead while Bruce -the cowering Everyman- just wants to leave. Cutting away to the duo standing over the body, Emily clutching the baseball bat ready to strike, Bruce makes a feeble attempt to reclaim his manhood by finishing off Saint Nick once and for all. But as the psycho begins to stir, a wonderful confrontation between the survivors leads to one final, satisfying kill that can’t help but leave a smile on your face.
On film or in a book, telling a coherent, gripping story in a short space is an artform all on its own. Holiday Fear, with a runtime of just over four minutes, masters this art. Beautiful cinematography, brilliant -though brief- performances, and a plot that tells you more about the story in the space left to your imagination. Written, directed, and produced by Nicholas Payne Santos, the film was featured at Nightmares on Film Street and is absolutely incredible. Watching it, I can imagine a brilliant backstory leading into the events of these final four minutes.
From the desperate, albeit futile attempt to reclaim his masculinity, you can tell that Bruce took a hit to the head at the outset of the horror and spent the entire slasher flick hiding and tripping up his friends in a bid for his own survival. Meanwhile, Emily is clearly a woman who came to this rustic home in the middle of nowhere under pressure from her friends to escape some personal demons. Having no hesitation at all as she tees up to take off Santa’s face, you can only imagine the sort of badass transformation her character underwent during the off-screen night of murder and mayhem.
Holiday Fear is beautifully shot and so well done that you almost wish that it was a feature-length horror comedy instead of a short. You can check out the film courtesy of Nicholas Payne Santos (the filmmaking Saint Nick) on his website here. It’s a perfect stocking stuffer of a film to start your holiday off right.