Hoo boy, didn't go in with high hopes for this one and that was a good thing. This was a lazily made cheap Christmas horror anthology that's trying to rip-off the V/H/S horror series look. It's saving grace it the last tape of the night with Dave Sheridan, which I say skip to.
What brings you to see the film is of course the wonderful box art, Greg Sestero (The Room) showing up in the trailer and the premise of getting to watch some holiday horror.
One of the biggest sins is the "tapes" all looking like they were shot in HD quality. Either go back and change them to look like VHS or at least explain some of the tapes are just HD footage.
Skipping to the only tape that made me laugh, The Christmas Spirit, Dave Sheridan wins me over with his eccentric performance as a Paranormal Perry. What could go wrong when the only medium/Ghostbuster type person for Christmas you can get to exorcise your house doesn't show up and sends Perry instead? A lot of laughs. It starts off slow, but once Perry shows up, it never slows down on how sad and silly the situation is. I could see this being the entire film on it's own. And, I'm sad the other films in this and even the wraparound with Greg Sestero couldn't be as funny. See Perry and then get out.
The Christmas Tapes are available for rent or purchase digitally online Dec 16th.
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| Paranormal Perry jingles |
Screener provided by publisher for review purposes