The horror anthology craze of the 2010s gave us V/H/S, THE ABCs OF DEATH (both 2012) and HOLIDAYS (2016), which isn’t as terrible as many claim. As the title portends, the focus is on holidays, each of which is the basis of a short film written and directed by a different filmmaker (the most prominent being Kevin Smith). That the directors are given credit over the cast members (the most prominent of which was Seth Green) shows just how important the auteur theory is in horror filmmaking, in which directors are all-important.
The segments, eight in all, are presented without titles or credits. Rather, they’re allowed to play out and, furthering the auteur air, at the end of each we’re informed who did the writer-director duties. They stack up like this:
—The Valentine’s Day themed segment, written and directed by Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer (of STARRY EYES and the 2019 PET SEMATARY), features Maxine (Madeleine Coghlan), a traumatized teen called “Maxi-Pad” by her cruel gym-mates, growing increasingly infatuated with the hunky Coach Rockwell (Rick Peters). The latter, trying to be nice, leaves a Valentine’s Day card captioned “Give Me Your Heart” in Maxine’s locker, which she takes literally.
—For the St. Patrick’s Day segment, written and directed by Gary Shore (DRACULA UNTOLD), we get Liz (Ruth Bradley), a pregnant schoolteacher whose doctor informs her that “You’re pregnant…however, we’re not certain with what.” One of her pupils, a creepy little girl named Grainne (Isolt McCaffrey), seems to have some ulterior knowledge about Liz’s condition, which it seems was facilitated by a cult of snake-people.
—In the Easter portion, written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy (THE PACT), a little girl (Ave Acres) is scared of going to sleep on the night before said holiday, rattled by a description of “that man who came back from the dead” on Easter Sunday. The night proves quite horrific, haunted by a critter containing elements of both the figure that horrifies the little girl and the Easter Bunny.
—The Mother’s Day segment, written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith (THE DROP), has Kate (Sophie Traub), a young woman who becomes pregnant every time she has sex, getting sent by her doctor (Jennifer Lafleur) to stay with a group of desert-dwelling witches. They subject Kate to odd rituals that entail lots of dissolves and a great deal of nudity, and she once again becomes pregnant (whereas I thought the whole reason she was there was because she didn’t want to be impregnated).
—The Father’s Day portion, written and directed by Anthony Scott Burns (COME TRUE), has Carol (Jocelin Donahue) receiving an audio cassette in the mail from her supposedly dead father (Michael Gross) telling her how sorry he was to leave her. This leads to a flood of memories, combined with a seemingly aimless, but actually quite deliberate, walk.
—Kevin Smith took on writer-director duties for the Halloween segment. His profanity-laden, dialogue-heavy approach is on full display, as is his newfound (as of 2011’s RED STATE) penchant for show-offy filmmaking. Ian (Harley Morenstein) is a sleazy fellow who runs a webcam service out of his apartment; he’s quite abusive to his female employees, who he blithely calls “whores,” “sluts” and, worst of all, “girls.” As the night wears on his behavior grows especially unbearable, leading the gals to wreak a sadistic revenge.
—The Christmas portion was written and directed by Scott Stewart (DARK SKIES). It focuses on Uvu, a virtual reality headset that apparently “shows you…you.” Pete (Seth Green) attempts to procure an Uvu as a Christmas present for his son (Kalos Cluff), and only manages to grab one on Christmas Eve due to the fact that a man (Shawn Parsons) who’s just purchased a store’s last remaining Uvu happens to drop dead before reaching his car. This leads to complications when Pete’s wife (Clare Grant) uses the device to see what he did previously, and he subsequently uses it to see what she did.
—The final segment, New Year’s Eve, was written and directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer (DANIEL ISN’T REAL). It features Reggie (Andrew Bowen), a creep who enjoys abducting, tying up and killing young women. On New Year’s Eve he turns his attention to Jean (Lorenza Izzo), a young woman he meets on a dating site. She seems like a nice person destined for trouble at Reggie’s hands, but things aren’t what they seem.
The film on the whole vastly over-relies on oppressor-victim role reversals (which inform the final three segments), a device that by now is quite hackneyed. Fateful doctor visits are another overutilized device, while the inconclusive endings are a constant annoyance.
Narrowing the focus, the St. Patrick’s Day segment offers an early iteration of the folk horror craze that’s overtaken the genre, with a mutant birth pulled off with an excess of extreme close-ups (conveniently eliminating the need for special effects) that ranks as so-so in the lexicon of such depictions. The attempts at druggy psychedelia in the Mother’s Day segment fall short, while the Kevin Smith dialogue-heavy aesthetic of the Halloween portion could have stood to be toned down, and the snake people who turn up in the St. Patrick’s Day portion are seriously goofy-looking.
Yet there are some unironically good things. The photography of the Father’s Day portion, marked by artful focus pulls, is strong, as is the cannily constructed and maintained suspense of the Easter segment, which stands as the most satisfying (the monster that turns up near the end is an impressive sight). Overall, though, this is strictly a so-so production. The claims by imdb users of HOLIDAYS being “laughably weak” and “Ideal for Insomniacs” are off base, but so is a film that given the talent and ambition behind it should have been better.
Vital Statistics
HOLIDAYS
Distant Corners Entertainment/XYZ Films
Directors: Anthony Scott Burns, Nicholas McCarthy, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Gary Shore, Kevin Smith, Sarah Adina Smith, Scott Stewart, Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer
Producers: Aram Tertzakian, Kyle Franke, Tim Connors, Adam Egypt Mortimer, John Hegeman
Screenplay: Anthony Scott Burns, Nicholas McCarthy, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Gary Shore, Kevin Smith, Sarah Adina Smith, Scott Stewart, Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer
Cinematography: Benji Bakshi, Stuart Brerton, Adam Bricker, David Grennan, Kevin Joelson, James Laxton, Bridger Nielson, Shaheen Seth
Editing: Anthony Scott Burns, Josh Ethier, Kevin Kolsch, Edward Line, Kevin Smith, Sarah Adina Smith, Adriaan van Zyl, Dennis Widmyer
Cast: Madeleine Coghlan, Rick Peters, Ruth Bradley, Isolt McCaffrey, Ave Acres, Sophie Traub, Jennifer Lafleur, Jocelin Donahue, Michael Gross, Harley Morenstein, Seth Green, Kalos Cluff, Shawn Parsons, Clare Grant, Andrew Bowen, Megan Duffy, Lorenza Izzo