Films to Keep You Awake: The Christmas Tale (2005) Películas para no dormir: Cuento de navidad (Spain... original title)
Synopsis: In 1985, in a coastal town, a group of young friends stumble upon a woman dressed like Santa Claus trapped in a hole in the woods. They discover that the woman is the dangerous thief who has just stolen two million pesetas from a bank and is wanted. The group decides to leave the woman in the hole without any food to force her to give the stolen money to them. Oh yeah, they also decide to have a voodoo ceremony to transform her into a zombie. Seems like a good idea right?
A fairly original and very dark and bleak film, it does a decent job of blending black humor with some horror. The young teens are cruel, abusive and really have a complete lack of innocence all except for the young girl of the group, so at least you sort of have someone to pull for. Otherwise it'd easily fall into the category of one of those films where I just didn't like anybody, although it's easy to feel sorry for the lady in the pit. All the young actors do a nice job here, especially the one playing the young girl.
There are lots of nods to the 80s, especially The Karate Kid and The Goonies, and there's a schlocky zombie-movie-within-a-movie going on that's sort of fun. There's not a whole lot of gore to speak of really.
It's a decent, unsettling little heist-gone-wrong/revenge movie with a zombie twist... sort of. Not a whole lot to do with Christmas if that's what you're looking for.
6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment