Film / A Christmas Horror Story

Merry *&**^&%$£*& Christmas!

A Christmas Horror Story is a 2015 anthology horror film directed by Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, and Brett Sullivan. It premiered on July 20, 2015 at the Fantasia International Film Festival and had a limited theatrical release on October 2, 2015, along with a VOD release. The film is a series of interwoven stories tied together by a framework story featuring William Shatner as a radio DJ.

---

Jolly Xmas Tropes present in this movie:

• Ancient Artifact: Caprice thinks that a broken Krampus statue is this. Averted when Aunt Edda states that it was a cheap trinket she picked up at a yard sale and held no power.
• Anthology: There are four intertwining stories presented onscreen.
• Artistic License – Biology: Molly apparently gets pregnant minutes after conception. It's unclear whether supernatural forces were behind it, but it can take up to six days for a fertilized egg to form and at least three days for a fertilized egg to make itself at home in the uterus.
• Asshole Victim: Aunt Edda, an already bitter and stingy woman, lets it slip that she knew that Caprice and her family would be targeted by Krampus. Caprice turns into the new Krampus and presumably kills Aunt Edda.
• Bad Santa: Justified, as he does what he has to do to save himself from the zombie elves. Until it's revealed he's just a Mall Santa gone mad and the zombie elves he killed are innocent employees and customers.
• The Butler Did It: The Krampus beast that was hunting Caprice and her family was Aunt Edda's transformed butler Gerhardt.
• Changeling Tale: Will is replaced by a changeling.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Remember Norman the weatherman at the beginning of the movie? He's gone insane and thinks he's Santa fending off a horde of zombie elves when really, he's murdering employees and customers alike in the local mall.
• Credits Gag: According to the credits, "No elves were harmed during the making of this film."
• Cruel Twist Ending: The story about Santa fighting zombie elves led by Krampus turns out to just be the hallucinations of the weatherman, Norman, who went on a rampage at the toy drive, killing everyone in the mall before being shot by the police.
• Death of a Child: Will is kidnapped in the forest but is later rescued alive and well. Duncan is the first victim of The Krampus, however, and doesn't come back.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Molly, possessed by Grace, does this to Ben. Neither of them consented to the act.
• Establishing Character Moment: When we are first introduced to Stormin' Norman, he is completely silent, and stonewalling Dangerous Dan's attempts at getting him involved in the radio broadcast. After one too many instances of prodding, Norman decides to calmly grab a pad and a marker, and gives Dan a present:
  Norman: (slams the message "FUCK CHRISTMAS" against Dan's glass window)
• Foreshadowing:
  • The fact that Santa and Norman share the same actor.
  • When we are first introduced to Dan and Norman, Dan tries to get Norman to talk about a "special guest" that will be showing up at the mall later that day; Norman shortly leaves the station afterwards. During the framing device of Dan's radio broadcast, we eventually learn about some sort of situation occurring at the mall, and that people need to stay away.
  • Caprice' assertion that her aunt was fearful suddenly makes more sense when it's revealed that her brother is a psychopath.
• Final Girl: Molly and Caprice survive while their friends and family members don't.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. The school's ghost, Grace, died from a botched abortion performed by nuns.
• The Hermit: Big Earl lives alone in a cabin in the woods.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Diane sacrifices herself to save Caprice.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: As you can tell by the title, the movie and all its horror takes place on Christmas Eve.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Krampus. Also overlaps with Horned Humanoid.
• Locked Away in a Monastery: Bailey Downs' high school used to be a convent.
• Locked in a Room: Dylan, Ben, and Molly are trapped in their school's basement.
• Maiden Aunt: Aunt Edda never married or had kids.
• Meaningful Name: Edda means "strive for wealth" in Norse and Old English. It's fitting given that Aunt Edda is stinking rich.
• Missing Child: Young Duncan is taken by Krampus in front of his parents, and Scott and Kim's son, Will, wanders off in the forest and is lost.
• Mock Millionaire: Caprice's dad runs a big company but admits that it went bankrupt a while ago and he's been struggling to keep up appearances out of fear that he'll lose his wife’s love.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once Norman snaps out of it, it slowly dawns on him how he caused a massacre at the mall.
• Narrator: Local radio personality Dangerous Dan is this for the events at the mall. He also overlaps with Large Ham Radio.
• Once More, with Clarity: Once the twist is revealed, we have Norman flashing back to "Santa's" earlier scenes in the movie, fully revealing he had snapped and gone through a rampage at the mall.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Dangerous Dan's grandson died one year prior.
• Posthumous Character: Dylan, Ben, and Molly's classmates.
• Right Through His Pants: Played with. Molly and Ben are clothed when they conceive their child, but the scene clearly shows Molly unzipping Ben's jeans.
• Road Trip Plot: Caprice and her parents and brother drive out of town to visit her Aunt Edda. It's also a plot point when they drive home sooner than planned.
• Roguish Poacher: For Christmas, Scott steals a tree from Big Earl's private property.
• Shared Universe: Exists in the same universe as Ginger Snaps and Orphan Black, taking place in the same town.
• Shell Shocked Policeman: Scott was employed as a police officer, but finding some dead teens in the school basement one year prior left him so traumatized he had to take time off from the force.
• Sticky Fingers: Caprice's boyfriend applauds her sticky fingers after she steals the keys to the school for Molly and the others. Later Played for Drama when she confesses that she constantly steals stuff without knowing why and wonders if that’s why Krampus is attacking her family.
• Teen Pregnancy: Molly gets pregnant by Ben, and that's why the ghost of Grace lets her leave the school alive, as she wanted someone to carry the child she never got to have.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Norman's hallucinations of Krampus and zombies elves are shown onscreen. Somewhat averted on account of the reveal that Norman was hallucinating in the first place.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Will exhibits some of this after going missing in the woods. Averted because it was a changeling and not really Will. Duncan is also implied to be a budding psychopath, based on Caprice's testimony. She tells her parents that the day their cat disappeared, she saw blood on her pre-adolescent brother's hands.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Dylan is one of the first characters to be killed.
• Wham Line: Just as Santa is about to deliver the killing blow to Krampus, one line of dialogue winds up drastically changing what this plotline was really about:
  Krampus: NORMAN, STOP! (Santa hesitates) Please don't kill me, Norman...
  Santa: (confused) "Norman"? ...who's Norman?
  • Wham Shot: This is then swiftly followed by Krampus being replaced by a man wearing reindeer antlers, cowering and bloodied:
    Mr. Taylor, the mall manager: What the fuck is wrong with you, Norman?