A solid modern holiday anthology that actually delivers some bite. The pacing stays tight thanks to the intersecting stories, and when it goes hard, it really goes hard Santa absolutely wrecking those feral elves is the standout, with lots of blood, squish, and crunchy kills under twinkling Christmas lights. Mean spirited in a fun way. The real surprise is the twist ending, which comes out of nowhere and smartly reframes what you’ve been watching. It adds a darker edge than most Christmas horror bothers with and makes the whole thing stick in your head a bit longer. Not every segment lands equally, and it’s more about atmosphere and shock than deep storytelling, but as seasonal horror comfort food, it does the job better than most.

Shatner! He carried this movie. ;-) (j/k) This had 4 different plot lines which I felt like were shoehorned together to get it past the magic 90 minute mark. I would have liked one less plot line and more substance in the 3.

Honestly, super mid. Cheesy, bad acting. Not much redeeming about it.

_A Christmas Horror Story_ is a chilling anthology that’s ghoulishly entertaining. Comprised of four bloodcurdling tales, the film follows a zombie outbreak at Santa’s workshop, a group of students doing an exposé of a double murder at their school, a changeling that poses as a young boy, and Krampus preying on a deceitful family. The stories feel a little disconnected from each other, but most of them are rather good; delivering some intense scares. And William Shatner gives a fun performance as a radio DJ in the wraparound story. However, there are a couple of weak performances that hold the film back, and some of the gore is a bit gratuitous and cheesy. Anthology films are a tricky thing, but overall _A Christmas Horror Story_ does an impressive job at telling a diverse series of scary stories that cover several different genres of horror.

Clearly just 4 completely different stories (5, if you count the radio host?) mashed together to pretend it's one movie. As an anthology its _okayish_, I just wish I knew before I watched it so I could have the correct expectation.