Holidays (2016) User Reviews

Holidays: Mediocre

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 8 January 2019]

I had such high hopes for Holidays, I adore horror anthology's and one featuring the writing of Kevin Smith and starring Seth Green and Harley Morenstein! Sign me up.

Sadly it didn't quite meet my expectations, and that is such a blinding shame.

You see horror anthology's are generally 3-4 stories and a wraparound, Holidays dismisses the wraparound and instead tells a whopping 8 short stories (Each one based on a different holiday).

This heavily reminded me of the ABC's of Death (2012) which was another horror anthology I was super excited for but turned out to be dire. That as well had a vast number of stories, different directors, writers and similar themes. Thankfully Holidays isn't that bad, but only because of a couple of the tales.

Truth be told several of the 8 are really bad and I mean really bad. They're the kind of shorts you'll see on YouTube that leave you scratching your head afterwards, unsure as to what you just witnessed and what the point of it all was.

Thankfully there are a few entertaining nuggets in there, some decent star power and sprinklings of charm. The stories range from weird, to gory, to oddly clever, but none exactly blew me away.

My pick would be Valentines Day as the most entertaining with St.Patricks Day being the worst...........or possibly Mother's Day.

Holidays on paper should have been fantastic but some disastrous writing near killed it for me, such a shame.

The Good:

Jocelin Donahue and Harley Morenstein

Solid visuals

The Bad:

Some really stupid stuff

You Want Them All To Be Good, But They Aren't.

[BatesMT · 5/10 · 22 July 2016]

Holidays does a few things right, and a lot of things wrong, and because of this, Holidays becomes a one time viewing. I don't ever see myself revisiting this flick intentionally.

Let me start off by talking about some of my favorite parts. Easter was a creepy highlight. But it didn't flesh anything out enough to make you care about it. This is a problem that almost all the parts have.

Christmas was my favorite part but it might just be my Seth Green bias. The ending wasn't as predictable as New Years, Valentine's Day, and Halloween.

Halloween was... stupid. And sadly, after Xmas, Easter, and New Years this might be my fourth favorite. You could tell it was Kevin Smith directing it. That doesn't help in my opinion.

New Years was actually a lot of fun, with 2 awkward characters. You could see the twist coming a mile away but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

Valentine's, St Paddy's Day, Mother's and Father's Day all were lacking severely with the worst of them being Mother's Day. The ending was just abrupt and confusing. Father's Day had a lot of good build up to an awful ending. Valentine's Day really reminded of something out of Creepshow. Again it was predictable and the characters were way too over the top and just not believable in the slightest.

St. Paddy's Day had a lot of potential as it had a little girl who was seriously creepy. The ending was just bizarre and the whole build up was a "WTF" moment. It went from Day 12 to Day 366 in an instant.

All in all this was not a good anthology movie, nowhere near Creepshow or Trick r' Treat quality.

A laughably weak horror anthology

[Rickting · 4/10 · 22 August 2017]

Horror anthologies are always a risky business. With multiple writers and directors, there's bound to be an inconsistency in quality throughout. At least with this, given that the shorts, all based on a different holiday, are consistently bad, there is a consistent level of quality throughout.

Valentine: (2.5/5) A blatant Carrie rip-off with some dangling plot threads and a lack of explanation, but at least it gets the black comedy angle of the anthology right and has a clever ending.

St Patrick's Day: (1/5) A laughably stupid dud in every sense. What were they thinking?

Easter: (1.5/5) One good jump scare aside, this is tedious, tasteless and toothless.

Mother's Day: (1/5) A terrible body horror short where pretty much nothing happens. Oh, and then just when something is happening, it ends.

Father's Day: (3.5/5) A cleverly constructed and told short story which is arguably the best of the bunch in many ways, but it's still too open-ended and vague to satisfy.

Halloween: (3.5/5) An effective, squirm-inducing dark comedy that is both amusing and uncomfortable, although it is complete nonsense.

Christmas: (2.5/5) They had a great idea here... which they did absolutely nothing with and once again it ends just as it's starting to get interesting.

New Year's Eve: (2.5/5) More formulaic stuff which is mildly entertaining but just too predictable.

These films aren't scary, but they're not meant to be. They're meant to be dark, uncomfortable comedies. Sadly, the stories are weak and just lack any true meaning or point. I learnt something important in Film Studies: when you make a short film, the story should start when the film ends in a way. That's a good thing to remember if you're making a short film and that is basically what all these shorts do. But... don't forget to get the audience interested and actually give them enough information to leave them satisfied! Evidently, these writers and directors forgot that.

4/10

Complete rubbish

[andynorton24 · 1/10 · 27 April 2019]

I've given it 1 because I can't give it 0. A woman giving birth to a snake and a Cross between Jesus and the Easter Bunny. Yes really! It just feels cheap and pointless. It's not even stories, it's scenes. Nothing is ever explained or finished. Everything is just pointless!!! Thank the lord this isn't something I bought!!!

Sucks

[janiecerborens · 1/10 · 19 July 2016]

The word sucks comes to mind. Have you ever watched some of the older Amicus anthologies or Creepshow? Don't expect anything close. This must have been a high school film project or maybe it was a favor to another actor's kid. These are the shortest stories ever that don't resolve or explain anything, just keep you hanging. Perhaps the episode where the young woman finds the tape deck would be interesting. Nope. I even fast forwarded to the end because of all the blah blah. I get to the end. Surely some explanation here. Nope.There's a guy in a chair, looks,like a monster? What happened?!?! I'm finding it difficult to come up with enough lines for this bad anthology or else I can't post this review.

What the fu@k??

[ArtTheClown · 3/10 · 9 November 2018]

I didn't expect much from this movie, but even my low expectations weren't met. The only 2 semi-entertaining chapters (Easter and Father's Day) had very unsatisfying endings. The rest of the chapters were GARBAGE.

Father's Day - BEST segment, hands down!

[retrohorrorremix · 7/10 · 16 April 2016]

I went into this with high expectations, and while "Halloween" and "Christmas" (the ones I expected the most from) proved to be disappointments, I found the "Father's Day" segment brilliant, touching and also terrifying. The manner in which the story builds thru the playback of a childhood recording, how she drives out to the middle of nowhere, and the suspense leading to where she was headed, all great elements rounding out a truly unique segment. I found myself on the edge of my seat from the time she started the tape to the very end.

"Easter" was bizarre and interesting and "St. Patty's Day" was pretty unexpected but cool. "St. Patty's Day" felt like classic British horror or something. Very elegant, artistic and suspenseful. The little girl did a fantastic job. "Christmas" suffered from what many shot-in-LA indie productions experience which was the total lack of snow, thus creating a true "Christmas" atmosphere. It was an OK concept, but overall not really scary or exciting. And I feel like the gadget the story focuses on will really date it in 10-15 years and seem silly. And I felt like "Halloween" was a total wasted opportunity. With the "Halloween" setting they could have done so much, but other than it being centered around 3 girls stuck inside on Halloween, you wouldn't know it was set on Halloween. No pumpkins, no trick-r-treaters, no atmosphere what-so-ever. Seemed more like that story could have been molded into any of the "Holidays" and I wish that segment went to someone who really cared to do something cool with it, as that segment alone could have really brought this indie anthology into "classic" territory. "Valentine's Day" was a classic style shocker and "Mother's Day" was pretty creepy, but had a weak ending. I was really hoping for a cool "Independence Day" story or "Thanksgiving", but maybe it was for the best since there was really only a couple standout segments. Overall, well worth the watch, even if a handful of the stories are throwaway. I'd compare it to "ABCs of Death", with about the same ratio of good stories.

Ideal for Insomniacs

[iamtherobotman · 1/10 · 16 June 2016]

So as the Title suggests this is an Anthology of "Horror" based around "Holidays". Erm, now the struggle to actually write something about it. Well, first off, the majority of the segments aren't "Holidays", more "Celebratory occasions". Secondly, don't waste your time watching this.

The majority of them seemed more like a teaser or trailer for Films, rather than complete stories as there was no real conclusion to the majority of them, they were left somewhat ambiguous in nature. I apologise for the tone of this review but i'm not long finished watching this and i'm honestly left wondering if what i watched was some kind of April Fools joke or if it was a genuine attempt at an Anthology type Film.

First we had an odd segment about Valentines day and a loner girl who had a crush on her PE Teacher. More of a teaser than anything, it seemed extremely amateurish.

There then followed segments on St Patricks day, snakes and pregnancy with an attempt at humour. then a poorly scripted and even worse segment about Easter and some Hybrid of the Easter Bunny and Jesus.... Then some women who get Pregnant every time she has sex, insisting her Boyfriend wears 2 or even 3 condoms. I think by this point i'd all but given up on it to be honest.

One on fathers day came next...Erm, yeah. Just don't bother with this Film, honestly. I can't think of anything positive to say about it. It's almost as though a Film Studio had a spare £100 sitting about and decided to make an Anthology. it's that bad and that cheap. If you like absolute garbage then by all means knock yourself out and watch this utter trash, otherwise save yourself the torture i endured and do something enjoyable.

This is beyond a shadow of a doubt in the worst 5 Films i've ever seen.....and i've seen some horrifically bad Films.

Happy Holidays :)

[JackAteSally · 6/10 · 25 May 2016]

'Holidays' opens up with the Valentine's Day sequence, that gives almost immediate odes to De Palma with it's high school-heartbreak atmosphere. To make a short story shorter, the plot revolves around a misunderstood and exiled young girl would happens to have a crush on the school's swimming coach. After getting word that he may have eyes for her fair-haired nemesis, she retaliates through violence. This one does border on creepy as the feelings between Maxi ("Maxi Pad") and her teacher are somewhat mutual. But life is like a box of chocolate.. or hearts. By the time you see the credits, the tone does seem comfortably familiar. From the director of Starry Eyes. (5/10)

The next segment surrounds Irish myth & folklore on St.. Patrick's Day. While I do have a clover tattoo and I love the color green, this was not one of my favorites. Plot follows an elementary school teachers who has just received a reserved new student. Ginger-hair, freckled and somewhat adorable, the young girl does not seem to integrate well and quickly upsizes the teacher with rude dismissals and eery glares. We are soon given hint that the teacher longs for a child and eventually becomes pregnant after a night out drinking. The young girl becomes eerily fond of the teacher as if she knows something she doesn't know. They reference Polanski in this one, but it's no demon she's carrying, something a lot more scaly. This one was brought to us by Gary Shore, director of Wicker Man. (5.5/10)

Easter is never really looked upon with much horror, much like the preceding holiday St. Patty's. However, director Nicholas McCarthy ("At The Devil's Door") manages to hint at a surreal dimension filled with unseen terrors that leaves you thirsting for more. The Easter installment opens up with a young girl being put to bed by her mother. They have a somewhat intense and offbeat dialogue about the iconic Easter Bunny and how no child has ever seen him, or should. The same young girl happens out of her bed that night and stumbles upon something only seen in nightmares. Kudos to the FX team and any behind the visual the bunny, an image that'll stick with you for sure. Peter Cottontail meets Pan's Labyrinth. (8/10)

Mother's Day...... a lot can and will be said about this one for sure. This sequence put me to sleep and woke me in the same damn sittnig, stressful. The overall downside to a lot of the shorts is they feel just too short. This is not the case here, in this indie desert horror from "Midnight Swim" directer Sarah Adina Smith. The concept is basically a young girl becomes pregnant every single time she has sex. She feels she is medically ailed or cursed. After seeing doctor after doctor, she is referred to a retreat house in the desert somewhere. This place is filled more with woman who are having opposite issues with fertility and she again, feels slighted. Somewhere in this drawn out entry, I dozed off and came to in time for an OUTRAGEOUS finale. It woke me up, revitalized me enough to rewind and rewatch. All I can say is geeeeeeeeeeez. And what was that in the sky? A devil? An angel? (6/10)

Like in real life, Mother's Day is followed by Father's Day; without a doubt the most gripping entry in the production. They must have strategically placed it after the previous snooze fest, besides that ending of course, to regain viewers attention. I immediately appreciated the dark, deep tone of the setting. We are introduced to a young woman who comes home to a package at her doorstep. She opens it to find an old cassette tape player with a double sided tape inside, headphones included. She decided to play the tape, of course, and is jarringly met by the voice of her late father. The tape contains not only her the voice of her dead father, but it is looped with her's a young girl as they took a trip somewhere one day. She is quickly overwhelmed, rejects the tapes, regains herself and continues. Basically, her father disappeared years and years ago without a word or trace. She never got an explanation as to why. Until now. She continues to play the tape is led into an eerily-orchestrated scavenger hunt to find the truth about her father's disappearance and perhaps be reunited. This a truly beautiful built piece and again, is only hurt by the fact that so much can and needs to be said. The ending, IMO, does not live up to the build-up but I accept it for what it in this short and it does not take away from it's genius. Shoutout to Anthony Scott Burns, Happy Father's Day. (9.5/10)

Halloween - omitting review due to word count (4/10)

I had to go look up what this segment was about again, which sounds bad, but once I did I was pleased to remember. I liked this very odd and campy thriller about a man who goes to extreme lengths obtains a Christmas gift for his "dear wife". We all know how the latest gadgets get people in a frenzy, well the product in mentioned is called the "UVU".. and "UVU shows you, YOU". It does indeed, Our characters are forced to look at themselves and the ones closets to them in an entirely new lights and brings a whole new meaning to it 'what lies beneath'. Also, great cameo from Seth Green. Nice to see that guy. (7/10)

New Year's Eve was thoroughly enjoyable IMO and very unexpected. I'm not even gonna talk too much about it because it's best the end things off with a bang. Just know that two loners wind up on a date New Year's Eve and it's a countdown you will not forget. (8/10)

Overall, I'd give this anthology around a 6.5/10.

Garbage movie

[Amohrman25 · 2/10 · 1 September 2018]

This movie is nearly unwatchable but I made it through it to write this review. This movie can be found on Netflix and tells the stories of different plots and people for each holiday. None of the stories are good and only a few of them are sub-par. I have nothing else that I can say about this trashy, nearly 2 hour long movie. If you want to watch it, be my guest. Look it up on Netflix and maybe enjoy it...

These writers probably don't even know about Easter...

[fedor8 · 2 August 2020]

Story 1 absolutely stinks, mainly because it's not rooted in any kind of reality: the blonde essentially attempts murder on her classmate during diving class, yet she doesn't even get admonished by "Coach", who also stupidly enough doesn't even try to prevent her from climbing the jumping board. (Goes without saying that nobody calls the cops to have the blonde arrested or at least interviewed, implying that this story is taking place on planet Zong.) Instead of showing at least slight remorse or fear for the girl's safety after she nearly drowns, the girls snicker like sociopaths. That's what I call over-over-overkill. Of stupid absurdity. Yes, Mr.Writer, blondie is baaaaad, we get it; no need to exaggerate her to the point of making her look like Stalin's niece.

When you conjure up characters and events that have pretty much zero connection with the real world then you don't get scares either, because the whole point of horror is to introduce bizarre, frightening events into a normal setting, a world that reminds you of your own. This drivel reminds me of nothing - except drivel. Or planet Zong.

The other reason the story stinks is the blonde's performance, which is schizophrenic to put it mildly: she shows great confidence in torturing her victim, yet bafflingly makes scared faces, then goes back to snickering like a demon - then back to looking scared of her victim! It is truly a characterization penned in a Hollywood sewer. Predictably, she gets killed off by the victim and the story ends fairly stupidly.

Story 2 starts off with yet another teacher-pupil relationship, which is in itself dumb because why the repetition? The story is muddled and silly, if somewhat original. But originality is a tricky beast, just like in music: you can create something new, yet fall flat on your face because you still have to execute it well and carry it through. An original premise simply isn't enough.

Story 3 features a demonic Easter Bunny who craps chickens out of its palm. I am clueless as to why it doesn't dump eggs instead, but who knows if these writers even know what Easter is. Most young kids today don't even know what World War 2 is, so why be surprised. A stupid, moronic conclusion to a typically underdeveloped story, typical for this movie.

Story 4 is really bad, and features yet another unnatural pregnancy, just as story 2, which means that whoever compiled these stories didn't give a rat's behind about repetition. This one makes zero sense, start to finish. A woman gets pregnant all the time, so a bunch of witches or whatever impregnate her (why?), only to find out that she's pregnant with a huge hand. Or an entire man? We don't find out, because that's the last scene. Embarrassing rubbish.

Story 5 has an original set-up, but yet again a total cop-out ending that not only doesn't explain anything, it doesn't even hint at what the hell's going on. Another fail.

Story 6 isn't horror at all, just a lame tortureporn comedy bit written/directed by a buffoon we all know as Kevin Smith. The story also features amateur acting, which isn't surprising considering he stuck his dumb daughter into this piece of crap. And, Kevin: why the hell would the guy cut off his own genital if given a knife? Wouldn't he use the knife to cut off the cable that is connected to his anus? Yes, Kevin Smith is a clod. That's why he's a liberal and why he's friends with Matt Demon and Benny Affleck.

Story 7 has a solid premise but the plot meanders aimlessly, leaving the viewer with yet another underdeveloped, pointless mess.

Story 8 has a twist you can see from a mile, hence it is also lame. The twist from story 7 is similar, so that's another example of the dumb order the stories were presented in.

Surprisingly good horror anthology!

[encyes · 8/10 · 19 November 2016]

With all the lackluster horror anthologies that have come out in the last few years, this highly entertaining movie is a nice and surprising blend of predictability ("Valentine's Day"), odd surrealism ("St. Patrick's Day"), purely disturbing ("Easter"), humorously pleasing ("Christmas" and "New Year's Eve") and ironically satisfying ("Halloween"). I went in expecting very little from the film, but I came away from these holidays ready to experience them again. Seth Green is well chosen for his part as is ALL the actors in the film. This is a well done, well made film, well directed film, and inching its way into my own personal collection.

Never trust the girl you bully.....

[FlashCallahan · 6/10 · 31 July 2016]

A horror anthology about some of the less spooky special days on the calendar.

These short stories by some of the most bewildering film makers find the darkness and bloodshed in New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, and other holidays.....

Anthology films are always a mixed bag of quality, but for some reason you know that the bookended shorts are always the finest, which can be vexing sometimes as you have to sit through some trash to get to the gold.

But luckily there are more gems than junk, and this is one of the better anthology movies to be released in a while.

The good.

I particularly like the Christmas short. Seth Green plays a hapless father who just misses out on getting his son the most sought after present of the holiday. But the guy who got the last one has a fatal bout of angina and dies. All seems well until Green tries the product, and realises its from the point of view of the deceased, but that's not all he sees....,

Valentines day was pretty macabre, and had a Carrie vibe about it. It's pretty short and to the point, but there is a wonderful sting in its tail.

Halloween was the funniest, and as it's by Kevin Smith, it's not very surprising. We follow Ian who is running a girlie webcam site, when he attempts to assault the girls, he gets knocked out, and made to do what he makes lots of money for. It's not scary, but it's funny, and again, the writing is pretty good.

New year is your basic karma story. We follow Reggie, whom has just killed a partner for making him miserable, but obviously he has a screw loose. Cut to Eli Roths wife, who finds his picture on a dating site. After making an idiot of himself during the date, she invites him back to her place. After all, who wants to be alone on New Years Eve?? It's short, but to the point, and it's quite funny too.

A really bizarre entry, but the scariest of all the stories is Father's Day. A girl receives a package from her seemingly dead father, a tape deck and tape giving her instructions of where to find him. But the genius part is that he made the tape whilst he was with her younger self, so it makes it that little bit more macabre.

The rest are just a little bit too out there, and in turn, are a little bit boring.

We have one about a snake that looks like Danny Zucko from grease, a weird birth that was just too boring to even give it a chance, and a very good looking Easter segment, but the subliminal elements of child abuse just soured it a little too much for me.

But all in all, it's a fun anthology, offering something for everyone.

A grotesque approach to the established holidays...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 9 June 2018]

"Give me your heart" - This was actually a fairly good story about giving your heart for valentine's day. This segment had a wonderfully disturbing character, whom was very nicely acted.

"St. Patricks Day" - Well, I found this segment to be a very odd and bizarre story about a woman being pregnant with a reptile. With that being said, it should be said, in all fairness, that it was nicely acted. And it was definitely among some of the more weird things I have seen in a movie.

"Easter" - Now, this was a wonderful combination of mixing the commercialized Easter tradition with the biblical version. I must admit that I have never seen a half-rabbit, half-Jesus creature before now.

"Mothers Day" - A very pointless story, which didn't really fit into the anthology all that that greatly.

"Father's Day" - This was the opposite of the "Mother's Day" segment, as it was very nicely narrated. And it was certainly a very suspenseful and thrilling addition to the anthology, although the ending was somewhat anti-climatic.

"Halloween" - While it was a very entertaining segment, it seemed somewhat out of place here. I guess it was the sex industry backdrop that didn't work well to fit into the anthology.

"Christmas" - Surely had an interesting concept about seeing yourself and your actions through virtual reality glasses. And it was a twisted story indeed that fitted nicely into the anthology. It was nice to see Seth Green here.

"New Year's" - Ah, now this was among the most entertaining and surprising of all the stories in the anthology and definitely one of my favorite segments.

If you enjoy horror anthology, then perhaps you should check out "Holidays", as it has different themes, yet still all combined underneath the universal theme of holidays. You might actually find something unique, very entertaining and suitable for your particular preference here.

Holidays are fun however......

[kevxzara · 1/10 · 13 May 2019]

This is in short absolutely the most garbage piece of film making I have ever seen in my 40yrs on this planet.

Shows promise, if not much else

[michael-3204 · 5/10 · 3 October 2016]

Horror anthology loosely organized around holidays, where each short is thematically related to a different holiday. The usual problem with these sorts of anthologies is wildly uneven quality, but in this case the quality is fairly consistent and reasonably strong. One of the many oddities of "Holidays" is that the worst short is the one by the most famous director included here, Kevin Smith. It seems like he wasn't even trying with his Halloween short and its disappointing that they gave the most on-topic holiday for a horror movie to someone who seems so disinterested.

Another oddity is that the first five shorts all have female protagonists, with only one being written and directed by a woman. It is almost immediately apparent which that is, not because it is appreciably better or worse than the others, but because of its attitudes toward its female characters, and the way it handles nudity (something that is mostly absent in the rest of the shorts). The fact that several films in a row all feature not especially strongly drawn or unique protagonists, some of whom are almost interchangeable, is a problem. The shorts are organized chronologically through the calendar year, starting with Valentine's Day and ending on New Year's Eve, but I think it might have been better to reorder them so that a sense of repetition didn't start to set in before there was some variation. The final short is actually the best, in terms of telling a compelling story with the most interesting characters we meet in the whole series. It is largely a two-hander and ends on a satisfyingly twisty note. And that brings up a third oddity -- all except the final short, and Smith's, have intriguing ideas, set-ups and situations that the various writers and directors seem unable to resolve in a very satisfying way. Some of them just end, some try for a conclusion that is perhaps meant to be ambiguous or disturbing, but they fail to stick the landing. Its strange to watch a bunch of short films in a row that share the same strengths and the same weakness.

I'd say most of the writers and directors represented here show promise, even if most of them don't quite deliver as fully as I'd have liked, and I look forward to more from any of these filmmakers. I don't know that I'll be returning to this collection of shorts anytime soon.

The Horror ...

[kosmasp · 3/10 · 26 November 2016]

So it isn't that easy to make an Anthology after all. That's one of the "positive" things you can take from watching this. If you're mean you could even argue that SyFy has done better feature length movies than most of the shorts being on display here. One thing is for certain: there is not much to cherish to be found here.

And it's a shame, because it did sound cool. Kevin Smith alone doing a short sounds great. But then again, I guess even he was either too busy with other stuff or somehow else occupied. Maybe something else happened, you never know, except you do know where the short stories are going. And almost none of them actually can create a mood, a tension, a story or anything else substantial to hold the viewers attention. There are some neat effects (the Easter Bunny story comes to mind) and occasionally a bit of quality that seems to shine through a story. But in the end, it's more like "whatever" and "why did I watch this again?" feelings that overwhelmingly win and leave you befuddled

Wtf is up with the Easter Bunny?

[WillowUndergroundStudios · 6/10 · 6 October 2019]

Just one thing to say, that Easter Bunny is scary as hell. An Easter Bunny mixed with the Son of God has literally been taking out of the text and and I just think, holy. Pun intended.

I loved him because of how disturbing he was. The guy who portrayed him did a very nice job and the look of his character made it very memorable. Let's just say once you see him, you can't unsee him. It becomes burned into your retnas so that even if you wanted to look away, it wouldn't matter.

A very enjoyable nightmare.

I never thought I would say Father's Day was my favorite holiday.

[delizabethwillard · 5/10 · 31 May 2016]

Writing a review for the film Holdays as a whole would be difficult because the film itself did not feel whole. It was inconsistent and the stories had no common thread, almost difficult to call it an anthology. Some pieces shined while other were easily forgotten and downright confusing.

The films first contribution was Valentine's Day, which focused on a high school swim student with a crush on her instructor. It was funny, predictable, and made me feel uneasy- which are all nice qualities for a short. Not bad at all!

We then dove into St. Patrick's Day, which wasn't one of my favorites. The story itself was a cool idea, focusing on a teacher who was granted the wish of becoming a mother by a scary red-headed girl in her class. This could have been executed a little better in my opinion. The ending was odd (some things just didn't add up) and although I didn't love it, it was entertaining for sure.

Next was Easter which was my 3rd favorite in the bunch, focusing on a little girl who was confused and terrified by the story of Jesus Christ's resurrection and a giant bunny breaking into her home (I hear ya girl). It was very strange and felt like an acid trip gone wrong. If you want a child to be absolutely terrified of Easter- just show them this segment. That is all.

Mother's Day came next which was a very underwhelming segment, focusing on a young women who conceives every time she has sex. She is then instructed by her doctor to visit a witch fertility doctor in the desert in hopes of curing her(?). I honestly have forgotten most of the details and I just watched it last night. The story itself didn't make much sense and was confusing. The setting and the actresses were beautiful and gave a late 60s vibe which was aesthetically pleasing at least.

Father's Day was by far the shining star of this film and was simply on a different level than the rest. If this segment hadn't been next I probably wouldn't have continued watching. This tale focused on a young woman receiving a package from her father whom she thought was dead, including a tape recording of his voice instructing her on where she could find him now that she's an adult. This was the only segment that made me feel any sort of emotion throughout the film as a whole. Bravo to actress Jocelin Donahue who was very memorable and fantastic in this segment (being the only visible character and working the whole short with very little dialogue). This was creepy, gripping, and really heart-breaking. The ending left me wanting more. I wish this were a full length film! 10/10 on this segment.

For some reason after Father's Day we skip right over 3 months and hit Halloween. By far the worst segment in the film. One would assume that having Halloween as your holiday would be the ultimate hall pass for Kevin Smith in making a contribution to this film. This segment focuses on the pimp of three 18 y/o "cam-girls" (including Kevin Smith's own daughter...) who receives payback after keeping the girls in on Halloween night and calling them whores. The segment itself had nothing to do with Halloween and was very unbelievable, contained bad accents, and was far from scary or entertaining. It was over-the-top with crude language and was just full of unnecessary profanity which added nothing to the film. This was a total flop.

Christmas was more of a funny segment, starring Seth Green. In desperation to please his wife and son, he steals a pair of virtual reality goggles from a dying man. The next morning his son is shown opening the goggles and the whole family tries them on, seeing their own personalized images (Mars adventures, spanking a dominatrix). The ending to this segment was funny. Short and to the point. Entertaining. Silly.

And last but not least was my 2nd favorite addition to this film, New Years Eve. I'm glad I actually stuck around after the atrocious Halloween so I could see this! We are first introduced to Reggie, a disgusting middle aged man, murdering his captive "girlfriend" after a year of her not cooperating with his wishes. He then sets out online trying to find a new woman to keep locked up in his home in the new year. This segment also had a very fun plot twist and felt more like a full length film than a short in an anthology series.

Overall, Holidays is not something I would watch again except to see the Father's Day and New Year's Eve segments. They absolutely carried the film and without them I would have given this flick a big old goose egg.

Visionary filmmaking with a few foibles

[JDCuse · 7/10 · 14 April 2016]

Had the pleasure of seeing this at the Tribeca Film Festival. As a fan of genre-cinema, I went into this screening expecting to be entertained above all else. It unequivocally delivered on that account. This is an anthology film, and the directors were given total free reign to make whatever short they pleased so long as it followed the single rule of being "about" a certain holiday. Inevitably, some shorts are better than others. A couple are not too great (surprisingly, filmmaker Kevin Smith's is on the lower tier). But others are transcendental, surpassing everything I expected from such a niche, micro-budget anthology film. These are shorts I will return to many more times, and anticipate the release of this DVD just so I can re-experience those few gems. Why were they so damn good? Because they had VISION. They were demonstrative of their respective filmmaker's personalities, and weren't burdened by commercial circumscriptions. I am talking about three in particular: the Irish St. Patty's Day film (which was the most experimental and most European and most surrealist), the Father's Day film (arguably the most cinematic and the least "horror" centric--it's more of a sci-fi and a very compelling one at that), and lastly, my personal favorite, the Easter bunny film, which I don't want to spoil because everything about it is almost perfection. Listen, if you're a fan of horror and want to see what a few visionaries can do with a low budget and effectively no rules, you won't be disappointed. Also, shout outs to the runner ups in my book: the Christmas short starring Seth Greene (which also has a VR component at the festival) and the New Years short starring Lorenza Izzo. My only complaint is that her husband Eli Roth didn't participate!

Beyond bad - don't waste you time.

[fisherbee1-1 · 1/10 · 21 August 2019]

I'd had this one on the list to watch for a while, since I've enjoyed other anthologies, including some pretty entertaining ones that revolve around holidays. This isn't one of those. Not only was this not entertaining, it was flat out bad. Terrible. Stupid. So bad, it's almost criminal. We didn't even finish the movie, it was so ridiculous. The first segment wasn't great, with poor acting, silly "theming" attempts, and a very predictable story line. The second was plain nonsense, with a poorly defined "plot", worse acting, and no real mood at all, other than weird. By the third, the quality had, amazingly, declined even more, and we had to stop. No, this isn't "challenging" anything. No, this doesn't make you think. This is mind-numbingly bad, in every way. Acting, directing, writing, cinematography, everything.

I loved A Christmas Horror Story, and Trick 'r Treat, and had hopes for this film. Those were shattered. Don't waste your time on this mess. It's not worth it.

Entertaining Twilight Zone-esque arty flick

[ifnyontherunway · 8/10 · 16 April 2016]

Holidays is fun, twisted rapid fire storytelling with a morality play gone pear-shaped quality. It has plenty of surprises, as any short story anthology should. While I preferred some stories to others, I still lots something to enjoy in every one. There is some downright creepy imagery, and excellent use of suspense -- a couple of the stories actually stressed me out! Occasionally gory if you like that sort of thing.

Overall this film is very entertaining and surprisingly coherent considering the assortment of writers/directors. Fans of Hitchcock, American Horror, Twilight Zone and/or Clerks will enjoy this.

A Classy Compendium

[kieronboote-134-969472 · 7/10 · 17 April 2016]

This omnibus film turned out to be an enjoyable treat. Each section had it's own individual tone and appearance that was very well suited to the tale being told. It appears as if the need to compete with the other film makers has encouraged all of the writers/directors to film their sections with care and style and to produce an interesting contribution to the project.

Each section seemed to have it's own colour palette. The Valentine's Day section may have had a rather telegraphed ending but the red swimming costumes (and those eyebrows!!) reminded me of Bergman's "Cries and Whispers". Sorry if that reference is a little pretentious for anyone who thinks that "The Sixth Sense" is the height of horror sophistication!! The connection to Halloween was somewhat tenuous in that particular section but it was laugh out loud funny in parts and it's always good to see an asshole, literally in this case, get his comeuppance. Mother's Day had a suitably 60's hippy drippy tone, Easter was surreal, Father's Day was solemn, creepy and tragic and Christmas was a modern day morality tale of the values of the consumerist society. However for me the stand out was the St Patrick's day section which had a real Ben Wheatley feel and a stand out performance from the scary little girl.

So overall extremely enjoyable for the quality of the overall film and the ability to steer away from most of the clichés that surround the various "Holidays".

Holidays needs to take a vacation

[drdeathforpresident · 1/10 · 28 June 2016]

one word: horrible! The only saving grace is the first short: Valentine's Day. I could easily watch an hour and a half of this. Once you see this then turn it off. A bullied recluse gets revenge and her antagonist has no heart, literally. The film doesn't focus on the holidays themselves; they are more like the backdrop. Father's day was a long tease and I was pulling my hair out every step of the way. Mother's day had topless witches guarding a prego. Halloween had a misogynist cutting off his weiner with a dildo stuck up his ass. I guess nothing says Halloween like castration. Easter, well what can I say about Easter? Hmmm. The bunny was creepy as hell and kudos to the special effects department - you'll see who the rabbit resembles. Christmas was a gift that I wanted to return albeit the half naked chick was kind of hot. Happy holidays, indeed.

Interesting ideas, rushed scripts, some nice styles

[rlaine · 5/10 · 2 June 2017]

This is a collection of short horror stories themed by different holidays.

The ideas and stories are somewhat good and interesting. The scripts - especially endings - are quite rushed tho. I was surprised how often the ending seemed completely random. As if the whole episode was just a build up (and many are good at that), then they just suddenly pull the plug without any explanation and proceed to another episode. The episodes are really short, which makes this an easy watch, you don't have time to get bored as it's mostly a build up after a build up. There were a few with a proper ending tho.

The direction and acting are pretty good for the most part. There are some episodes that are really good looking with a lot of emphasis put on style, cinematography etc. Stylistically very different, but you can see that the directors have had fun directing these episodes. Many directors I had never even heard of, but even tho the styles vary and differ a lot, they are mostly very well directed.

Some of the stand out episodes for me were st. patrick's and father's day, which was probably the best even tho the ending sucked big time. Kevin Smith is the big name in this compilation, but I wouldn't say horror is his forte. His episode has Kevin Smith written all over it with snappy dialog and "adult/potty humour". The new years episode had pretty interesting style and acting.

Interesting for the stylistic efforts, but clearly too short stories (maybe 10 min each) for anything serious.