I Know What You Did Last Christmas (2025)

A group of friends who no longer talk receive invitations for a reunion.  After they all arrive, they discover none of them know who sent the invitations.  It’s also revealed they had a falling out due to some horrible secret that resulted in a death of one of the group. 

They talk in vague terms about the incident and wonders if that is why they’re here.  One woman questions if everyone attended due to fear of blackmail, but the others maintain they did nothing wrong. Even lying to the police is couched as necessary since otherwise the incident would ruin their lives. 

The incident turns out to be Trey and Nico locking Millie out of the house in a snowstorm and then closing the drapes as she bangs on the sliding door.  She couldn’t get into the house and died. So their excuses it was just bad luck, or they didn’t do anything fall flat at this point.

There are many confusing things in this film.  Why did they lock her out? If it was a prank, then why didn’t they let her in later? Why do they think they did nothing wrong? Did everyone know she was locked out? Why don’t they leave the reunion when they discover no one knows who set it up?  Why do some of the women not recognize Sam when he looks exactly the same as when they last saw him?  Why do they say Cassie hasn't spoken to Nico in three years when the incident took place last year?  And why is the person in the Santa suit doing this?  The motivation for the prank is never clear.

Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

Tori owns a records store and plans to meet up with a guy on a dating app. But her employee Robbie, who wants to hook up with her, convinces her to go to the bar with him. On the way, they stop at a toy store to give some whiskey to a friend who is planning to entertain her boyfriend there on Christmas Eve. Then Tori and Robbie continue on to the bar.

The toy store has a lifesize robotic Santa. It’s a military grade robot that was converted to Santa and marketed as a way to keep children safe from degenerate local Santas. But there is a problem with the conversion and Santa is now acting on its own and the mission is extermination. 

After dispatching the couple in the toy store, Santa walks out on the street and sees Tori and Robbie drive off. He follows them and the carnage starts next door to them. Santa is like a terminator in that it never stops when going after its target.

With dead bodies piling up, the police aren’t happy. But it’s a small town, they all know each other, and they don’t believe Tori killed people. But they also don’t believe her story about a killer Santa.

This is okay, but nothing I’d ever watch again. It’s much better than most of the Christmas horror I watched this month.  The characters aren’t that likable so you aren’t invested in rooting for them.  The most annoying part is Tori is one of those characters who avoids telling people what is going on. If you’re screaming at someone and they don’t know what you mean, maybe tell them there is a killer behind them. That is something they should understand.

Terrifier 3 (2024)

I haven’t seen the first two movies and there was only a brief flashback so I may be missing important details because I have no background in what occurred before.  Sienna, previously a victim of Art the clown, is out of the psych ward and goes to stay with her aunt, uncle and cousin Gabbie, who follows her around like a puppy dog and wants to know everything about her. 

Sienna’s brother Jonathan is at college in the dorms, where his roommate is hooking up with Mia, who hosts a true crime podcast.  Mia is positively giddy to meet him and has so many questions about his trauma. She repeatedly tries to convince him to be on her show since it will give her clout. She’s too self absorbed to realize how insensitive she’s being.

Meanwhile Sienna is seeing things that aren’t there and thought she saw Art in town.Nobody believes her, not even Jonathan who just wants to move on. But Art actually is on the loose and he’s killing people all over the place.

After spending this month watching low budget Christmas horror, it’s nice to watch a movie with a big budget.  That being said, the movie just kind of rambles along. For most of the movie, Art and Sienna’s stories do not overlap.  Art’s off killing people he meets and Sienna is wondering if he’s really out there or it’s just her fears. A lot of the kills are in the torture realm, which I don’t enjoy. 

The Mean One (2022)

On Christmas Eve in Newville, Cindy goes downstairs and finds the Grinch dressed as Santa Claus. She gives him her necklace. Then her mom walks in, screams and attacks Santa Grinch.  When her mom dies in the fight, Cindy screams Santa is a monster.

Twenty years later, Cindy and her dad drive back to town to put the house on the market. Cindy’s therapist thinks it will help her get closure. They are pulled over by a new deputy, who tells them they can’t have Christmas decorations on their car as it’s a distraction. 

When Cindy and her dad look for some decorations, they discover there aren’t any decorations in the entire town. The Sheriff says no one takes Christmas seriously. Cindy and her dad have some decorations with them so they decorate the house. Immediately they are attacked by Santa Grinch and Cindy advances to orphan status..

No one believed her story of a green Santa as a child and they don’t believe her now. The nurse says it’s grief bordering on psychosis. But Cindy knows what she saw.

When Cindy goes up on a mountain to take some photos, she sees Santa attacking some hikers, reels backwards and falls into a cave. There she finds the wallet of a hiker who disappeared.  Now she and the deputy attempt to solve the mystery of what is really going on in town, and whether the Mayor is covering it up.

I expected more from this. It’s a good concept but not funny, or scary. The Grinch make up is decent though.

It Cuts Deep (2020)

Sam is bringing girlfriend Ashley to his childhood home for the holidays.  Ashley is interested in marriage, but Sam avoids the subject by making immature jokes and interrupting her.

While in town they run into Nolan, who says he was Sam’s best friend.  Ashley is confused since Sam’s never mentioned him.  Later they run into Nolan and his wife, and he says they should get together some time. 

But Sam does not want to see Nolan. Every time Nolan shows up at the house or they run into him, Sam’s paranoia increases. He thinks Nolan is following him and that Ashley likes him. Ashley tells Sam he’s overreacting since they used to be friends. Plus it’s a small town so it doesn’t seem weird.

Nolan mentions something terrible happened when they were teenagers, but Sam tells him to shut up and refuses to talk to Ashley about it.  A flashback shows two teenagers killed by a machete.  Nolan mentions his sister died tragically and there is an allusion that it may have been at Nolan’s hands. 

As the movie goes on, you’ll start to wonder if Sam is an unreliable narrator or Nolan is a cad and a killer. You’ll also wonder why Ashley is dating Sam. He seems to have no redeemable qualities, ignores her feelings, is immature and is a terrible cook - which is fine other than he refuses to admit the food is garbage.

Slay Ride (2024)

Holly stops at a convenience store on the way home from work on Christmas Eve. The clerk is listening to a news alert about a killer dressed as Santa who strikes convenience stores. The news warns the public not to walk alone in any convenience store parking lots.  

After being rude to the clerk, Holly walks out to her car and neglects to check the back seat.  Surprise, it’s killer Santa!  After a fight, Santa falls out of the car and Holly goes to the police station.

After being rude to the police, Holly wants to go home. The detective informs her Santa has killed eleven women in eleven days and each of them was having an affair. Holly avoids answering his question about if she’s having an affair, and continues her rude streak.

When the police tell her the killer used to live in her home, she freaks out. They accompany her back to her house and confirm no one is inside except her family.  Two police are posted outside, in case anything happens.

Shortly after this, the killer appears in her home.  He insists Holly is naughty and must pay for her sins. The last half of the movie is Holly and her family being tied up, getting loose, and Holly fighting the killer. But don’t expect any excitement. It plods along, including a monologue where the killer chews the scenery as he adapts the Night Before Christmas to his childhood trauma when his dad murdered his mom.

I think Holly is supposed to come off as a strong woman, but she comes off as a woman who regularly asks to speak to the manager. I wasn’t sure if it was written that way or the actress chose to play it like that. Later I discovered the actress is also the writer so I guess it was both.

Holly makes bad decision after bad decision, but so do most of the other characters in the film. When her neighbor comes over because he heard gun shots and sees her possibly dead husband on the floor, he scoffs when she says a killer is in the house.  The neighbor accuses her of the violence and offers to lie to the police if she has an affair with him. 

The police officers left to guard her also made some really bad decisions. A lone man tied one cop to the steering wheel and decapitated the other. How did he get the drop on both of them?   Surely one would have noticed there was an issue before both were incapacitated.

The most ridiculous plot hole is the lack of response from the police.  They are aware Holly was attacked by a serial killer who used to live in her home. They station two police outside.  Later at the station, one of the cops tells the detective that ten minutes ago they got a 911 call from her home, but no one was on the line. Did they just hang up? Then they got a call from the neighbors about shots fired, and they can’t get hold of the cops outside the house. Yet it barely registers there may be a problem. They are in no rush to send anyone to check on it.  Even after this scene, there is a long period of time before the police show up. Oh and the Detectives last name is Donner.  Merry Christmas!

Ridiculous dialogue

Detective: This killer only targets people who, women who are having an affair. Is there something I need to know?

Holly: Like what?

Husband: You have to help her!

Detective: Has anybody gone after her?

Policeman:  No, no one has.

You see that? He’s dead. And you never have to be afraid of him ever again. Santa Claus killed him.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder (2022)

Diana and her friend Riley are into true crime, and also work together at a business Diana started. When her aunt Tippy is found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs, Diana is convinced she was murdered. Tippy was always so careful about holding onto the railing, so there is no way she would have fallen.

When Diana arrives in town, she is suspicious of anyone who might have been around Tippy - the housekeeper, the lawyer, the detective neighbor who was peeking through the hedge, and the ex husband. 

She meets Tippy’s next door neighbor Breanna, who says Tippy was her best friend. She also reconnects with her ex boyfriend Matt, who ends up on the suspect list after he enters the house without asking and is roaming downstairs. 

Diana keeps asking the detective if there are any updates about Tippy's death, even though she’s repeatedly been told they are not looking into it since it was ruled an accident.  But Diana won’t give up. Her passion for true crime and talks with Riley solidify something is wrong with the death.

When she can’t find the Christmas village Tippy used to put out every year, she wonders if someone took it. Later she discovers the houses and figures are worth up to one thousand dollars each, and becomes more convinced Tippy was murdered. Egged on by Riley, Diana gets deeper into investigating and plans to confront the person she thinks murdered Tippy, which isn’t a great idea. If a murderer thinks you’re the only person who knows the killed someone, you’ll likely be murdered too.

This movie showed up on Tubi in a list of Christmas horror movies so I thought it was horror. The logo at the beginning was LMN, which I didn’t realize was Lifetime Movie Network. So that tells you everything you need to know.  It was actually okay and the cliches were pretty amusing.  There were a lot of red herrings about who the murderer was, and Diana fell for all of them.

In the first seven minutes, we are bludgeoned over the head about how Diana has a successful business. Through out the movie this fact is shoved down our throats over and over. And that is the only violence in this film.

Ridiculous dialogue

Diana: She was cleaning the basement floor, like really scrubbing it.

Riley: I don’t know. You’ve got to keep an eye on her, Diana. You know what they say, never underestimate the help.

Diana: Yeah, she seemed angry about something.

Mrs. Hobart: You’re the entrepreneur.

Diana: Oh… no, I just, I own a small company in San Francisco.

The detective neighbor peeking through the hedges

Has anyone ever served ears of corn after a funeral?

Going to check out the noise in the basement after
believing her aunt was murdered in the basement = no survival skills

‘Twas the Night (2023)

A teenage girl whose sister was murdered tracks down the people responsible on Christmas Eve, since this is when they commit their crimes.  Then she tells them some stories her mother used to tell her.  It’s all about getting rid of people who don’t appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. I’m not sure how horror stories would help a child understand the holidays, but okay.

The group of three have a seven year partnership. They work on Christmas Eve because it’s the one night everyone is distracted with gifts and parties.  They say it’s the only night they can move undetected.  I thought they were going to be robbing empty houses. But grabbing kids seems like it would be harder on Christmas Eve because there would be more people in the house.

What bugged me about this movie, besides the acting, was the adults never tried to escape from their teen captor.  They are tied up on the ground but never try to fight back or overpower her as she gets down near them. 

The movie ends with judgement by Krampus as to how people who did not appreciate the holidays will spend eternity.

Gnome Sick: 7 Slays ‘Til Mithras (2025)

After Pete’s agent drops him, he drives home and discovers his family is nowhere to be found. They have a business making homemade wooden Christmas ornaments. This is the first year his father has been behind in filling the orders.

Meanwhile the Santa Slasher is on the loose and killing again. What Pete doesn’t know is his father is the slasher, and the title is handed down through his bloodline.  It’s Pete’s turn to take on that role.

What about the gnomes, you ask?  They are Pete’s family who were  murdered by his father and turned into gnomes which he controls with his mind.

This is a horror comedy, but falls flat on both genres. 

In Fabric (2018)

Sheila discovers her ex husband already has a girlfriend. She feels even more lonely when her son gets a girlfriend who stays over night and gets into her things.  So she decides to respond to some lonely hearts ads in hopes of finding a partner.

After confirming a date, she decides to buy a new dress to make a good impression. The store has some odd sales women dressed in clothing from the 1800s.  Shelia thinks nothing of it when she finds a dress she likes and the saleswoman says the color is artery red.

After a disaster of a date, Sheila discovers she has a rash from the dress. Not only that, but there are strange noises in her wardrobe at night, she is attacked by a dog, and her washing machine is destroyed when trying to wash the dress. Things do not go well for Sheila.

Half way through the movie, the main character switches to Reg. His friends bought the red dress for him to wear at his bachelor party. He also gets a rash from the dress. 

Reg is the most unenthusiastic groom ever. He doesn’t seem fond of his fiance. He works for a repair company and when he speaks of repair issues and their resolutions, people go into a trance. The dress will not do any favors for him or his fiance.

This was listed with the Christmas horror movies on Tubi. It takes place at Christmas time but doesn’t factor into the  plot. It’s an odd but well done movie. That being said, I didn’t get it. Why were the sales clerks all wearing what appeared to be Victorian clothing? Was there something we were supposed to discern from the salesclerk wearing a wig because she’s totally bald? Who was the old weirdo that appeared to be their boss? Why did they limit who could come into the store, even though they advertised on tv and in the paper? Why did people in the store go crazy? Where was she going in the dumbwaiter during the fire and why did she save that mannikin? And why were there weird commercials for the store on tv? Did everyone see them or was it targeted toward those who had already interacted with the dress?