The Christmas Tapes (2022)

While celebrating a quiet Christmas Eve, a family hears a knock on the door and finds a man holding a large present. He says his car broke down and his cell phone is dead so he wants to use their phone.  No one is suspicious except teen girl Rachel who thinks he’s weird and wonders why her parents are ignoring the stranger danger rules.

Her fears turn out to be valid when she comes out of the bathroom and her entire family is tied up.The stranger says watching regular Christmas movies is boring so he’s brought his own. 

1. Travel Buggies - Dave and Jess have been posting videos for years and have 200 subscribers. Dave’s tired of the manufactured experience all for content. He wants to stop filming and enjoy each other’s company.  Jess disagrees but says after this trip, maybe they can take a break. When her content doesn’t go as planned, she gets mad at Dave and blames him for not helping plan the trip. Things might have been okay if earlier in the day they hadn’t done a ritual next to a scarecrow calling on Hans Trap who snaps the neck of nasty kids.
2. The Christmas Gift - Dean is claustrophobic but since his kids only pay attention to YouTube, he’s going to ship himself to them in a giant box. He’ll film everything and make an unboxing video. Freight companies won’t ship humans so he finds someone on the internet who agrees to help. The guy shows up dressed as Santa and asks to stop by his own house to talk to Mrs. Santa. The two convince Dean to get into the box there rather wait until he’s a block from his house. Oh Dean, why would you ever trust a stranger to lock you in a box, especially when you are claustrophobic?
3. Untitled - a dating service puts a chip in a client’s head, tells them to deliver a package to a hotel room, and that they might see things that don’t exist due to the chip.  If they fail to deliver the package, they’ll die.
4. Christmas Spirit - A couple buys a house but the moving company can’t bring their furniture until after Christmas. The wife finds decorations in the closet and puts them on the mantle. Odd things happen so they call someone to investigate. He sends over a weird paranormal investigator who makes them so uncomfortable they don’t want him in their house.

It would have been so much more enjoyable if when the stranger brought out the VHS tapes, the family no longer had a VCR. Sadly they still have one hooked up in the living room. I noticed IMDB lists this as both horror and comedy, which is surprising since it wasn’t funny.