*** SPOILERS AHEAD ****
As disturbing, dystopian horror movies and black comedies go, I thought this one was pretty good. The main character, a relatively content and successful person, is sent by a creepy "Santa" into an alternate universe (because he says she made a wish without knowing it) where she loses everything she worked her whole life towards, and is thrust into an awkward and macabre "family" where she has two "daughters" and a "husband" with whom she shares nothing in common and has no semblance of familial chemistry or even congruity.
She is forced to try to adapt to this nightmare by changing everything that made her who she is, and becoming what those people demand her to be. When she finally gets to a point where she is barely able to survive in that environment, the creepy "Santa" puts her back into her original life. The circumstances are so disorienting and traumatic for her that she finds herself unable to deal with her original life, she begs "Santa" to put her back in the alternate universe and he says he can't, and then the movie ends. I didn't notice if any credit for story inspiration was given to Franz Kafka.
For me, packaging the movie in the usual Hallmark style production elements made it even more effective as horror, and I will have difficulty sleeping. Fortunately, outside of Lacey Chabert's performance, which as always comes across as sincere and natural, there was not a single note in the movie which rang true, so I will be able to forget the experience of watching it soon. I'm glad the movie premiered in July, because I prefer not to watch horror movies during the actual Christmas season.
As disturbing, dystopian horror movies and black comedies go, I thought this one was pretty good. The main character, a relatively content and successful person, is sent by a creepy "Santa" into an alternate universe (because he says she made a wish without knowing it) where she loses everything she worked her whole life towards, and is thrust into an awkward and macabre "family" where she has two "daughters" and a "husband" with whom she shares nothing in common and has no semblance of familial chemistry or even congruity.
She is forced to try to adapt to this nightmare by changing everything that made her who she is, and becoming what those people demand her to be. When she finally gets to a point where she is barely able to survive in that environment, the creepy "Santa" puts her back into her original life. The circumstances are so disorienting and traumatic for her that she finds herself unable to deal with her original life, she begs "Santa" to put her back in the alternate universe and he says he can't, and then the movie ends. I didn't notice if any credit for story inspiration was given to Franz Kafka.
For me, packaging the movie in the usual Hallmark style production elements made it even more effective as horror, and I will have difficulty sleeping. Fortunately, outside of Lacey Chabert's performance, which as always comes across as sincere and natural, there was not a single note in the movie which rang true, so I will be able to forget the experience of watching it soon. I'm glad the movie premiered in July, because I prefer not to watch horror movies during the actual Christmas season.