A Calendar of Carnage and Chaos
Ah, Holidays — that rare anthology film that reminds us there’s no better way to celebrate the human spirit than by skewering it, stabbing it, and occasionally impregnating it with a snake. Horror anthologies are always hit-or-miss, but Holidays hits just enough to make you laugh nervously through the blood splatter. It’s as if Love Actually got blackout drunk at a Fangoria convention and decided to make an “inspirational” movie.
This 2016 collection of eight twisted tales—each inspired by a different holiday—proves one universal truth: no celebration is safe when filmmakers are left unsupervised.
Valentine’s Day: Love Hurts (and So Does Heart Theft)
We kick things off with Valentine’s Day, directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, and it’s basically Carrie meets Grey’s Anatomy. Poor Maxine, a bullied high schooler, falls for her handsome coach, who has a bad ticker and a moral compass as weak as his heart. When he refuses to punish her tormentor Heidi, Maxine decides to take matters—and Heidi’s heart—into her own hands.
It’s sweet, in a deranged, arterial-spray kind of way. Think of it as a Hallmark movie written by Hannibal Lecter. It’s short, sharp, and soaked in just enough teenage angst to remind you why you skipped your last reunion.
St. Patrick’s Day: Luck of the Reptilian
Next up, St. Patrick’s Day—where a cheery Irish schoolteacher discovers she’s pregnant… with a snake. And honestly, it’s not even the weirdest thing to happen in this film.
Gary Shore (of Dracula Untold fame, which tells you everything you need to know) delivers an insane fever dream involving a creepy child, pagan cults, and a maternity storyline so absurd it could’ve been pulled from a Maury episode. The tone swings from light folklore to Cronenbergian nightmare faster than you can say, “top o’ the morning.”
By the time the teacher embraces her role as serpent mom, you’re either laughing hysterically or quietly googling “snake parenting tips.” Either way, it’s a wild ride that hisses in all the right ways.
Easter: He Is Risen (and So Is the Trauma)
Nicholas McCarthy’s Easter is what happens when you take the question “What if Jesus and the Easter Bunny were the same creature?” way too seriously.
A little girl, curious about the holiday, wakes up to find the world’s most disturbing Easter Bunny—a mangled, humanoid abomination wearing a crown of thorns. Imagine the Velveteen Rabbit after an exorcism and three years of unpaid therapy bills.
It’s short, nasty, and perfect. The creature design alone deserves applause (and maybe a restraining order). The ending, in which the girl is forced to become the next rabbit messiah, is both horrifying and hysterical—a religious allegory with more fur than theology.
Mother’s Day: Fertility Horror, But Make It Desert-Chic
Sarah Adina Smith’s Mother’s Day takes a break from monsters to give us something truly terrifying: group therapy. Kate, a woman cursed with extreme fertility, joins a desert retreat where barren witches worship her womb like it’s a Kickstarter campaign for the Antichrist.
It’s slow-burn horror done right—equal parts weird, sensual, and disturbing. The cult’s true intentions become clear during a ritual that looks like Burning Man meets Planned Parenthood. The ending (in which Kate gives birth to a full-grown arm) is exactly the kind of absurd, grotesque punchline you didn’t know you needed.
It’s motherhood, body horror, and empowerment all wrapped into one bloody umbilical bow.
Father’s Day: Daddy Issues, Now in Dolby Surround Sound
Anthony Scott Burns’ Father’s Day is the quiet one in the bunch—eerie, atmospheric, and oddly poetic. Jocelin Donahue (of House of the Devil) plays Carol, who receives a mysterious cassette tape from her long-dead father. The tape leads her to a deserted building where she hopes to reunite with dear old dad.
Spoiler: Daddy’s not bringing hugs and ice cream.
This segment trades blood for existential dread, and it works beautifully. It’s melancholic horror—slow, strange, and emotionally haunting. When the supernatural twist arrives, you’re not shocked so much as unsettled, like finding your dad’s voicemail playing from a tombstone.
If this were its own film, A24 would’ve released it with minimalist posters and everyone on Reddit would call it “elevated horror.”
Halloween: Kevin Smith’s Bloody Revenge Fantasy
Kevin Smith’s contribution to Holidays is—unsurprisingly—the loudest, dirtiest, and most gleefully unhinged of the lot. Halloween stars Ashley Greene and Harley Quinn Smith as cam girls who get revenge on their sadistic boss, a man who treats “women’s empowerment” like a punchline.
After some inspired torture ingenuity involving a car battery and a strategically placed vibrator, the girls make him quite literally cut off his toxic masculinity. It’s disgusting, cathartic, and deeply funny in a “please don’t tell HR I laughed at that” way.
Kevin Smith directs the entire short like a punk rock middle finger to misogyny—and honestly, it works. It’s the feminist horror revenge short you never knew you needed, complete with a moral: never mess with women who own power tools.
Christmas: The Gift That Keeps on Screaming
Scott Stewart’s Christmas stars Seth Green as a desperate dad who kills a stranger to get his son the season’s hottest gadget—a pair of “uVu” virtual reality glasses that literally let you relive your worst decisions.
It’s part sci-fi, part morality tale, and all black comedy. Watching Seth Green’s descent from loving father to VR voyeur is both tragic and hilarious. The twist—that his wife is just as monstrous as he is—lands perfectly.
It’s like Black Mirror met It’s a Wonderful Life and said, “Let’s ruin Christmas forever.”
New Year’s Eve: The Couple That Slays Together…
The anthology closes with New Year’s Eve, and it’s a fittingly deranged finale. Reggie, a lonely serial killer, goes on a date with Jean—a woman who turns out to be an even better serial killer.
It’s basically You’ve Got Mail if both leads were Ted Bundy.
Their awkward flirtation ends in an axe fight, blood everywhere, and Jean dancing with corpses as fireworks explode outside. It’s the perfect blend of romance and dismemberment, proving that sometimes, love truly kills.
A Bloody Bouquet of Tone Shifts
What makes Holidays work is its sheer unpredictability. Every segment feels like it was made on a dare—and somehow, they all complement each other. One minute you’re laughing at Kevin Smith’s gonzo humor; the next, you’re uncomfortably invested in a snake pregnancy.
Sure, some entries are stronger than others (Easter, Christmas, and Father’s Day steal the show), but even the weaker ones (St. Patrick’s Day, I’m looking at you) have a gonzo charm.
The transitions are rough, but that’s part of the fun. This isn’t a smooth anthology—it’s a holiday calendar made by maniacs, and that’s exactly what keeps it alive.
The Real Holiday Spirit: Blood, Irony, and Catharsis
At its core, Holidays isn’t just a horror anthology—it’s a dark, hilarious meditation on the ways our traditions mask collective insanity. Love, faith, fertility, family, revenge… all of it gets stripped, skewered, and served with a wink.
It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be. Horror has always been at its best when it’s a little ridiculous, and Holidays leans into that chaos like a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving dinner.
Final Verdict: Festive, Feral, and Fantastic
Holidays is a blood-soaked advent calendar for horror lovers—a macabre buffet of humor, guts, and social commentary. It’s uneven, sure, but that’s part of the charm. No two shorts feel the same, and the result is a beautifully bizarre celebration of human depravity.
If you like your horror smart but stupid, shocking but funny, and absolutely allergic to good taste, this is your new seasonal tradition.
Grade: A- (for “Annual Mayhem”)
Recommended for: fans of horror anthologies, people who love their holidays with a side of trauma, and anyone who’s ever thought Easter could use more body horror.
