The family at the centre of our next film Secret Santa (2017) all have their own axes to grind and plenty of hilarious home truths come out when an unknown antagonist spikes the Christmas punch with a military grade truth serum, driving some of them totally insane and leaving the clan fighting for their lives. It’s a neat, nasty concept from helmer Adam Marcus as this dysfunctional family gather for the holidays. They already mostly hate each other, so when the drug kicks in they’re happy to let rip, but things quickly turn ultra-violent with the serum stripping away all inhibitions, reducing some to their deepest, darkest base instincts. It’s all wonderfully over the top, with family members punching, slashing and stabbing each other with forks with total abandon.
Poor April (A. Leslie Kies) is the teetotal recovering alcoholic who avoids the punch but then has to do her best to stop her family literally tearing itself to pieces. As standard, she’s introducing her handsome, seemingly perfect new boyfriend Ty (Michael Rady) to the clan, just in time for things to kick off. Rady, who’s made a name for himself playing cheesy, do-gooder love interests in Hallmark cheese (including Christmas at Pemberley Manor) has an awesome time playing against type here. As the drug takes hold, he’s transformed from affable Paul Rudd-type everyman into a ruthless Patrick Bateman murderous yuppie asshole. It’s a blast to see him cut loose.
However, the film doesn’t quite pack the same punch it could have done, as most of these characters are established as horrible people before they drink the punch, so it's not quite as shocking when they start slamming heads in car doors. It’s also very contrived, with all the mobile phones just happening to be confiscated at the start of the night, while we’re asked to swallow that the family is effectively trapped in the house because a car is blocking the driveway? It’s never explained why nobody just runs or even walks to get help.
It's very lively and entertaining at times, but also an unrelentingly nasty film. April’s stepbrother Jackson (Nathan Hendrick) is a real piece of shit, the sort of guy who forces his wife to give him blowies in the car, cackling gleefully as he slaps her ass, which is seemingly played for laughs. Urgh. Jackson glories in having no inhibitions, though he doesn’t have many to begin with. A sadistic scene involving a severed head late in the game goes too far for my tastes and perhaps says a lot about the twisted minds who came up with this tale.
The script really tries to be as distasteful as possible, wading into bad taste territories like homophobia, incest, necrophilia – y’know, all those lovely Christmas topics. Though the film isn’t exactly glorifying these things (hey, these are baaaad people) it does present a lot of this as rib-tickling entertainment. Fans of more extreme horror may get a kick out of this, but I find it a bit much at times. It’s not particularly graphic, just seedy and a little ill-judged.
The idea that when all our protective layers are stripped away, people are essentially appalling is not very festive at all. Still, I can’t deny the concept is fascinating and though there are plenty of films about the discomfort of fractured families gathering at Christmas, very few, if any, have the balls to push things this far.
There is definitely some enjoyment to be had with family letting it all hang out and saying and doing whatever the hell they want. This one reminds me of the Christmas when my sister-in-law got wrecked and spent the evening terrorising my mum. It was bloody hilarious.
So, this one isn’t as fun as it thinks it is, but special mention must go to Debra Sullivan as the family’s monstrous matriarch who’s recently divorced and not giving a damn. She’s hitting everyone with epic put-downs before the drugs kick in, which is enjoyable, but also highlights the big problem. These guys don’t need a drug to make them entertaining – maybe all they needed was a few too many bottles of wine. That’s certainly all that’s required round my mum’s gaff on Christmas day.
コメント