Horror Movie Review: Scream for Christmas (2000)

In the hunt to find holiday-themed horror, everyone will end up having to dredge the swamp to such a depth that inevitably, something long buried and long forgotten will be dragged up. Something so crusted, rusted and busted that you can’t even make out what it is, at first. As you scrap away the years of filth, you secretly hope that what you’ll uncover is something worth its weight in gold. Something unique, something entertaining, something that deserves to be brought back into the light for all to gaze upon.

Finds like this are rare. Especially when you go back as far as the year 2000. Hardly a strong period for horror overall.

Just as rare though, is finding something so awful, that you immediately throw back into the swamp and hope that it stays long forgotten. That nobody else will dredge it up and it will stay consigned to the memories of who gazed upon its nastiness.

This is Scream for Christmas, a 2000 holiday-horror movie that is awful in almost every single way. From its nonsensical story to its awful look, to its amateurish acting and laughable dialogue. Every minute this holiday-themed horror goes on, the worse it becomes. Even extreme moments of violent blood, guts and gore can’t save this one.

Written and directed by Rob Avery (one of only two directing credits he has according to IMDB) and starring Molly Allen (her only acting credit) and Nicole Appleton (of pop band All Saints fame). As well as Rob Avery himself. Scream for Christmas is one of those ‘throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks’ kind of movies. Where being as weird and wacky as possible will hopefully make up for its shortcomings.

A wink and a nod to the audience. We know our movie is stupid and terrible, so don’t judge us too harshly. We’re giving you a psychopath in a Santa suit, cheerleaders who know kung-fu, demons, ghosts and maybe even, the Grim Reaper. There will be blood, there will be guts, and there will blood and guts.

It sounds fun but it’s not, because it overdoes it when it comes nonsense. The lack of coherency in the story is a major problem and the confusing collection of characters makes that worse. Trying to follow along with Scream for Christmas is a chore and it quickly becomes clear, thanks to performances that range from cringe-inducing to plain awful, that it’s not worth it.

Even back then, the year 2000, this would have looked and sounded awful, but time has not helped Scream for Christmas. Twenty-two years later (the year this review was written) and it has aged horrendously. No matter how much you might wish to tick this one off your Christmas horror list, it’s just not worth it. It is one of the most poorly made horror movies ever.