Horror Movie Review: 13 Slays Till X-Mas (2020)

One of the more extensive anthology films, even more so when you take the festive spin into account, 13 Slays Till X-Mas is an enjoyable trawl though the minds of multiple writers and directors, with twelve stories overall, and a wraparound that connects everything up nicely.

Of course, like most anthologies, 13 Slays Till X-Mas suffers from the problem of hit and miss pieces. Happily, it has more hits than misses, with the wraparound story in particular, being one of the hits.

P.J. Starks is the writer/director of this tale, and it is called Digging Up the Ghost. It surrounds a group of people from different walks of life, spending Christmas Eve in a dingy bar. To pass the time, they decide to tell each other scary festive tales. A simple way to get to the anthology part of the movie.

The first is Like Family, and it comes from Williams Capps and Julie Streble. In it, two sisters are spending their last Christmas together at their childhood home before it goes up for sale. A chance to make merry and remember times gone by, except one of the sisters is holding a dark and terrifying secret.

As far as opening shorts go, Like Family is a strong start with a burgeoning mystery that descends into supernatural horror. It’s got a really dark tone, and that makes it all the more frightening.

One of the best, simply because of its tone, is The Devil’s Due, which comes from director Carlos Omar De Leon. A simple story about a father having to pay the devil for a deal they made many years before. A price that the man just can’t fathom paying. It’s relatable as hell, and done in a really depressing way.

Blair Hoyle’s One More Gift is the first of the more forgettable ones, seeing a gift exchange between two friends take a really dark turn. Before John Mason knocks it out of the park with the excellent, It’s a Wonderful Death. An extremely dark and depressive take on It’s A Wonderful Life, where the trustworthiness of a visiting spectre is questioned, and results in something quite unforgettable.

So far, everything has felt suitably festive, but Sean Blevins’ Don’t Kill Santa on Christmas pushes things even further with a lavish visual treat. Where two crooks make the big mistake of crossing the jolly fat man, resulting in some effective carnage.

Kringle’s the Christmas Clown comes from Jed Brian, and is unsurprisingly, about killer clown. An uninspired and uninteresting entry, unfortunately, even if it is bloody. Drew Marvick brings the gleeful good times back though with the fun Santa Claws, as a young boy finds out what it is really like to land on Santa’s naughty list. Then Eric Huskisson’s The Scareionette tells a cool horror story about an evil Christmas decoration, and Alex Clark’s A Christmas to Dismember, takes things in an old-school and bloody direction as an escaped mental patient cases some chaos. Albeit with some really clever twists and turns along the way, and an ending that is simply brilliant.

Dead Air, which comes from Brittany Blanton, is a solid story with some of the best acting overall and tells the story of an obnoxious and rude late-night radio host who is about to get her comeuppance. Likewise, Jingle Bellz, from director Shawn Burkett, has a cast that throws their all into a short about uninvited guests crashing a Christmas party.

Then, finally, it’s The Killer Caribou, and it is exactly what it sounds like, a pair of hunters becoming the hunted. Arguably the worst of the bunch, alas. Before the wrap-around is ‘wrapped up’ with a reveal that thoroughly entertains. It turns out that this bar rendezvous was not as random as it seems.

With strong casts all over, varied stories, and plenty of festive frights, 13 Slays Till X-Mas can rightfully be called a good film, and definitely a very good anthology film. The misses are not so severe that it harms the overall product, and the hits prove to be extremely good. When we’re always so desperate for well-made festive horror, an anthology might not be the first place most look. However, should you find this in your stocking this year, you can be very grateful indeed.