Horror Short Review: Kringle (2017)

Starring Mina Bollinger and written/directed by Cameron Voris and Chris Bollinger. Kringle is a bit of a miss in regards to delivering an effective scary short. Although it does nail the ‘Christmas’ aspect nicely.

We’re introduced to Nina, a teenage girl who is sorely lacking in Christmas spirit. Preferring to stay in her room on her computer. Her parents leave her home alone to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

Her lack of belief is highlighted by her eating the cookies and drinking the milk left out for Santa. Although you have to wonder about parents that are still trying to convince their teenage daughter that Santa Claus is real.

After she gets a text from her mother that says “leave some cookies for Santa”, she appears to feel bad so bakes some fresh ones. A nice change of tact from the usual ‘moody teen’ character.

As she lies back down on the couch, she finds something unusual. Then the power cuts out. Something that was set up before by a shot of a storm outside and a news report of bad weather approaching.

This is where things should get spooky. As she goes around lighting candles but fails to notice that the fresh cookies and milk she prepared has been eaten and drunk. As the Jingle Bell melody plays out softly in the background, she hears footsteps above. Loud enough to shake the light fitting. As she shines a torch down the hall, we catch a glimpse of a red suit going into a room.

Now frightened, the sound of something in the Christmas tree drives her bury her face in her knees on the couch. Almost like a young child hiding under their blankets to be safe from the bogeyman.

The lights come back on and then go back off and the short is seemingly over. We get a ‘Merry Christmas’ message flash up and you’re left thinking, is that it!?

It’s not as we get one final brief shot of a filthy man wearing a Santa costume standing behind her. Then it ends. What a disappointing finish.

The build is solid, it’s kind of creepy but the payoff is so lacklustre that all you’ll feel at the end is annoyance of having wasted your time. When held up against many other Christmas horror shorts, Kringle falls woefully short because it’s not scary. Just when you think it might be getting creepy, it cops out with the bog-standard psycho in a Santa suit character. We’ve seen it all before.

Check it out yourself below.