Horror Short Review: The Christmas Gift (2016)

It’s December 23rd and a young man finds a wrapped gift on his doorstep. He takes it inside and sees the label is addressed to him (Mason) and the sender has signed it with the letter ‘K’.

He opens it to find a toy solider inside. Suitably unimpressed, he puts it on the shelf amongst all the other Christmas tat, blows out the candles and goes to bed.

The next day, Christmas Eve, Mason wakes and comes down the stairs and we see the toy solider turn to watch him arrive. While in the shower, we then see the toy solider slowly reveal that it is wielding a sword. It might be small but it looks very, very sharp.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t go where you might expect it too as Mason leaves and drives away in his car.

Cut to 2 hours later and he arrives back making the leaving and coming back utterly pointless. Why even film that bit when it amounts to nothing? He hears something smash in another room and goes to investigate finding a babble has fallen off the tree. He cleans it up and we cut to later that night…

Seriously, what is with the filler scenes?

It’s even more confusing when we see Mason lying dead in the snow outside having been stabbed in the back. Abrupt? Well, it was all a dream as he wakes up with a start. We then get a couple of silent scenes of Elf and it’s back to nothing. Sort of…

As Mason brushes his teeth, he bends down to the water and we see a man dressed as Santa in the mirror go to stab him. It’s an illusion so Mason is unharmed yet this 8 minute short is beginning to feel like double that.

At 7 minutes in literally nothing but the arrival of the toy and its brief movement has happened. It is mind-numbingly boring and tedious. Those hoping for a frantic final minute will find themselves very disappointed. It’s a waste of time and should have been no longer then 2 or 3 minutes.

If you think I’m being too harsh, check it out yourself below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrWYnGjP-AQ