Horror Short Review: I’ll Be Alone For Christmas (2015)

I’ll be Alone for Christmas opens with a young woman pouring herself a glass of red wine before sitting back on her couch and checking her phone. She messages her friend looking for some conversation and is frustrated to see that her message is read but she doesn’t receive an answer.

To be fair to her friend, she barely waits a couple of seconds before jumping on Tinder to update her status. During this scene she hears some banging around upstairs before re-thinking a part of her Tinder status. Removing that she is feeling quite lonely from it before posting it.

Thinking she heard something in her apartment, she gets up to check but finds nothing. Returning to her phone, she finds pictures of her friends out having a good time on Facebook before the sound of carollers distracts her.

Initially ignoring them, she changes her mind and goes to greet them at the door. However, as she opens it the singing fades away and no-one is there. Confused, she looks around and it is here we get the short’s first proper attempt to scare. As at the top of the stairs we see a hooded figure and the lights flicker on and off.

Back inside, she once again goes to her phone and is disappointed to see that she has no new Tinder messages. Frustrated, she throws her phone down and goes to try and sleep but is quickly woken by her phone going off.

Like a kid on Christmas morning, she eagerly grabs it and is excited to get a message from Matt on Tinder. He asks her if she is alone for the holidays which she confirms then the lights go out…

I’ll stop there as to reveal the final part does this excellent short a dis-service. You’re better off watching it yourself below. The message about how social media can enhance feelings of loneliness is done well. We’re all so connected but at the same time more alone then we ever have been.

Not only that, it plays into the fears that we all give away too much information online. That’s some clever and interesting writing.

It’s a really enjoyable Christmas horror short with the one flaw being that it never really feels that scary. Creepy? Yes, thanks in part to the excellent music but not scary.