Members of a wealthy family gather for Christmas dinner, but with the punch spiked with a powerful truth serum, old family feuds come to the fore, leading to extreme violence.
Writer/director Adam Marcus's Secret Santa is not to be confused with Secret Santa (2015), which is bad, but not quite as bad as this. Marcus gives us a film in which the characters are such a vile waste of skin that watching is painful.
One might imagine that seeing these utterly despicable people being bumped off in a variety of revolting ways would be a lot of fun, but it's not, the level of obnoxiousness so high that no amount of suffering is enough to compensate. Even when they're being sliced and diced, they're utterly reprehensible. The film is intended to be a black comedy, but people this horrible aren't funny in any circumstance; I loathed every minute in their company, even when they were dead.
There's a high level of graphic gore - decapitation by shovel, impalement on Christmas tree decoration, vomiting of internal organs etc. - but the special effects are 'enhanced' by CGI blood: just one more thing guaranteed to rankle this particular horror fan.
Writer/director Adam Marcus's Secret Santa is not to be confused with Secret Santa (2015), which is bad, but not quite as bad as this. Marcus gives us a film in which the characters are such a vile waste of skin that watching is painful.
One might imagine that seeing these utterly despicable people being bumped off in a variety of revolting ways would be a lot of fun, but it's not, the level of obnoxiousness so high that no amount of suffering is enough to compensate. Even when they're being sliced and diced, they're utterly reprehensible. The film is intended to be a black comedy, but people this horrible aren't funny in any circumstance; I loathed every minute in their company, even when they were dead.
There's a high level of graphic gore - decapitation by shovel, impalement on Christmas tree decoration, vomiting of internal organs etc. - but the special effects are 'enhanced' by CGI blood: just one more thing guaranteed to rankle this particular horror fan.