Hallmark Meets Horror With The New Family Friendly Christmas Tale ‘Family Ornaments’
As you all know the holidays are vastly approaching us. Holiday decorations are already in the stores. Holiday music is blaring across the radio waves and holly/jolly playlists are being suggested to you on Spotify. While the holidays are being bombarded everywhere we go for the rest of the year, Holiday horror movies are only being sprinkled into the mix. Holiday horror movies tend to add a cold and chilling twist to the festive season. They blend the warmth of our holiday traditions with the elements of suspense and terror.
These films often focus on exploring the dark themes set against the backdrop of a snowy landscape and the abundance of cheerful decorations in every home. Whether it is a malevolent Santa Claus (or whatever holiday figure your family focuses on this time of year) or some kind of supernatural event disrupting our joyful celebrations, these holiday horror movies play to our attention of the contrast between the expected merriment and the unexpected horrors that will unfold on our screens.
Surprisingly, there are some iconic examples of holiday horror such as ‘Black Christmas’, a classic slasher film that predates the genre’s popularity boom in the late 20th century. There are even more recent examples such as ‘Krampus’, which is a terrifying addition to this genre that introduces a demonic counterpart to Santa Claus. The great thing about this particular genre of horror movies is that they tap into the fear of the unknown that may be lurking beneath the surface of the season’s festivities, providing us all with a unique and spine-chilling experience for viewers who may crave a different kind of horror experience during the holidays.
Recently I had the chance to watch the family-friendly horror movie from Finndependent Productions and Tubi called ‘Family Ornaments’. This movie stars Alicia Blasingame, Autumn Harrison, Michael Pare, Ian Michaels, Emily Gateley, Roman Smith, Marian Elizabeth and Elyse Mirto. This movie was directed by Gregory Oehler and written by Liam Finn. The synopsis is as follows:
“A rule-following daughter determined to keep her recently departed mother’s tradition of hand-crafted holiday ornaments pure, bickers with her rule-bending sister, resulting in an angry Christmas Eve wish. A wish that wreaks havoc on the whole family when the ornaments come to life.”
Courtesy of YouTube
This holiday horror movie has a lot going for it. It takes what may seem like the typical troupe of the formula with the festive drama and fighting that comes with spending time with your family on the holidays to another level. With most holiday stories, something happens, and the main characters have to come together at the end, but this particular movie makes it into an original cinematic experience for the viewers.
The story was pretty enjoyable. We don’t want to mention too many details (to avoid spoilers of course), but here is a bit of the story. Meredith (portrayed by Alicia Blasingame) is the controlling Mom character who has some resentment towards her sister Shannon (portrayed by Autumn Harrison). Meredith’s husband David (portrayed by Ian Michaels), her daughter Kate (portrayed by Emily Gateley), and son Owen (portrayed by Romyn Smith) are making their way to her father’s (portrayed by Michael Pare) house to celebrate the holidays. This is a particularly rough holiday with the loss of Meredith and Shannon’s mother. Meredith is randomly invited to an ornament shop by its proprietor The Trickster (portrayed by Marian Elizabeth) to find the catalyst for the antics that will happen throughout the rest of the film, a magic ornament that grants wishes.
Once a wish is granted and Shannon mysteriously shows up, the night gets pretty intense with the ornaments coming to life to wreck the holidays for the entire family. The visual effects in this movie are very impressive. They were well crafted and transitioned on screen quite well. Sometimes this can be nice but not really go well with the acting from the actor playing opposite it, but in this case, it was executed very well.
Courtesy of YouTube
There is a particular scene where the grandfather is investigating a noise downstairs while trying to fix a blown fuse and stumbles upon a Christmas tree-shaped ornament that has a life of its own, only to have it attach to his face and attack him with spikes on it’s back. Not only was the combination of the acting and VFX done well with it, but the way it worked out as you watch it gives the corny horror that you might seen in ‘Army of Darkness’ (especially the particular scene with the tiny Ash clones) mixed with some holiday hilarity.
The best thing about this movie is the special effects, the dialogue some of the evil ornaments have, and the entire 2nd/3rd act of a “cat and mouse” chase between the family running from the ornaments. Watching this makes you feel these ornaments are truly real and may make you take a second look at the ornaments on your tree, wondering if they are plotting to attack you. A good horror movie will always make you look over your shoulder a bit after watching it and this may do that to you.
Let's leave you all with this one final thought. If you are in the mood to add a bit of fun, campy, and enjoyable horror this December, 'Family Ornaments' will be one you will want to watch while eagerly awaiting for the holidays to hit. It leaves you with a smile on your face, a bit of glee in your heart, and a nice reminder that maybe family is more important than you think.
Courtesy of YouTube
‘Family Ornaments’ from Finndependent Productions and Tubi is now available to watch on the Tubi app. Be sure to add this to your watchlist this holiday season and enjoy some much-needed horror holiday hilarity.
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