Dismembering Christmas Review

My love of holiday themed horror is well known. I also happen to be a big fan of the work that Kevin Sommerfield and the guys over at Slasher Studios do. Earlier this week, I got a chance to check out their latest, a holiday themed slasher, Dismembering Christmas. As with earlier Slasher Studios releases, this is yet another enjoyable example of what an independent company with a passion for the genre can manage to accomplish without a huge budget.

Dismembering Christmas centers around a group of teenagers who are celebrating the holidays together, away from their families, at a lake house owned by one of their fathers. What begins as a weekend full of drinking and partying quickly takes a sinister turn as the group gets a visit, and ominous warning, from a local wandering by. When night falls, the group begins to disappear one by one as they are stalked by a masked killer out for revenge, who has a past connection with the secluded cabin.

That plot description may not sound like the reinvention of the wheel, and it isn't. That's the thing about the slasher genre, most of the plot lines are pretty paint by numbers. You get a group of kids, throw them in a secluded location, and have them killed off one at a time by some sort of masked killer who most likely has a past connection with either one of the kids and/or the location. Throw in some nudity, inventive kills, and a plot twist at the end, and you have yourself a movie. It's what slasher fans expect, and enjoy. That's why I love Slasher Studios so much. They deliver old school slasher films for fans of the genre because that's what they themselves are.

The cast all performs well, with the standouts for me being Baker Chase Powell as Mark, and Nina Kova as Sam. The both played well off each other, and delivered believable performances. Effects wise, everything is practical, so fans of the real stuff will undoubtedly enjoy the gore. The kills themselves range from tame to deliciously clever. I always love it when the holiday decorations in one of these movies come in to play, and let's just say I don't think I've ever seen a better use of a Christmas wreath. The killer looks good, the pacing is almost perfect, and all around this is just a really fun holiday horror film.

With Dismembering Christmas, Slasher Studios once again managed to capture the magic of an 80's slasher, just as they did with Don't Go to the Reunion and their other films before it. The difference this time though? Polish. For as good as Reunion, Popularity Killer, Teddy, and the others are, they are admittedly a bit rough around the edges. Dismembering Christmas adds some finesse, camera work, a tight script, and other little enhancements that makes it their best production to date.