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★★★
Directed by: Sean Cranston
Written by: Bailey Victoria
Starring: Bailey Victoria, Greg Brown, Lauren Baker
A festive film that turns into a festive horror film.
Christmas holidays are coming to an end and it is time for a couple (Victoria and Brown) to remove their decorations. As they do so, they discover an odd-looking ornament and things rapidly take a dark turn. The lights go off, loud crashes are heard and it is indicated that something sinister might had entered their household.
This spooky short begins with normality. A joyful couple are happily taking of their decorations, chatting about the memories some of the ornaments bring back. Then, after the discovery of the creepy decoration, the atmosphere changes as the story moves towards horror, with scary noises, darkness and quite a jump scare. It changes genre rather rapidly, kind of like From Dusk Till Dawn and the result is rather cool, making the audience think that this is a jolly Christmas film (which it is for the first half), while actually there is more to it than that.
As the narrative takes place during Christmas, unsurprisingly there are plenty of relevant decorations to be seen, including a tree, making the house look wonderful. There is also the widely known and beloved song Jingle Bells, by James Lord Pierpont to be heard, which naturally creates the festive feeling.
As far as the acting goes, both leads are convincing as a couple who have a loving relationship between them.
The entire film was shot in black-and-white and the cinematography provides a dark feeling, which becomes stronger when things turn bad. Praise also goes to the stylized opening and closing credits.
Regarding the audio, it appears to have flaws, with the sound of white noise present. Although it does not spoil the film, it does add negative standards.
Holiday Spirit is an interesting and amusing achievement. It shows the joys of festivity and romance and also provides the viewer with a frightening, nail-biting experience.
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