The Boulet Brothers and David Dastmalchian present 4 twisted tales of yuletide terror in the darned-good-but-far-too-short-to-truly-catch anthology The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors, now on Shudder
The Shudder drag show horror superstars, Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet, bring increasingly awesome horror film icon David Dasmalchian (fresh from Dust Bunny) to present, along with writing and directing some segments, a new anthology of ho-ho-horror. Here’s the thing. It’s good, a nice and fun anthology. But it’s only 40 minutes long. Four stories, plus wrap-around arounds with Dracmorda and Swanthula, along with a zombified David Dastmalchian in that length of time? Yeah, it’s a bit rushed. Each of these stories, save the last, which works just right, could have more time to breathe and set up. For a quick, yule log of yuck, it’s a nice visit, but could be a longer stay. Overall, the stories have a fantastic look, brimming with dread in the lighting and set. Obviously, everyone is giving great care; the Boulet Brothers and Dastmalchian are the real deal, true-blue horror fans. The only real issue is that the stories need more. Let’s take a look at the individual stories.
“Gaudete”, written and directed by the Boulet Brothers
The weakest of the bunch comes first, weirdly from the makers of the special itself. The main draw is Bonnie Aarons as an undead! A family moves to dear dead grandma’s old house. They are fraying, with Judy (and her poor acting) in the center. Then Aaron’s Nosferatu-looking creature comes to visit… because? Sure. It’s very well shot, with a great look in the snow and the closed darkened environments but needed far more story and plot points to really work.
“Yeti or Not”; written by David Dastmalchian & Leah Kilpatrick, directed by David Dastmalchian
This packs so much in just a mere four minutes, I’m impressed. Major brevity in storytelling, although, as noted before, I could watch much more; but what we have is so well done, it’s great as is. Anyway, the story finds a group of women looking for a long-lost sister on a mountain. And they captured the yeti, Dastamalcihan, in a great suit, which they think is responsible. It doesn’t go well. For them, at least, for it is a delight to us.
“Old Aquaintance” Written and directed by Akela Cooper (first directing for Cooper after a long history of writing for James Wan and others)
Cooper crafts a very interesting segment that, like the first, kinda drops the ball on paying off the setup. A woman, played by Rent and Death Proof’s Tracie Thomas, returns home on New Year’s Eve (switching it up) after her father died. She’s been gone for a while, and soon calls begin warning about a demon on the answering machine. It’s a little weird and a good hook, but it doesn’t fully develop. It has a fantastic atmosphere, though. And the monster looks great, created by Dragula winner Abora.
“Down the Chimney” By Kate Siegel
After her fantastic turn in V/HS/Beyond, “Stowaway” Siegel continues to prove herself as a new Horror’s Greatest, after many fantastic acting turns and co-writing Hush with Mike Flanagan (she’s married to him, but let’s not lead with that; she’s bona fide). Akin to Rankin/Bass animation, it’s a delight of a messed-up journey. Santa, on his way down a chimney, gets stuck. Thus begins an attempt to get out. As should be expected, it doesn’t go well for him. What would already be a weird and fucked premise is made more so by the animation.
The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors (with David Dastmalchian) is solid, but slight. It’s a nice severed toe of a dip into the waters, as intended to become a yearly special of an anthology, joining the Haunted Season (now in its second entry). I’m up for it, hope next year they let the segments breathe a little more.