Just like every year, Howard (Daniel Roebuck) and Helen (Lisa Wilcox) have invited their whole family over for Christmas, totally ignoring the fact the family's disfunctional - on a good day, and there haven't been many good days of late: There are their daughter Brenda (Sadie Katz), her husband Peter (Bill Dawes) and their daughter Jenny (Eden Shea Beck), who are all still mourning the death of Jenny's sister Mia, mourning that ever so often leads to loud arguments. Then there's Brenda's sister Coral (Lauren Francesca), who's constantly jealous of Brenda, and her husband Kurt (Stephen Wu), who are in constant need of money and thus have set up an embezzlement scheme to grift off Mia's death. And then there's of course Howard and Helen's adoptive daughter Mallory (Jennylyn Caterina) and her husband Wilbur (Galen Howard), who secretly has the hots for Helen. So the Christmas party doesn't seem to be under a good star to begin with, and it's not helped by the fact that Howard shows clear symptoms of advanced dementia and Helen just ignores them while suffering from a weak heart. What's worse, it's eventually found out that Helen and Howard have kidnapped a girl (Marle Schaefer) from the local high school to gift her to Brenda, Peter and Jenny as a replacement for deceased Mia - quite obviously a capital crime, but who'd call the cops on their parents? And that's all before Wilbur turns up dead in the living room, and one of the family must have murdered him ...

Now you've probably already guessed it from above synopsis, How to Kill Your Family on Christmas is not your typical holiday feelgood movie, but neither is it the all-out comedy you might expect from above. And sure, the film does have its comical bits but for the most part plays it straight, with some truly dramatic moments thrown in - and it works, as it lends immediacy to the proceedings, creates tension when not everythng's played for laughs. And a subtle direction that finds the balance between comedy and drama, and a solid cast help make this into one cool piece of holiday horror.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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