‘Every one has a dark side’
Holidays is a 2016 American horror anthology film written and directed by Kevin Smith (Tusk), Gary Shore (Dracula Unbound), Scott Stewart (Dark Skies), Sarah Adina Smith (The Midnight Swim), Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact), Adam Egypt Mortimer (Some Kind of Hate), Anthony Scott Burns (Darknet), and the filmmaking duo of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer.
Main cast:
Lorenza Izzo, Kevin Smith, Seth Green, Clare Grant, Ruth Bradley, Matt Johnson, Andrew Bowen, Peter Campion, Megan Duffy.
Plot:
This anthology film features a collection of subversive tales each fashioned around celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day…
Reviews:
” … not bad enough to dissuade prospective viewers’ from their curiosity. In fact, the whole feather-light affair is practically redeemed by a single entry: writer/director Anthony Scott Burns’ superbly spooky Father’s Day segment…” Simon Abrams, RogerEbert.com
“an anthology featuring segments from the directors of Dracula Untold, Tusk, Dark Skies, The Pact, and other recent horror movies of varying critical reception. That inconsistency similarly plagues Holidays, held together by the loosest of frameworks and featuring several segments that seem to have been retrofitted to the theme. When patterns do appear, it’s for the worse.” A.V. Club
“As for the short films themselves, some are stronger than others but it’s important to note that Holidays rocks quality filmmaking across the board. Production value is generally sky high and most of the pieces feature clever concepts backed by palpable enthusiasm from the filmmakers. The only issue that does crop up in some segments is a weak punchline.” Collider
“… none of the contributions (Smith’s excepted, ironically) feel like they were made simply to satisfy the thematic requirements of an anthology project. Each carries the inspiration and dedication to its specific story of an original short film, and if the lack of a framing device (beyond greeting-card bumpers after each) means the movie plays more like a shorts festival than a unified feature, there’s also a good side to that.” Fangoria
“Holidays is a fun romp with flashes of brilliance … With plenty of dusty corners of YouTube offering bite-sized scares, it may seem less necessary to round up sharp minds with succinct ideas and small budgets. But the visions of these directors are so uniquely film that it adds a depth and scope to each nasty little morsel.” Indiewire
“On the whole, Holidays might take a little getting used to – at least it did for me – but it’s still a pretty solid new addition to the new wave of new wave of anthologies hitting festivals and theatres and I’d definitely be up for another outing…” Scream magazine
