It looks like US audiences are finally going to get a look at Australian Christmas-themed horror flick Red Christmas, which stars genre favorite, Dee Wallace. Artsploitation Films has picked up the rights and is planning to send it to several upcoming US festivals in short order. After a relatively short festival run, a limited theatrical run is slated for August 2017, with DVD/Blu-ray and VOD releases set for October 2017. Here is a look at the trailer:
Here is the official synopsis:
The film stars (and was co-produced by) horror film acting legend, Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters, Halloween, The Lords of Salem) as the mother of a squabbling family, gathered together in a remote Outback estate on Christmas Eve. When a mysterious, deformed young man named Cletus appears at their door, things soon go from petty insults to bloody, imaginatively orchestrated violence as Wallace attempts to protect her family from the vengeful intruder. The film deliriously infuses comedy, dark family secrets with outlandish gore and adds the always controversial subject of abortion in its blood-stained mix.
Abortion is one of those topics from which even horror filmmakers tend to shy away, so it will be interesting to see how it is handled and how integrated it is into the story. Ray Murray, president of Artsploitation films says, “We are excited to release this over-the-top, deliriously entertaining genre film. With its odd anti-abortion angle, it could very well be the first horror film of the Trump era!” Regardless of how one feels about the subject, it is definitely interesting to see it tackled in a Christmas horror/black comedy film.
Horror New Radio‘s own Thomas Mariani caught Red Christmas at the 2016 Fantasia Film Festival and reviewed it for Gruesome Magazine in July 2016, giving it a 3.5 out of 5. Pop on over to his review and see what he had to say about it. Keep an eye out for it at festivals this summer, in its theatrical run this August, or on DVD/Blu-ray and VOD come October 2017.
