Mercy Christmas
A lonely office worker gets the Christmas invitation he has always wanted and finds out too late what the…
Festive Factor 43 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.The story
About Deathcember
Billed as the first cinematic Advent calendar, this German-produced anthology opens a door a day: 24 short horror films by 24 directors from around the world, stitched together by a computer-drawn room full of calendar objects. Killer Santas, a carol-singing life-support rota, a shop-counter brawl over a refund, a father and son out hunting, a giallo-styled murder and a boy who keeps wishing for things from Santa all get a few minutes each. Ruggero Deodato, Lucky McKee and Pollyanna McIntosh are among the directors, and Barbara Crampton and Tiffany Shepis among the cast. It is long, uneven and in places very nasty.
The CineClaus verdict
Twenty-four horror shorts behind twenty-four Advent doors is a good idea, and the trouble is that you get all of them.
A few are worth the wait, among them carol singers working round-the-clock shifts at a sickbed and a family made to pull crackers nobody wants to pull. Too many are thin gags dragged past their punchline, and one animated short is simply vile.
At two and a half hours it works best opened a door or two at a time.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: adults only: gore runs through most of it, and one animated short is a rape-revenge story that shows sexual violence.
Content advice & accessibility
- Not BBFC rated
- The BBFC has no classification for this film, so it has no UK certificate. Our age guidance above is editorial, not an official rating.
