Towards the end of last year I reviewed Phil Herman's Christmas themed anthology horror, I Slay on Christmas. Recently he contacted me about another Christmas themed anthology horror, this one titled It's A Wonderful Slice, written, directed, and produced by Michael Moutsatsos. There was certainly a lot packed into this ninety five minute anthology, but did at times feel a bit lacking in terms of variety. I couldn't find this on IMDB and there isn't much of a credit sequence at the end of the movie, so apologies for leaving out actor names.
The film is split up into five different short films, but there are also a lot of little sequences around these, most notably at the film's start. The introduction sequence has a man dressed as Santa armed with a machete dancing around streets while festive music plays out. This brought a recurring idea of a juxtaposition between wholesome music and twisted visuals. I liked that this sequence seemed to be shot around real people rather than actors, giving some nice reaction shots. This is then followed by a little sequence 'Santa's Woods', in which Santa, Krampus and an Elf frolic around woodland getting up to mischief. This kind of introduces the shorts as it is explained that there are many stories of horror that take place around Christmas time. Following this is a short sequence of a vlogger heading to woodland before encountering a festive slasher, before a similar one titled 'Krampus: Prologue' that is set in 1975, represented by a sepia look and fake Super-8 style film grain. This barrage of shorter sequences also sets up some of the issues I had with the anthology as a whole. They mostly feature a victim encountering someone dressed up as Santa who then proceeds to kill them as the finale of the short. It led to a repetitive feel, with some of these being better than others.
The first proper short was 'A Slay to Remember'. In this one, a peppy Airbnb host named Alex is delighted to be hosting a famous actor and writer, Tom, a man who has headed to a remote American town to get away from his fame for a while. The character of Tom was played by an actor who appears in nearly all the shorts, playing a totally different character each time. With multiverses being in vogue at the moment, it was almost like each short took place in a different reality for this character. It's good he was entertaining to watch, but not as much as the character of Alex. I liked how it wasn't too clear to begin with which of the two characters the horror would stem from. This was a fun short, though I felt it stuck around a little bit too long.
Next up was 'Here Wolfie Wolf'. A man (the actor who played Tom) has headed to woodland with his filmmaker friend Carlos. After Carlos vanishes, the man discovers a werewolf type creature dressed up like Santa, who swiftly takes chase. I liked the sound effects used for the creature, and it had a fun finish that was unexpected twice in quick succession.
The third film is 'Santa's Got an Axe to Grind' and serves as a kind of sequel to the first short, as the character of Alex pops up again, but this time in a woodland setting. As fun as it was to see this character again, there wasn't really much going on here, making it probably the most unneeded part of the anthology as a whole.
'Demonic Intensions' is the penultimate one, again starring the actor who played Ben previously. This one tries something a little different by featuring just the one character. A man who is either demonically possessed or who is suffering mental health issues.
Final short is 'A Doll to Die For', and for a change we have a female antagonist. Filmed in black and white, this one stood out visually, though is the same sort of thing by having a crazed person torturing a tied up victim. The actress had a neat enough Harley Quinn style craziness, believing the mall Santa she has kidnapped is the real deal.
Christmas and horror does go well together, and this indie anthology does have good parts to it. The shorts were obviously linked together, there are two different creepy looking Santa masks that the various killers wear throughout, while the tools of violence they use are also shared between them all. This also goes to the interior locations, with the first and fourth film having the exact same building, while the woods used for most the others is functional, but again brings a conjoined familiarity. This indie horror never tries to be something it isn't, the acting can be a bit basic at times, but this is leant into, with some enjoyable moments coming from some of the dialogue. The sound quality wasn't always fantastic, with some moments that sounded a bit tinny, but I did love the music throughout, a definite highlight, the mix of light music and dark actions never got old.
While I wish there had been a bit more variety than just short after short of a festive themed killer capturing victims, I still thought It's A Wonderful Slice had a decent enough unified look to it, and regardless of variety it felt like a lot was stuffed into this, and there were some definite stand out actors, such as the recurring bearded character and the man who played Alex.
SCORE:
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