Macabre…ish Horror Review: Mercy Christmas

 

 


Mercy Christmas, 2017/ 1 hr 23 min

 

 

Michael Briskett (Steven Hubbell) invites everyone to his Christmas party, including his boss, who not only refuses the invitation but also insists a big project be turned in the day after Christmas.

 

Meanwhile, a man is going around town attacking people and loading them into the back of his truck.

 

On the 23rd it looks like no one is coming to Michael’s party but one person, Cindy (Casey O’Keefe), shows up.

 

After asking questions about his family, drinking and having fun, they open presents. Before she leaves, she invites him to her family’s house for Christmas and he accepts.

 

They arrive and her ex, Phillip (Joseph Keane), is among the group but they get on with it. The family seems perfect, a little too perfect. But Michael loves it, he even makes a toast. As he’s about to pass out, his boss comes in, he’s one of Cindy’s brothers, Andrew (Cole Gleason). Michael wakes up later, tied up, in the basement, with a group of other captives. Soon they find out what they are doing here.

 

Michael is given a reprieve because he needs to get those reports done. His motivation is execution via Christmas lights.

 

Meanwhile, the family is going on as if nothing is wrong, at all. Granny (Gwen Van Dam) even insists the family is going to church. The others in the basement realize they were all chosen because no one would miss them. But only Michael knows anything about where they are and the family that has them captive.

 

The ticket scalper, Eddie (D. J. Hale), who was captured earlier has his legs removed for the family’s dinner but he’s not killed, the stumps are cauterized with an iron. This family apparently likes their food fresh.

 

Michael tries to appeal to Cindy but she’s distracted by the fact that this is her first year hosting Christmas dinner. She later freaks out on the annoying Phillip and stabs him to death. They decide he’ll be on the menu tomorrow. But Michael, he needs to finish his reports because he’s slated to be Christmas dinner.

 

There will be some family turmoil when Bart gets a new girlfriend who is a police dispatcher. But Andrew doesn’t trust her, she’s too close to the cops. His dad, however, wants grandkids and overlooks the potential problem.

 

Andrew is starting to lose it. When Michael refuses to do anymore work, he tortures another captive, Katherine (Whitney Nielsen), to make him comply.

 

But don’t count any of them out, these captives want to live and make a loose plan to escape.

 

This comedy horror, directed by Ryan Nelson, was pretty good. The movie is not as graphic as it feels, there’s a lot of violence but again, it suggests more than it actually shows. But that doesn’t mean some moments aren’t tough to watch. Lots of black comedy and disturbing cannibalism. It is paced well and ends better than expected.

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