I found A Christmas Presence on the Shudder channel. After 10 minutes in I thought what the hell am I watching?! It was visually OK but the characters/actors were awful from the outset.
Group of friends meet up at a house in the countryside for Christmas. They are cliche and grating. I liked the Welsh woman but the rest I didn’t care if they lived or died. The token gay guy, the main girl who has a tragic past, the new age counsellor something with her downtrodden husband (who I recognise from Coronation Street) and the Welsh ladies partner, an annoying wannabe writer. My problem is the cliche of the friend group, we’ve seen it all before….it’s painting by numbers horror. Maybe it was meant to be humorous but I didn’t get it. Anyway, they are haunted by what scares them most…killed off…convenient ending. I enjoyed the visuals but I felt sometimes the script was attempting to be ironic, sometimes with a need to get some politics in there…trying too hard. Trying too hard to be horror comedy (?) but not reaching it for me. I’ve read other glowing reviews, they must have gotten something out of this movie I didn’t but it definately forgettable for me. The boy wandered off and started making light sabers out of wrapping paper rolls.
4 out of 10. Disappointing.
