Director: Jamaal Buden
Starring: Lisa May, Deanna Grace Congo, Stephanie Marie Baggett, Amy Jo Guthrie, Melissa L Vega, Chelsea Bella, Loran Haskins, Norma Mendiola
Plot: The Holiday Reaper, a ruthless killer that terrorized a small Texas town, has been caught. While celebrating, a group of friends find an elf inside a magical toy box. When a freak accident kills one of them, they discover a group of elves have been scattered throughout town, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. It’s a race against time to survive the elves’ wrath before Christmas ends.
Runtime: 1 Hour 19 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Disappointing Sequel
Story: Elves starts when a group of friends including Clover (Congo), Tiffany (Martinez) and Leah (Baggett) add themselves to the naughty list for a laugh, only to learn they have become part of a sinister action involving a mysterious elf toy figure that appears in their lives.
Once you see the elf, you start to see people looking differently as you become intent on either killing yourself or somebody else, have the group been naughty or not, how can they escape this situation without losing too many of their own friends.
Thoughts on Elves
Characters – Clover is the member of the friends who is trying to help the rest get out of the curse placed on them, she will team up with Leah to see who placed it on them and how she can lift it. Tiffany is the loose cannon of the friends, she enjoys her drugs more than the rest, so much so it has been an addiction to her. Leah is the friend that is desperately trying to lift the curse where she believes she is next on the list. Elves does take the film in a different direction which does give us a host of characters who are mostly here to be introduced only to become a disposable character.
Performances – Deanna Grace Congo is solid enough in the leading role of the film, Elves does have one big problem with all the performances though, we just don’t get enough time with any of the characters to let the actors make a big enough impact.
Story – The story here follows a group of friends that seem to have become cursed by an elf figure that makes them do unthinkable actions. The story does leave you questioning a lot because this is meant to be a sequel to a film with a story that made sense, felt twisted and seems to forget the first film. now this does help the story get its own identity as a form of horror that does borrow from the weird effects from the ‘Truth or Dare’ movie and almost ‘Final Destination’. The film is short which doesn’t help because we do have a large cast and we give each character a large time to go through the moment of terror against what is after them.
Horror – The horror we get to experience in this film is a mixed bag, the slow build and twist to the graphic action works well, then we get the moments of bad effects which don’t hit home well enough to make it scary.
Settings – The film is set in a Texas town, that is about all we see from the use of setting in this film, nothing becomes creepy, nothing becomes important to the plot, its just a town that gets cursed.
Special Effects – The effects at times are good for the budget, the elf faces are creepy as they come, then we get the injuries which just don’t ever come off realistic for what the film should be achieving.
Scene of the Movie – Red fury, any scene with this character, I think her name is Sky as they never introduce her by name.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – There isn’t a strong enough connection to the first film and the twisted games the Elf played in it.
Final Thoughts – This is a disappointing sequel, it feels like it should have been a stand alone movie over a sequel because of the lack of connection to the first film. The horror fans could easily have a good time when it comes to watching the kills though.
Overall: Christmas Horror has started with a lump of coal
Rating
