Film Review: Something Under the Christmas Tree (short film) (2014)

SYNOPSIS:

A young boy encounters something evil under the Christmas tree.

REVIEW:

Christmas Eve and a young boy hears something downstairs. He investigates and finds the Christmas tree surrounded by gifts and excitedly goes to grab one of the presents. Unbeknownst to the boy something darts behind the tree and goes under it, hidden by the dark shadows of the other gifts. The boy looks into a gap in the wrapped boxes and sees a demented looking elf. Upon opening his present he find a hatchet wrapped with a bow with a note that reads “kill it”. The boy stands, we see the hatchet at his side and it fades to black.

Short stories, if done correctly, tell a complete story in a matter of minutes, whether it’s 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Horror shorts are my favorite, because we don’t have to watch all the dull character development that, most of the time, is not needed.

Something Under the Christmas Tree tells its complete story at right around 3:16. We are shown the important parts and I don’t believe anything was left out except for one thing. It wasn’t scary. Even the demonic looking elf wasn’t even creepy looking. I was hoping for a jump scare, or some sick scene of some killing, but was left with none of that.

I would have liked this movie to do with Christmas what FEWDIO did in their Easter story The Easter Bunny is Eating My Candy.