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Holidays (2016 film)

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Holidays
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • John Hegeman
  • Tim Connors
  • Adam Egypt Mortimer
  • Kyle Franke
  • Aram Tertzakian
Starring
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byVertical Entertainment
Release dates
  • April 14, 2016 (2016-04-14) (TFF)
  • April 22, 2016 (2016-04-22) (United States)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Holidays is a 2016 American horror anthology film of short horror films, each inspired by a different celebration. The directors include Kevin Smith, Gary Shore, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Scott Stewart, Nicholas McCarthy, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, Sarah Adina Smith, and Anthony Scott Burns.

The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 14, 2016.[1] It was then released on video on demand on April 15, 2016, prior to a limited release on April 22, 2016, by Vertical Entertainment.[2]

Segments

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Valentine's Day

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In the gym, Maxine is picked on by Heidi, pushes her off the diving board. She nearly drowns but Coach Rockwell, whom she has a crush on, rescues her. Rockwell is suffering from a heart condition and needs a transplant. He cannot do much about Heidi's bullying, as Heidi is the one organizing a fundraiser for his treatment.

Heidi cruelly makes fun of Maxine for her crush on Rockwell and mocking her for doing anything to help him. Rockwell leaves a Valentine's letter in Maxine locker to console her. Maxine finds it and becomes euphoric. She then stalks Heidi and chases her to a creek. There she hits Heidi with a brick and kills her with a box cutter.

Later that night, Rockwell is preparing to go out with his wife when he hears the doorbell. Upon answering the door, he is greeted by Maxine with her Valentines gift for him: Heidi's heart.

St. Patrick's Day

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School teacher Elizabeth Cullen shows her students a documentary film about St. Patrick's Day and the legend of how he rid Ireland of snakes. She takes interest in a student named Grainne, who, as a St. Patrick's card project, leaves a note reading "Only your deepest wish can make me smile" and a dried grass snake.

After a night of drinking, Elizabeth awakens in her car with a snakeskin surrounding her. In a supermarket, she encounters Grainne, who embraces her belly. Elizabeth happily discovers that she is pregnant only to learn from the doctor that the baby will be a snake. Elizabeth finds a drawing Grainne did of her giving birth to a snake and vomits black sludge. Throughout the course of her pregnancy, her behavior becomes increasingly strange.

A heavily pregnant Elizabeth lies in her bathtub and places a mouse on her belly to lure the snake out. The snake inside her belly thrashes about violently, rendering her unconscious. She is then led away by Grainne and a mysterious man, presumably Grainne's father and the father of Elizabeth's snake baby. The man assumes that Elizabeth will be horrified, but she happily embraces her role as the snake's mother and joins the cult.

Later, a new teacher at the school gets the same message from Grainne.

Easter

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While being tucked into bed at night, a little girl becomes frightened by the approaching Easter Bunny holiday. The mother attempts to calm her and tries her best to explain the holiday mascot's connection to Jesus. She also tells her she has to be asleep when the Easter Bunny comes because no child has ever seen him.

Later, the girl gets up to get a drink of water and discovers a Crucified Jesus/Easter Bunny-like creature leaving chicks and candies in the living room. She attempts to sneak back to her room but is caught. The Bunny explains that now she has seen him, she must take his place and that she will never see her mother again, but will see wonderful magical things. He feeds her an egg that transforms her into another bunny creature.

The mother is heard calling for her daughter as the back door locks itself.

Mother's Day

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Kate can't stop getting pregnant and keeps having to abort. Advised by her doctor, Kate attends a getaway out in the middle of the desert.

At first, everything seems fine until one night she is involved in an orgy with the women and a muscular man. The getaway turns out to be home to barren witches who are hoping to get pregnant. They tell her that she is the gateway. They constrains her, and groom and care for her while cutting her off from contacting the outside. It turns out that her doctor who recommended the place is part of the coven.

Eventually, Kate manages to flee but suddenly goes into labor. The witches surround her to aid in her birth. However, they all scream in terror when out of her womb comes a bloody full-sized arm.

Father's Day

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Coming home from work, Carol receives a mysterious package from her father, whom she has not seen since childhood. The package is an old cassette deck player with a tape inside. She plays the tape which is from her father. After telling her how he loves, he instructed her to go to the place they played at when she was a child, so they can be reunited. Carol leaves an angry voicemail for her mother lying to her about her father's death.

Upon reaching the place as instructed, Carol realizes that the tape was recorded when she was with her father as a child. The tape provides instructions on where to go. She reminisces her memories with her father on that day. Eventually she gets to a building with a mysterious door which she remembers entering with her father, where he asked the woman on the reception to take care of her before leaving her. In the tape, her father apologizes for leaving her, but has to because he only has one chance to meet "him".

Carol enters the door and seems to enter another world. Meanwhile, Carol's mother frantically calls her cell phone, which Carol had left in her car.

Carol comes across a figure sitting in a chair. The voice in the tape states that he's glad she came "by [her] own free will" and. After Caroll calls out for her father, she is confronted by a dark mysterious humanoid that roars at her. The tape recorder and headphones fall to the ground and Carol subsequently disappears as the end of the tape continues saying "together".

Halloween

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Ian hosts an internet sex service where he abuses his employees Holly, Bree, and Serena. When he denies the girls' wishes to celebrate Halloween and calls them derogatory names, the girls fight back by telling him that it is a mistake to mess with three women as it forms a coven. Unintimidated, he attempts to rape Serena, but the girls knock him out. Ian wakes up in his underwear, with a vibrator connected to a car battery superglued up his anus and a laptop placed in front of him. The girls send him demands through the laptop, warning him that he will be subjected to the vibrator if he doesn't fulfill them. When they ask him to show them his vagina, he is confused. The girls slide a knife under the door and tell him to "Make it Hollow, Ian". After he does so, the girls turn up the battery's power to 10 out of curiosity, and presumably kill him. The girls answer the door to Nancy, who Ian had called earlier, about the job. The girls explain that they are under new management and that Ian is no longer with the company due to "cutbacks".

Christmas

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Pete Gunderson is late trying to buy virtual glasses called "uVu" for his son. A man before him buys the last remaining stock despite Pete calling about it earlier, but the man suddenly has a heart attack and can't reach his pills. At first, Pete starts to call for help, but after being reminded about his wife's demand to get the glasses, Pete instead steals the glasses and rushes home, where his wife complains about not receiving a Christmas bonus she was promised. On Christmas day, Pete's son Bobby is overjoyed, explaining that the glasses recreate your thoughts and ideas into a virtual game. On the urging of his son, Pete tries them on and sees a stripper. Later that night, Pete sneaks out of bed to try the glasses on again. At first, he sees himself receiving a blowjob from a prostitute, but after some static, the visuals suddenly switch to Pete stealing the glasses, seen from the dying man's point of view. Pete tries to hide what happened, but his wife, Sara, reveals that she saw the saved footage. Pete admits that he did it because the man "had what [he] wanted," and because he "was tired of being nice." To his surprise, Sara is turned on by this and the two have sex. Later, Pete looks through the glasses again and discovers that Sara had tortured and killed her boss after he passed her over for a bonus. Shocked, he reads the glasses' tagline: "uVu shows you YOU!"

New Year's Eve

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Reggie is a serial killer who targets women. After murdering his latest victim, Reggie picks up another girl through a dating site, named Jean, and goes to meet with her for New Year's Eve. Their date is awkward especially because of Reggie's weirdness, but Jean, feeling sorry for him, invites him to her apartment. They return to Jean's apartment and Reggie goes to the bathroom to wash up, though he's actually preparing to use chloroform on her. He checks the medicine cabinets and discovers that Jean keeps severed limbs and organs in jars, revealing her to be also a serial killer. Suddenly, Jean rushes in with a fire axe and attacks Reggie, who further finds corpses in her bathtub. Reggie attempts to make it to the living room and has his foot severed by the axe. After making it to his jacket, he pulls out a revolver but forgot to load it (he forgot to load the gun the first time he tried to shoot his earlier victim), resulting in Jean splitting his head open and killing him. As the New Year rings in, Jean dances with her axe.

Production

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The project originated with John Hegeman and his Distant Corners Entertainment. Tim Connors and Adam Egypt Mortimer were also producing, as well as Kyle Franke and Aram Tertzakian from XYZ Films. Executive producers were Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari, and Nate Bolotin and Nick Spicer of XYZ.[3]

Release

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The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 14, 2016.[4][1] Prior to, Vertical Entertainment and XYZ Films acquired worldwide distribution rights.[5] The film was released on April 15, 2016, through video on demand prior to a limited release on April 22, 2016.[6]

Reception

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On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50%, based on 30 reviews, with a rating average of 5.90/10.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Holidays". TribecaFilm.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  2. ^ Cox, Gordon (March 14, 2016). "'Holidays' Horror Anthology Grabbed for Release In Advance of Tribeca Film Festival Premiere". Variety. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  3. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (February 2, 2015). "Kevin Smith, Gary Shore & More Take 'Holidays' With XYZ Genre Anthology – Berlin". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  4. ^ "TRIBECA 2016 ANNOUNCES LINEUPS FOR SPOTLIGHT, MIDNIGHT, SPECIAL SCREENINGS, AND TRIBECA/ESPN SPORTS FILM FESTIVAL". TribecaFilm.com. April 8, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  5. ^ Hipes, Patrick (March 14, 2016). "'Holidays' Horror Anthology Scares Up Deal & April Release Date". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  6. ^ Cox, Gordon (March 14, 2016). "'Holidays' Horror Anthology Grabbed for Release In Advance of Tribeca Film Festival Premiere". Variety. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  7. ^ "Holidays (2016) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
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