Popular reviews

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  Review by Vera Drew ★★★★★ 6

  I’m biased because I edited it but this is Alice’s best movie (and she’s my favorite living filmmaker). Definitely her funniest, leanest, most ambitious, and sweetest. A little bit of Nancy Drew, “Twin Peaks,” Rob Zombie, Knife+Heart, and Kevin Smith rolled into a sweet queer solidarity holiday mystery. Gory as fuck but not exploitive. Sincere but not saccharine. An unnerving caper that is equal parts well acted, beautifully shot, delightfully weird, and honestly a pretty solid Christmas movie.

  Getting the chance to edit this saved my life last year, pulled me out of a really dark place after a hard breakup and hitting multiple rock bottoms at once. Working on it restored my passion to edit other people’s material and…

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  Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★½ 4

  if there was ever a year that we needed a proudly queer holiday slasher featuring a trans podcaster taking on conservatives, and investigating increasingly gruesome murders, it was this year -- very reminiscent of 90s YA horror, in a way that its direct adaptations rarely is

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 1

  One of these days, a queer fan of crime fiction is gonna get it absolutely right, finding the balance between the genre's copagandist flaws and the fundamental "we protect us" truth. This comes awfully close, but in the end, our protagonists end up taking down the rich and powerful and those who serve them but still hand them all over to the pigs in the end. Still, close is better than most films tackling the genre. Marrying the genre with a classic slasher tropes and some Christmas trappings makes it more fun; making it queer and trans makes it more relatable; any of these pieces could be turned into a great film on their own. Combined, it's clear the filmmakers…

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  Review by Joe Lynch ★★★½

  Definitely Alice Maio Mackay’s best film thus far, a lean, mean holiday-themed slasher that’s confidently crafted with the added bonus of Vera Drew’s unique, signature editing style. 
  First time in a while I didn’t mind the leads were podcasters, it actually felt like it was integral to the plot progression. 
  Was shocked it was only 70 min as it has a pace that really benefits from 
  From a craft collaboration standpoint, this is the Trans FROM DUSK TILL DAWN we never thought we needed but now need more of. 
  I kinda hate Alice is already 5 features in and barely 20.

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  Review by Haunted Hippie ★★★½

  Jeremy Moineau you WILL be famous!!

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  Review by Jon Peters ★★★½

  At just the age for a pint (legal drinking age in Australia is 18, unlike America), director Alice Maio Mackay has already completed more features before Orson Welles finished CITIZEN KANE (1941) at the age of 26, infusing outsider art within a genre space, her CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS (2024) is a throwback to other great holiday slashers like CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980) and SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984), baked in the twinkling red and green lights of the season, as much as it's washed in the hot summer Australian sun. It's also wonderfully and undeniably queer, as the trans filmmaker is making openly representation in the supposed safe space of horror. “I don’t set out to make political films, but I…

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  Review by S̷ ̷Y̷ ̷S̷ ̷T̷ ̷E̷ ̷M̷ ̷T̷ ̷E̷ ̷R̷ ̷R̷ ̷O̷ ̷R̷ ★½ 7

  Much like Saltburn everyone is inexplicably gay. The main trans chick is so insufferably smug and annoying. Like she looks like she doesn't even wanna be in this dumbass movie and that energy really comes across. Terrible casting. Starts out with a cool kill but it never gets back to that and the rest is endlessly yapping, ugly bisexual YouTube lighting, crappy CGI and atrocious over editing. There is absolutely no carnage of any kind. Really sucks that trans people get such bad representation.

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  Review by Deathy ★ 2

  Score : 2.5/10 ✅

  Seen at Fantasia International Film Festival 2024

  The podcast segment at the beginning was an excellent way to open the movie.

  Then, it became beyond unbearable. Yeah, yeah...I understand that it's a low-budget home project, but the continuity errors and lack of engagement with the horror elements made the experience like a slap in the face.

  The audacity to call it Carnage for Christmas is frustratingly misleading. Please save yourself the obligation of sitting through the entire thing if you see the poster and shout aloud, 'Oh, that movie looks great!'. Don't get fooled.

  No, there's no carnage (no more than four kills, all done off-camera) and absolutely no Christmas vibe to get you into the…

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  Review by Lynn Betts ★★★½ 9

  FANTASIA #3

  Another edition of... WILL YOU LIKE...?

  Will You Like... CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS?

  To find out, answer the following quiz questions, allot the question’s worth (in brackets) and tally your score at the end...

  Do you like...

  Bailey Sarian's YouTube & Dark History podcast (+4)
  Knife + Heart (+3)
  Silent Night (2012 slasher) (+2)
  Black Christmas (2006) (+1)
  Abel Ferrara slashers (+1)
  Early seasons of Forensic Files (+2)
  Stage Fright (1987) (+2)
  Stir of Echoes (+1)
  Mid 90s underground punk/alternative music videos (+1)
  The Bone Collector (+1)
  Taking Lives (+1)
  John Waters films (+1)

  And if you don't like, deduct:

  So much change in the cinematography style throughout that it's almost an experimental film (-2)
  Neo-slashers with too much neon…

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  Review by Joel Hilke ★★½

  Carnage for Christmas is one of three Alice Maio Mackay low budget horror flicks to hit Shudder this December. This is her fifth (rather short) full length movie... and she's 19. So even if the budget is vanishingly small and the whole production feel amateur, that's still five more movies than I've never even tried to make.

  The film is about a trans woman true-crime podcaster who returns to the small town where she grew up and gets mixed up in a local murder mystery. It seems someone has been on a murder spree... but the cops aren't particularly encouraged to investigate.

  The killer dresses like Santa and is named The Toymaker so you'd be forgiven if you thought this…

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  Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 1

  Just finished the film Carnage for Christmas and it left a lasting impression. I had never heard of the Australian Transgender Director before now and like the lead actress (Lola) in the film attempting to solve a mystery, I had to investigate further. I was shocked to learn the director already has 5 feature films and just turned 20 years of age this past August. That is an incredible feat for one so young. Obviously an old soul with a fresh new voice with talent bursting through the seams! I cannot wait to check out her other 4 feature films listed below 👇
  So Vam - 2021 (directorial debut)
  Bad Girl Boogey - 2022
  Satranic Panic - 2023
  T Blockers…

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  Review by Lily Kazimiera ★★★★

  Every Alice Maio Mackay movie I watch makes me feel like the lamest old fogie on earth for not doing this sort of thing when I was younger. She is levelling up so fast it's starting to get scary. 

  Vera Drew on VFX and in the cut for this one is such an inspired call. The genre film dolls are unionizing!!