Scary Little Christmas: Red Snow (2021)- A Batty Christmas

Sometimes it is fun to watch a relatively unknown, low budget, non-mainstream film to review.  And it begs the question, do you use the same scale of rule when watching something you know was shot for a lot less money and without the ability to cast established actors, or is there a different scale due to lower expectations.  In the end how it is judged doesn’t really matter, all that matters is “Did you like it?”, “Was it entertaining”, and “Did it touch you in any way?” if so, “How and Why?”.

Red Snow takes place in Lake Tahoe in basically a single location and some exterior shots (all shot within Tahoe or the San Francisco Bay Area).  It has two main characters and a few supporting characters, so it kept it’s cast list small.  It was ritten and directed by Sean Nichols Lynch,  with a slew of other “Lynch” names listed in the credits.  The leading rolls were written specifically for the actors playing them.  Dennice Cisneros as Olivia Romo and Nico Bellamy as Luke.

The plot is interesting in its simplicity.  Olivia is a budding vampire romance novelist, whose manuscript has not yet been picked up by any publisher.  A few days before Christmas, while living in the Lake Tahoe house she inherited when her mother passed, an injured bat flies into her window.  Being a kindhearted soul, she takes the animal into her garage, only to find the next morning, the bat has turned into Luke, a wounded vampire.  They develop an unlikely friendship as Olivia nurses him back to health and keeps him safe from Julius King (Vernon Wells) a vampire hunter posing as a private investigator and Luke’s vampire companions. Luke helps Olivia fix her manuscript so that she can finally be a published author.   But who can Olivia trust?  Is Luke really what he says he is?  What is the Severon Group? Watch to find out!

The Good:  The plot is intriguing with some nice twists and turns, and using the Tahoe setting was nice, as it adds a type of beauty with a kind of isolation.  The storyline flowed pretty well and the exposition was handled nicely.  The very title brings up the contrast between the blood red and the pure snow, which could symbolize the very relationship of the main characters.  Olivia’s purity and zany personality vs. Luke’s more reserved edge and excitement.   I also enjoyed the augmentation of standard Christmas carols into creepy incidental music.  The use of “The Coventry Carol” was a nice choice.

The Bad: I believe there was some missed opportunities with the location.  The vast isolation could have been heightened and the beauty of the area exploited a bit more.  The very vision of blood on snow could have been used much better than it was.  The script was also amateurish.  The story was good and a bit original, but the dialogue did not feel genuine but forced and the actors needed to labor to make it feel natural.  Sean Nichols Lynch never found the balance between campy vampire comedy and true horror film.  It did feel that the actors where trying to make something a bit more lighthearted, where the script thought it was a true horror film.  The humor was definitely there, but was more of an inner chuckle than boisterous guffaw.  The lack of talent in the script, could possibly have been saved by better actors, but I do not think the relatively unknown Dennice or Nico had the ability to rescue the film.  Dennice played the character with a type of zany innocence and her broad smile, I actually found a bit creepier than any of the vampires.  Nico’s dialogue felt a bit forced, and where the two actors did have some nice chemistry, their relationship felt rushed.  The only established actor was Australian performer, Vernon Wells, who is best know for rolls in The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2), Weird Science, and Commando.  He has worked steadily from the early 80s to present.

As I said, reviewing any film, no matter the budget, comes down to a couple basic questions.

1. Did you like it? Yeah, it was quirky and a bit fun, even with its flaws.
2. Was it entertaining? It was. I mean, I am not going to make this a holiday tradition, in fact, I don’t ever think I will watch it again.  But it wasn’t the worst thing I have ever sat through
3. Did it touch you in any way, if so how and why? This is where it fails.  The characters were sympathetic, but also a bit pathetic.  The script combined with the acting made connecting with the characters very difficult, so I felt nothing for them, no remorse, no joy or happiness and no sadness.

The movie will be in general release December 28^th but has been streaming over seas since

December 6^th.  It has won a couple of awards at horror themed film festivals, including both the Audience Award and Best Horror/Thriller Feature at the 2021 GenreBlast Film Festival, as well as Best On-Screen Duo for Cisneros and Bellamy.  It also won the Best Feature Prize at the Sacramento Horror Film Festival.