It’s a trio of flicks for the holiday horror page, but only one really satisfied me. Let’s get into them.
HALLOWEEN CANDY (2025)
My assessment of this one might be a little off, because I’m just going through some crappy things in life right now, and I really needed a simple horror flick that indulges in the Halloween vibe. This indie anthology does just that, with the wraparound and all the stories celebrating the season.
Hell, the movie even begins with a Halloween candy animated credits sequence with spooky music and thunder sound effects, so I was totally hooked from the start.
In between answering the door for trick or treaters, our main character in the wraparound is a newly divorced writer who finds inspiration for new stories on Halloween night…
1st story – the greedy owner of a haunted attraction falls victim to his own business.
2nd story – this is an icky tale in which a pedo picks up a young trick or treater to bring home. But the trick is on him, and it’s so satisfying.
3rd story – teen girls celebrate Halloween by using a Ouija board to summon a dead friend.
4th story – a man discovers that things you bury under a pumpkin patch don’t stay dead. Eek!
5th story – this is a COVID take in which a woman is trying to avoid answering the door for trick or treaters. Therefore, the Halloween fun must force its way inside.
6th story – a man meets a woman on Halloween night and brings her home thinking she’s at his mercy. As we all know, it never works out that way in these stories.
The wraparound keeps the holiday horror going, becoming a horror tale of its own. I could see putting this one on in the background annually while decorating for Halloween.
LEPRECHAUN: THE BEGINNING (2025)
If you’re going to make one of these low budget, mythical creature slashers with a dull script, you need to at least make the kills something to write home about…or for me to write about on my site.
No, this isn’t part of the iconic franchise. The leprechaun in this movie is a full-sized man with a face that looks like something out of a scene at Lorne’s karaoke bar on Angel.
The leprechaun isn’t menacing, the kills are few and far between and very generic, and the plot is typical.
A family comes to the home of the deceased matriarch and explores the house looking for his treasure. Naturally, that treasure once belonged to a leprechaun, who comes out to play.
Other than that, there are some family tensions, flashbacks provide a backstory to the leprechaun’s history with the family, a few people die (very few), and there are a few little surprises at the end.
The film gets added to the St. Paddy’s section of the complete holiday horror page, because when else would you watch a movie about a killer leprechaun, but if you’re going to do that, just watch the Leprechaun franchise.
FINAL RECOVERY (2025)
This isn’t a Christmas-themed horror movie, but it does take place during the holiday, and there’s plenty of seasonal spirit in the background.
In fact, the film begins on Christmas 1974, when a young girl witnesses her dad being murdered by a druggy.
In the current day, that girl has grown up to be a woman who loves wearing ugly Christmas sweaters while running a rehab center all decked out for December. I guess the Christmas season just makes her do crazy things….
Most of this film isn’t horror focused. It’s all about the messed-up residents at the rehab, but it’s also obvious that the woman who watched her dad die at the hands of a druggy isn’t exactly sympathetic to the addicts she treats.
There’s definitely something underhanded going on, and two residents—a regular and a newbie—begin to unravel the truth.
It’s not until the last fifteen minutes or so that they (and us) discover what is being done to patients. There’s an electric saw and a lot of blood and body parts suddenly tossed in to make a big splash in the last few minutes. It’s really not one to watch if you’re looking for suspense or thrills, despite the grisly payoff.
