Season’s Greetings 2 (2019)

I don’t often get to review anthologies. Season’s Greetings 2, however, is the second anthology I review this month! A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a horror anthology titled Ill: Final Contagium (Read HERE). The two films could not be more different. Ill is the kind of film that places a lot of importance of the technical and artistic aspects of filmmaking. It devotes much care into script and storyline, cinematography and SFX, a film for quality film lovers and sticklers for filmmaking rules. Season’s Greetings 2, the follow-up to 2015’s Season’s Greetings, is less a thinking-person’s horror and more your horror fan’s idea of great fun and entertainment. Both valid, yet vastly different.

When going for the low-budget approach to such “fun horror” types of films, much can be forgiven when discussing technical aspects, from script, to acting, to cinematography. The Concept Media team, along with Taintbad Productions seem to have had one purpose in mind when making this film and that is to entertain their audience. And that, they do.

Season’s Greetings 2 is a collection of three short stories, directed by three somewhat different directors, plus intros to each segment and wraparound sections. Personally, I felt that the wraparound/intro segments, which were basically our host/narrator (co-director Travis Wilson) sitting in a chair and reading from a “Christmas Tales” type of book was a very old and tired approach. The intros just lacked excitement and were quite dull and uncharismatic and for my taste, should have been left out or replaced with something a bit more fun (sorry, Travis). As for the films themselves, well… there was definitely more value there.

The first segment, “The Manger“, directed by Brittany Blanton, is an interesting story of love and betrayal, dipped in witchcraft and the supernatural. It stars Rebekah Erb, which seemed to take her role very seriously and put in a great performance. She was probably the standout acting-wise in the anthology. The segment also showed that Blanton, who we mostly know as an actress (Don’t Fuck In The Woods, Don’t Fuck In The Woods 2), has some interesting skills as a filmmaker. She also seems to have a keen eye for structure as well as storytelling. A great opening segment.

Next was Rob Collins‘ “Merry Fucking Christmas“. While fun enough, this segment was less well structured than the other two. More of a stalker/slasher tale that has an interesting twist but takes too long to get there with a considerable amount of filler. The script also felt to be lacking, but it seems like the people involved had fun with it and Collins remains an intriguing filmmaker with some potential. It should be noted that Collins also took on cinematographer duties with his short and his drive to learn and improve will surely pay dividends. I hope to see greater things from him in the near future… Rob also co-wrote the last segment, which was an instant improvement script-wise.

The last segment, “The Naughty List“, directed by Travis Wilson and co-written by Wilson and Collins, also features appearances by Brittany Blanton and Collins in a fun segment with a great concept that I’d rather not spoil. It also features a mask worn by a character that is quite spooky and was created by co-producer and editor, MyIndie featured artist, Shawn Burkett (who also pulled cinematographer duties on The Manger). The Naughty List is purely for entertainment and is treated as such, which is a great way to end the anthology.

All in all, this is a fun long-short (the film is 44 minutes long) and does what it intends to do. I am sure that horror fans and Concept Media diehard followers will give this one the thumbs up. Once this trio of directors get some more filmmaking experience, I’m sure we will continue to be entertained by their work. I sense that Blanton will soon fulfill her obvious potential and I am very curious to see what projects Collins and Wilson will sink their teeth into next. I recently had the privilege of seeing the first Season’s Greetings and while it was also entertaining as a horror anthology, I must say that the sequel is an improvement. Definitely a positive direction and I hope that we will see a third in the series in Christmas 2020.

One for the horror fans. Entertaining. 7/10.