All Through The House - A Silent Fright, Holy Fright Chrismassy Review
Director: Todd Nunes
Starring: Ashley Mary Nunes, Lito Velasco, Jessica Cameron, Melynda Kiring
Written by: Todd Nunes
Produced by: Stephen J. Readmond, Christopher Stanley
Cinematography by: Ryan J. Anderson
Original Score by: Irving Victoria
Synopsis:
A deranged masked Santa-Slayer comes to town for some yuletide-terror. He leaves behind a bloody trail of mutilated bodies as he hunts his way to the front steps of the town's most feared and notorious home.
Thoughts:
Borrowing its title from a line from the famous poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' aka 'T'was the Night Before Christmas', Todd Nunes' low budget slasher has some impressive gory make-up effects but sadly the writing is poor and the acting is quite cringey at times.
There's not alot to like about this film. But I'll start with some positives. It's got some gnarly kills that is heavy on the blood and gore. They're a bit repetitive (the killer mostly uses garden shears) but fun nonetheless. The very first kill sees a naked woman get stabbed through the breasts. Two men gets their cocks sliced off and we get close ups of said severed penises.
Nunes tries his best to pay homage to other classic slashers but also attempts to put his own spin here. There's obvious nods to Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' and in turn Wes Craven's 'Scream'. 'Sleepaway Camp' might also be an influence and I think there was even a subtle wink to 'Friday the 13th: Part 2'. The killer Santa Claus wears a pretty cool mask, kinda similar to the Creeper's face from 'Jeepers Creepers' but he is so incompetent it is unreal. He struggles to overpower any of the female victims and grunts and falls about like Ghostface from 'Scary Movie'.
The premise is actually fine and there's some decent set up scenes but it's overall it's not executed very well and after the first few kills begins to fall deep into slasher tropes. There's an impressive sequence towards the finale of the film when the lead girl Rachel (Ashley Mary Nunes) is walking slowly through the house piecing everything together. It's quite tense but there's not enough of this tension throughout the film. There was plenty of opportunities to create some creepy atmospheric scenes using the plethora of mannequins in the film but Nunes wants to get to the goey stuff too quickly so it's not as effective as it rightly should be.
The film is definitely let down by the acting. It's porno movie level stuff that is laughable at times. The trio of females at least have some charisma but Rachel's ex-boyfriend mumbles his way through his scenes and the old lady Mrs. Garrett is way too theatrical for this role. She plays it a bit like a more maniacal, pantomine version of Annie Wilkes but it's just too much.
'All Through the House' won't rank high on anyone's "Seasonal Horror Best Of" lists that's for sure, but Nunes clearly has a passion for the slasher genre and I was able to find the fun in the film with the silly kills and all the gory scenes. If you want to see a cat lick a bloody, severed penis then this film is for you.
Verdict: ⭐️½
-Gavin Logan
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