#693 – Slay Belles (2018)

Slay Belles (2018)

Film review #694

Director: Dan Walker

SYNOPSIS: Three women sneak into an abandoned Christmas-based theme park to film a video for their blog. however, they do not expect to find the real Santa Claus hiding there, and a vicious demon intent on destroying Christmas…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Slay Belles is a 2018 Christmas film. Three women who create online videos where they explore abandoned places head to a rural town to explore a Santa-based theme park. There, they run into the real Santa Claus, and they have to team up to stop the demon Krampus, who is kidnapping residents of the town. The premise and idea is interesting enough, and presents us with some likable characters, but the execution is often so dull and flat you can’t help but feel like it’s not taking advantage of what it has. The film takes way too long to get into the meat of it, and even with so much padding with constant cutbacks to the police station, the film barely lasts over a hour not including the credits.

The film is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and cheesy, but in order to do this, it needs to be over-the-top, gory, silly…anything. It just doesn’t hit any of that. there’s too much standing around talking and barely any action. Poor camerawork and lighting also obscure anything that does happen. There was definitely potential in here to deliver a bit of silly, gory Christmas fun, but the execution and absence of any substance to bring the ideas to life make this a film of missed opportunities, even given the low budget production. All it really needed to do was just make it fun, and it simply doesn’t.