Trailer—Family Ornaments

Family Ornaments_720p(480P)

source: Family Ornaments

"An angry wish brings a family's Christmas ornaments to life, unleashing havoc on Christmas Eve." I guess I'm watching holiday movies early. Directed and VFX Supervised by Gregory Oehler, whose Mammal Studios has created effects for The Walking Dead: Worlds Beyond, Black Widow, Asura, Men In Black 3 and many more movies, this is the story of Meredith (Alicia Blasingame as an adult, Marla Robison as a teenager, Payton Sweeney as a kid) and Shannon (Autumn Harrison as an adult, Caitlin Charles as a teenager, Kynlee Heiman as a kid), two sisters who have never gotten along. Even the death of their mother Jean (Elyse Mirto), which should bring them together, has found them further apart. When their father Pat (Michael Paré) brings the whole family together for the holidays, an errand wish on an ornament given to the family by The Trickster (Marian Elizabeth) unleashes a deadly array of Christmas tree ornaments. That allows the Mammal team to create a series of wild-looking things on the tree that come to life and attempt to destroy the family and even erase them from one another's memories. Written by Liam Finn, this is a movie about crafting, family in-fighting and what it takes to have people get along over the November and December weeks where everyone has to come together and pretend to get along. It's not as scary as Krampus but has some of the same feel while remaining high energy throughout.

I don't really review films on here or Letterboxd, as a filmmaker I've seen too many weirdos take film opinions WAY too seriously online by screenshotting stuff like that. But when I saw this quality flick on Tubi, had such a good time with it, AND saw it basically has less ratings & views than my way smaller films? Made by a studio that has been part of some MAJOR Hollywood flicks? I wanted to celebrate the film because it deserves more love. It's essentially a PG horror/comedy film that is parodying Hallmark Christmas films, something I've done myself before and will do again. So that's probably why I connected with it so much. But to keep it simple this film was just a joy from me from start to finish. Great pacing that FLEW by, fun characters I enjoyed seeing on screen, and a lot of fun ideas. The humor and story hit for me in a big way. My one request I would have had is I wish it had more practical effects than it currently does, some more practical puppets to exist alongside the CGI creations. I know this is a CGI studio first and foremost so I can't blame them for doing what they know best in house to probably save money, but I definitely think it would have added to the film. Had a great time with this and I hope the director and writer, both of whom have no credits in directing or writing before this (okay the writer did ONE movie before this) keep doing stuff. Because I clearly align with their sense of humor and style.