It's Christmas Eve. Three high school students go to school to film a documentary about the disappearance of two students last Christmas. Some part of the school was at some point a convent and there's more to the place than just the killings.

A family goes to the forest to cut a Christmas tree. At some point their young son vanishes but they do find him after a while inside a tree. When they return home the kid isn't quite himself.

A family travels to visit the father's rich aunt. But she's creepy and hostile so they quickly leave. But the daughter stole some trinket and the son dropped a Krampus figurine and broke it. That will come back to haunt them as their car breaks down and they have to walk through the forest. Things quickly get bloody.

Santa is getting ready to deliver gifts. Suddenly one of his elves goes nuts, drives a hatchet through his hand and dies. Soon all the elves become zombies and violently attack Santa who will have to take them out one by one.

All these stories are framed by a radio host who is in the Christmas spirit. Krampus makes an appearance in most of these stories and even confronts Santa himself. But when all appears said and done there's an neat unexpected twist.

The stories aren't told independently but are interwoven and aren't anything special initially but improve markedly once they take a turn to the dark. The story of the kid in particularly has some creepy moments. The story of the kids playing investigators in a locked school during Christmas Eve no less is very annoying at first until things change. The whole business with the radio host was mostly irrelevant. It's good to see Santa get a cool role as well as all the resent fuzz about Krampus. I wasn't expecting much from this movie but I was surprised that it did have something different and enjoyable to offer.

A Christmas Horror Story is the third in a trio of Amazon Prime Christmas horror films I've watched this year (the others being A Christmas Slay and CAESAR AND OTTO'S DEADLY XMAS). I hated the first two and hoped that this film would be the best of the three, which it is, but unfortunately it's still not a good movie. Instead this Canadian anthology film is muddled and unfocused, going for gore and action over really effective storytelling.

William Shatner plays a DJ in the linking scenes and is a delight; certainly the best thing about the otherwise lousy production. There are four stories here and the problem is that instead of telling one after the other, which is how anthologies should play out, they're all mingled together with repeated cutting back and forth between the narratives. It's confusing and messy, repeatedly taking you out of the stories just when they're getting interesting.

The material is sub par too. There's a half-hearted found footage exercise which goes nowhere and another re-run of the now popular 'Krampus' legend which feels like a cheesy '80s horror. One story is a mini-slasher while the brunt of the screen time involves a Santa battling zombie elves with a taste for human flesh. The horror is noisy and gruesome but never scary; in fact, I started getting a headache at the sheer inanity of it all.

It's Christmas Eve in the small town of Bailey Downs. DJ Dangerous Dan (William Shatner) is pulling a double shift on the radio. Two kids were killed one year ago in the local school. Students Dylan, Ben, and Molly Simon are doing a story on the incident. They get locked in the basement. Scott and Kim Peters go into private property to cut down a Christmas tree. Their son Will gets lost but they eventually find him. However, there is something odd about him. Taylor Bauer takes his family to visit his aunt but she kicks them out. A creature runs across the road and Taylor crashes the car. Meanwhile in the North Pole, Santa is battling with zombie elves.

There is some solid horror work being done here. It's somewhat like a loosely connected Twilight Zone anthology. These four horror stories are shown in a back and forth manner. This does mean the first half of the movie is a bit slow with the four stories getting set up. First of all, Shatner's part is not necessary. It's great that Shatner has a day to give to the filmmakers and I'm sure they were restricted with his usage. His pontificating adds nothing to the stories. There is one big connection but that's not necessarily either. There has to be a more compelling way to use his stardom.

There is value in all four horror stories. The kids in the basement is a classic jump-scare horror. The changeling is an even older classic horror. The family on the run is solid chase horror. None of these three are completely original but they are all well-made very solid old school horrors.

Santa and the elves do stand out. It is something different but also something not fully realized. In addition, it doesn't fit. There is a pretty good twist in the end but that needs better foreshadowing earlier on. This section could probably stand on its own as a separate movie. The other three would work better without this. The special effects and gore effects are generally competent especially for an indie. The acting is solid throughout and the horror is fine.