Reviews: Holidays (2016) Movie Review / Ending Explained / FAQs
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy, Anthology
Subgenres: Holiday, Christmas, Christmas - Anthology, Halloween, Halloween - Anthology
Horror fans will enjoy our review of Holidays (2016), where we cover its story, scares, and how it ranks among modern horror classics.
Holidays (2016) – A Twisted Anthology That Turns Celebrations Into Nightmares
What happens when the calendar’s most joyful dates are reimagined as gateways to horror? Holidays (2016) is a bold and bloody anthology that takes iconic celebrations—from Valentine’s Day to Christmas—and filters them through a macabre lens. Each segment offers a standalone story, blending horror, dark comedy, and folklore with mixed but intriguing results.
Plot, Themes, and Segment Overview
Holidays features eight short films, each themed around a different holiday. Unlike traditional horror anthologies that follow a single narrative thread, this film opts for a segmented structure with multiple directors and styles. The result is a genre-blending mix of surreal horror, body horror, revenge, and psychological tension.
Here’s a brief look at each segment:
Valentine’s Day: A lonely outcast girl takes an obsessive turn for love in a blood-soaked school crush tale.
St. Patrick’s Day: A teacher’s wish for a child is granted in the worst way imaginable, delivering unsettling imagery wrapped in mythology.
Easter: A girl encounters a horrifying creature that blends religious iconography with monstrous transformation.
Mother’s Day: A woman who can’t stop getting pregnant finds herself at a mysterious fertility retreat—only to discover a ritualistic horror waiting.
Father’s Day: A woman follows a series of audio recordings from her long-lost father, uncovering a cosmic mystery that blurs time and reality.
Halloween: A tech-abusing boss faces the wrath of his mistreated employees in a satisfying revenge fantasy.
Christmas: A VR headset reveals dark secrets during the holidays, testing a father’s sense of reality and morality.
New Year’s Eve: A serial killer’s date takes a deadly twist in a segment that flips expectations with a grim payoff.
Themes & Tone
The overarching theme across Holidays is the subversion of joy and innocence. Each celebration becomes a stage for psychological torment, disturbing transformations, or moral collapse. The film blends satire, dread, and surrealism, often challenging the viewer’s expectations of seasonal cheer. While not every story is equally impactful, most offer enough shock or style to hold attention.
Acting, Cinematography, and Direction
With multiple directors—including Kevin Smith, Sarah Adina Smith, and Gary Shore—the anthology showcases a wide range of visual and storytelling styles. Some segments lean heavily on unsettling visuals (St. Patrick’s Day, Easter), while others embrace grit and realism (Halloween, Christmas). The acting varies from passable to memorable, with several standout performances that elevate otherwise brief storylines.
Cinematography shifts between sleek and gritty depending on the tone of each piece. Bright, celebratory settings contrast with ominous sound design and sudden tonal shifts. While some segments feel over-stylized or rushed, others use minimalism and mood to great effect.
Directing Style, Strengths, and Weaknesses
As with most anthology films, Holidays is uneven—but that’s part of its charm. The constant change in tone and direction keeps things fresh, though some stories shine far brighter than others. The best segments balance shock value with thematic depth, while others rely too heavily on gross-out moments or abrupt twists without sufficient buildup.
Strengths:
Creative reinterpretation of traditional holidays
Variety of horror subgenres represented
Standout segments with strong direction and memorable visuals
Fresh ideas that challenge standard horror tropes
Weaknesses:
Uneven pacing and quality across stories
Some segments feel rushed or underdeveloped
Lack of a unifying tone or connective thread
Varying acting quality depending on cast and direction
Final Verdict & Score: 5/10
Holidays is an ambitious horror anthology that delivers a twisted celebration of the calendar year. While not all segments land, the best ones leave a strong impression, offering inventive scares and disturbing imagery. It’s a hit-or-miss affair, but for fans of anthology horror, it’s a creative entry worth exploring. Think of it as a horror sampler platter—some bites are deliciously wicked, others less satisfying.
The score of 5/10 reflects a balanced evaluation of creativity versus execution. While the film boasts originality and a few standout moments, its uneven nature and lack of cohesion prevent it from rising above average.
Who Will Enjoy It
Fans of anthology horror films and bite-sized scares
Viewers who enjoy twisted takes on traditional holidays
Audiences looking for variety and experimental storytelling
Who Might Be Disappointed
Viewers expecting consistent tone or production quality
Horror fans looking for a central narrative or strong continuity
Audiences turned off by surreal or body horror elements
Most Searched FAQs for Holidays (2016)
What is Holidays (2016) about?
Holidays (2016) is a horror anthology film composed of eight standalone short stories, each inspired by a different calendar holiday. From Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Eve, each segment delivers a twisted, often surreal spin on what are normally joyous or meaningful occasions. The film doesn’t follow a single plot but instead presents separate visions of horror that explore themes like obsession, revenge, transformation, and family.
How many segments are in Holidays (2016)?
There are eight segments in total, themed around the following holidays:
Valentine’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day
Easter
Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
Halloween
Christmas
New Year’s Eve
Each short is directed by a different filmmaker and varies in tone, from psychological horror to dark comedy and surreal body horror.
Is there a wraparound story or connected universe in Holidays (2016)?
No, Holidays does not include a wraparound story or overarching narrative. Each short film is self-contained, and while they share a holiday-based concept, the characters, timelines, and events are entirely separate. The format is more like a horror mixtape than a connected universe.
Which is the scariest segment in Holidays (2016)?
The answer varies depending on viewer preference, but some of the most frequently mentioned segments for shock value or disturbing visuals include:
Easter, for its grotesque and surreal creature design
St. Patrick’s Day, for its unnerving atmosphere and final twist
Father’s Day, for its audio-driven dread and ambiguous supernatural ending
Is the Easter creature in Holidays symbolic?
Yes, the Easter segment features a terrifying hybrid creature that blends features of religious icons. This monster appears to be a grotesque fusion of the Easter Bunny and other spiritual imagery, possibly symbolizing confusion between childhood myths and religious indoctrination. The horror is both visual and thematic, meant to challenge the viewer’s comfort with blended cultural narratives.
What happens in the Halloween segment?
Directed by Kevin Smith, the Halloween segment follows a cruel adult video company owner who exploits young cam girls. When he crosses the line one too many times, his employees turn the tables in a brutal revenge plot. This segment leans into body horror and dark comedy, offering a satisfying—though extreme—payoff.
Is Holidays (2016) suitable for all horror fans?
Not necessarily. While it offers a wide range of horror styles, some segments lean heavily into surrealism or shock value, which may not appeal to viewers expecting traditional horror storytelling. Others are deliberately ambiguous, which can leave certain plots open-ended or hard to interpret.
Holidays (2016) – Ending Explained
Since Holidays is an anthology with no single plot, the final segment—New Year’s Eve—serves as the film’s closing act. It follows a lonely serial killer named Reggie who uses dating apps to lure victims. He meets a woman named Jean, expecting an easy target. But the twist flips the story: Jean is also a killer looking for her next victim. As the countdown to midnight begins, the two engage in a violent showdown.
In the end, Jean outsmarts Reggie, leaving him dead as she calmly celebrates the new year on her own terms. The final moment is less about jump scares and more about subverting expectations, giving the audience a clever inversion of predator vs. prey. It’s a fitting conclusion to an anthology that consistently reframes ordinary days into disturbing scenarios.
What does the ending of Holidays (2016) mean?
The New Year’s Eve segment—and the film as a whole—suggests that appearances are deceiving, and that horror can exist behind the most innocent or festive traditions. The closing scene reinforces the film’s core idea: no holiday is safe, and the darkness that people carry often wears a cheerful mask.
Similar films like Holidays can be found in horror anthologies sub-genre(s), check them out for more movies like Holidays.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Holidays Rating Scores
- Our Score: 5/10
- Overall Score: 5.02/10
- IMDB: 5.1/10
- MetaCritic: 5.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.0/10
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