Director: Kevin Lewis
Writer: Zack Imbrogno
Stars: Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, Thomas Lennon, Arden Myrin, Rob Riggle
Synopsis: The Severson family move to a suburban neighborhood where their neighbors, the Kringles, celebrate Christmas year-round and harbor sinister intentions to hypnotize and indoctrinate them.
A Christmas movie in October feels like it should be illegal. The pumpkins are still out, the kids are trick-or-treating, and the turkey for Thanksgiving hasn’t even begun to defrost yet. But that hasn’t stopped Christmas at the Kringles from attempting to bring the festive spirit to movie theaters a little early. Sadly though, it’s a lot more bah humbug than tidings of joy, delivering far more coal than the presents it promised and creating one of the hardest horror comedies to sit through in recent memory.
Christmas at the Kringles follows the Severson family, headed up by Mark (Ron Livingston), alongside his wife, Julie (Rachel Bilson), and their son, Bobby (Jack Jewkes), as they flee the city for a quieter life in the suburbs. Once there though, they encounter their Christmas crazed neighbors, the Kringles, with parents Nick (Thomas Lennon) and Carol (Arden Myrin) immediately giving off weird vibes alongside their three forgettable kids.
They are a family who keep their holiday decorations up all year round, spreading tidings of comfort and joy while appearing, on the surface, to be just a little overexuberant. Only there’s a twist, as their obsession hides a sinister motive, with the couple attempting to brainwash their new neighbors into joining their cult. It feels like a seasonal take on Get Out, albeit with a ridiculous yuletide spin. With his loved ones now in danger, Mark teams up with a strangely outrageous Santa (Rob Riggle) and fellow neighbor Daryl (Donald Faison) in a last ditch attempt to save them from festive indoctrination.
From the outset, there’s no hiding away from the fact that Christmas at the Kringles is as chaotic as a holiday office party. The opening act feels as though it has been written by a child high off all the sugar from an endless supply of Christmas cookies, unable to focus on one idea for more than a couple of minutes before introducing something new. Because of that, the whole backstory of the Kringle family becomes a whirlwind of increasingly nonsensical developments. It struggles to establish a more serious narrative or even find its feet before shifting tone completely as the story takes a darker turn.
Theoretically, the more disturbing side of this premise, sounds like it should be a slam dunk, but thanks to a fairly terrible script from Zack Imbrogno, it remains just that, a theory. Rather than providing something unique and fun, it devolves into a cheap knockoff as the focus turns toward the indoctrination of the Seversons. Multiple scenes feel like bottom of the barrel imitations of some of the most iconic moments from Jordan Peele’s film, at times resembling a poorly shot reimagining rather than offering anything remotely enjoyable for audiences to unwrap.
That’s before even mentioning the baffling attempts to make the movie culturally relevant by incorporating modern trends. Despite introducing Mark as a successful futures trader, somehow, inexplicably, he has never heard of cryptocurrency and within a few scenes is investing tens of thousands of dollars into meme coins simply because Nick told him to. That, in itself, is rather absurd, but perhaps more bewildering is how this subplot takes up substantial chunks of the first two acts, only to be completely forgotten about. It’s never really revisited or given any sort of satisfying conclusion for audiences to unwrap.
Once Christmas at the Kringles finally leans into its horror elements, that’s where you would expect to find at least some excitement to make up for the shambolic writing. Yet, even during those sequences and the final act, director Kevin Lewis seems unsure of where to take things. As it painfully slowly builds toward the action, there’s still a glimmer of hope, almost like that last present under the tree you’ve waited all day to open. But when it eventually arrives, it never comes close to pushing those aspects far enough to make the wait worthwhile. Instead, you’re left feeling like you’ve spent hours anticipating something special, only to unwrap a pair of socks.
With a cast as surprisingly stacked as this, featuring some real heavy hitters from the comedy world, you’d hope to get at least a little holiday cheer along the way, but that is sorely absent throughout. The on the nose nature of many of the jokes, alongside repeated attempts at OnlyFans gags, creates an overwhelming sense of trying way too hard. The result is an awkward atmosphere that doesn’t come close to raising a smile, let alone generating any genuine laughs. By the end of it, many audience members are bound to feel more like the Grinch than someone filled with early holiday spirit.
While none of the big name actors involved are helped by the dreadful writing, there’s still not much to write home about performance wise. Rob Riggle and Thomas Lennon come out the most unscathed, fully committing to their roles and at least trying their very best to make the most of what they are given. Rachel Bilson and Arden Myrin, meanwhile, are largely unmemorable. However, the same can’t be said for Ron Livingston, who stands out for all the wrong reasons. He looks like he is hating every single second he was forced to spend on set, delivering a performance that verges on being uncomfortable to watch.
It’s safe to say Christmas at the Kringles won’t go down as a seasonal classic, nor will it even threaten to crack the yearly rotation of many when December rolls around. It’s a poorly constructed slog, devoid of laughter or genuine creativity, and bad enough to make even the hardiest of holiday movie loving souls reconsider watching another. Releasing a holiday film in October is certainly a gamble, and one that is almost certainly going to go down like a Christmas pudding in February.
