If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were a Hallmark holiday movie, it would be Mercy Christmas, which celebrates the importance of Christmas traditions - in the company of a wonderfully deranged family of suburban cannibals!
Lonely downtrodden office worker Michael Briskett (Steven Hubbell) is given a ton of work to do before Christmas by his overbearing boss Andy Robillard (Cole Gleason). When Mr. Robillard's sexy assistant Cindy (Casey O'Keefe) invites Michael to her family home for Christmas, he accepts, providing he can take his work with him. Michael is welcomed in with open arms by Cindy's family, but passes out after knocking back an eggnog, waking up to find himself tied up in the basement, just one of several unfortunates destined to become dinner for Cindy and her kin.
I knew nothing about Mercy Christmas going in, having picked it at random from numerous low-budget Christmas horrors on Amazon Prime; I was very happy, then, to find that the film was not only very entertaining, but easily one of the most original and fun festive horrors I have ever seen. Forget the over-rated Black Christmas - this film is about as black as it gets, a deliciously demented tale with a really warped sense of humour and a mean-streak a mile wide. It takes a while to get going, and the low budget is evident, but stick with it 'cos it gets progressively more crazy and bloody as it goes along, culminating in a gory final act that is as funny as it is jaw-droppingly violent.
8.5/10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb.
