Horror Movie Review: Twas the Night (2023)

Written and directed by Joe Lujan, and starring Destiny Salas, Taylor Kilgore, Anthony Avery, Chris Ivan, Derik Lujan, Johnny Perotti, Merida Rodriguez, and Isabella Salas, Twas the Night is a festive-themed anthology horror. One that fails to engage from the start and just gets worse from that point on.

Mya has some hostages, who happen to be potty-mouthed criminals, and she’s planning to punish them for being naughty. However, before they can suffer their fate, Mya wants to tell them some stories. Chilling, violent, and bloody stories about Jack Frost, The Gingerbread Man, and Krampus. The stories she enjoyed when she was a kid.

Also, it’s Christmas Eve.

Why is that important? It’s not, but little is here, and anything that helps make the film feel more ‘festive’ is a good thing.

Unfortunately, Twas the Night is not a good thing. In fact, a few weeks after watching it, I could barely remember a thing about it, so had to watch it again. Which just made it worse. Not only does the wrap-around story, Mya talking to her hostages, fail to excite, but the individual stories are lacklustre tales with poor visuals, unengaging characters, and below average acting. I won’t be too hard on the cast, as it’s the writing and directing, but you can tell a lot of them just don’t believe in what they’re doing.

Nowhere is this more notable then with the wraparound story characters. Four of the most unlikable people in the film, making it really hard to care about anyone’s fate. Destiny Salas’ Mya is, arguably, the strong part of the film as her detachment is interesting, but it never leads to anything but a brief bout of violence meted out to a trio of criminals. Each of which deliver bad dialogue with the kind of awkward energy that just needed a few more takes.

As for the festive side of things? It’s suitably Christmassy, but this is not a film you’ll enjoy looking at. I’ve seen no-budget flicks that looked twice as good as this.

Ultimately, the film’s biggest failings are unrelated to budget though. What makes Twas the Night a bad film is the trite story, lack of cohesion between tales, brutally bland characters, and suspect acting. A festive horror that you won’t want to find in your stocking this year.