'Unholy Night' Review: A Bloody Fun Christmas Horror
- 9 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Becca Johnson - July 28, 2026
Summer festival season may be a strange time to delve into Christmas movies, but Unholy Night promises plenty of carnage that can be enjoyed year round. A directorial feature debut from Michael Gabriele, the film centres on Gino (Marc Bendavid), whose traditional Italian family Christmas Eve celebration descends into chaos when his deceased grandmother returns from the dead and embarks on a killing spree. As more dead relatives begin appearing throughout the neighbourhood, Gino must find a way to eliminate the holiday revenants and make it through the family gathering alive.
Although it often struggles to balance its conflicting tones, Unholy Night is a entertaining watch offering up laughs, brutality and an unlikely hero.
Unholy Night doesn't waste any time getting its horror underway. After a cold open showcasing the havoc that can be unleashed when the dead return to life, we're quickly introduced to our central family and their dynamic before the carnage kicks off once again. In true Evil Dead fashion, the film delivers plenty of gruesome kills and brutal gore, as deceased family members return with unfinished business — and turn on their loved ones with alarming speed. The surviving families must figure out why their relatives have come back, all while navigating the whiplash of enjoying their company one minute and attempting to survive their killer mode the next. The result is a fun, entertaining watch packed with plenty of Christmas carnage candy. The dead also look quite effective, with greyed out skin and glowing eyes that signify a dangerous change is afoot. As entertaining as the film is throughout, it really does save its best stuff for last, with a killer final act that makes inventive use of snow, Christmas lights and plenty of gloriously inventive gore.
Perhaps even better than the horror is the film's social commentary and family dynamic. Lead character Gino is the misunderstood black sheep of his family, constantly labelled a failure and compared unfavourably to his more successful brother. He works in paint, although he doesn't actually paint himself — a distinction his family can't seem to understand — and, with no relationship and still living at home, Gino isn't exactly viewed as the family's most likely hero. That all changes this Christmas. When the dead come back looking for trouble, Gino's seemingly mundane knowledge and skills suddenly become surprisingly useful, turning him into the everyman hero we can all root for. It's a familiar and somewhat predictable arc, but Unholy Night makes the dynamic work, giving Gino a likeable underdog quality as he finally gets the chance to prove himself. Actor Marc Bendavid (A Gingerbread Christmas) does a really solid job with Gino, attacking each part of the character with believability. Equally easy to sympathise with and root for, Bendavid ensures Gino is as likeable and relatable as possible. The cast making up the rest of the family are also solid, working well together. Most family Christmases come with their fair share of drama, a really intriguing idea to explore, but thankfully, most of them aren't quite this deadly.
Ultimately, Unholy Night really is a bit silly. The first act takes its horror seriously, establishing some strong genre themes alongside the family dynamics and the difficulties Gino is facing. But as the film progresses, the silliness steadily takes over — and not always in a fun, campy way. The dialogue becomes increasingly comical, a late-film reveal is both predictable and incredibly cheesy, and the constant flitting between serious emotional beats and wacky conversations and actions becomes increasingly jarring. Gino’s arc is undeniably fun, utilising his skills and knowledge to his and his families advantage, but there is something inherently goofy about it. There is a fun horror-comedy buried within Unholy Night, but the film's tonal shifts don't always land, leaving some of its more heartfelt moments feeling at odds with the increasingly goofy chaos surrounding them.
Unholy Night is far from perfect, with some jarring tonal shifts, predictable developments and a tendency to lean too heavily into a silliness that isn’t initially introduced. But its inventive gore, likeable underdog hero and festive horror premise make it an entertaining enough Christmas watch. It may not always stick the landing, but there's enough bloody fun here to make Unholy Night worth recommending.
'Unholy Night' premiered at Fantasia Film Festival 2026.
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