View source for Holidays (2016 film)

{{Use American English|date = April 2019}}

{{Infobox film
| name           = Holidays
| image          = Holidays film poster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Kevin Smith]] 
* [[Gary Shore]] 
* [[Scott Stewart (director)|Scott Stewart]] 
* [[Nicholas McCarthy (director)|Nicholas McCarthy]] 
* [[Dennis Widmyer]]
* [[Kevin Kolsch]]
* [[Sarah Adina Smith]]
* [[Anthony Scott Burns]]
* [[Adam Egypt Mortimer]]}}
| producer       = {{Plainlist|
* John Hegeman 
* Tim Connors 
* Adam Egypt Mortimer
* Kyle Franke 
* Aram Tertzakian}}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* ''Valentine's Day'':
* Madeleine Coghlan
* Savannah Kennick
* [[Rick Peters]]
* [[Britain Simons]]
* ''St. Patrick's Day'':
* [[Ruth Bradley]]
* [[Peter Campion (actor)|Peter Campion]]
* Isolt McCaffrey
* ''Easter'':
* [[Ava Acres]]
* Petra Wright
* Mark Steger
* ''Mother's Day'': 
* [[Sophie Traub]]
* [[Aleksa Palladino]]
* [[Sheila Vand]]
* [[Jennifer Lafleur]] 
* [[Sonja Kinski]]
* ''Father's Day'':
* [[Jocelin Donahue]]
* [[Michael Gross (actor)|Michael Gross]]
* Jana Karan
* ''Halloween'':
* [[Ashley Greene]]
* Olivia Roush
* [[Harley Quinn Smith]]
* [[Harley Morenstein]] 
* Shelby Kemper
* ''Christmas'':
* [[Seth Green]]
* [[Clare Grant]]
* Kalos Cluff
* [[John C. Johnson (actor)|John C. Johnson]]
* Shawn Parsons
* Michael Sun Lee
* Wes Robertson
* Karina Noelle
* [[Scott Stewart (director)|Scott Stewart]]
* Richard DiLorenzo
* ''New Year's Eve'':
* [[Lorenza Izzo]]
* [[Andrew Bowen]]
* [[Megan Duffy (actress)|Megan Duffy]]}}
| studio         = {{Plainlist|
*Distant Corners Entertainment 
* [[XYZ Films]]}}
| music          = {{Plainlist|
* Robert Allaire
* [[Mark Degli Antoni]]
* [[Christopher Drake]]
* Ronen Landa
* Leo Pearson
* Pilotpriest
* Jonathan Snipes
* Mister Squinter
}}
| distributor    = [[Vertical Entertainment]]
| released       = {{Film date|2016|4|14|[[Tribeca Film Festival|TFF]]|2016|4|22|United States}}
| runtime        = 105 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
}}
'''''Holidays''''' is a 2016 American [[horror (genre)|horror]] [[anthology film]] of short horror films, each inspired by a different celebration. The directors include [[Kevin Smith]], [[Gary Shore]], [[Adam Egypt Mortimer]], [[Scott Stewart (director)|Scott Stewart]], [[Nicholas McCarthy (director)|Nicholas McCarthy]], [[Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer]], [[Sarah Adina Smith]], and [[Anthony Scott Burns]].

The film had its world premiere at the [[Tribeca Film Festival]] on April 14, 2016.<ref name="TRIBECA">{{cite web|url=https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/holidays-2016|title=Holidays|publisher=TribecaFilm.com|access-date=March 17, 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20160722163746/https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/holidays-2016|archive-date=July 22, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was then released on [[video on demand]] on April 15, 2016, prior to a [[limited release]] on April 22, 2016, by [[Vertical Entertainment]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/holidays-movie-release-tribeca-1201729401/|title='Holidays' Horror Anthology Grabbed for Release In Advance of Tribeca Film Festival Premiere|publisher=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|first=Gordon|last=Cox|date=March 14, 2016|access-date=March 17, 2016}}</ref>

==Segments==
===Valentine's Day===
* Written and directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer 
* Starring Madeleine Coghlan, [[Savannah Kennick]], [[Rick Peters]], [[Britain Simons]]

Socially awkward, depressed high school student Maxine is picked on in gym class by cruel, popular student Heidi and her friends. Heidi pushes Maxine off the diving board; the latter nearly drowns, but Coach Rockwell, whom she has a crush on, rescues her. Rockwell is suffering from a heart condition and needs a transplant. Though he sympathizes with Maxine, he is reluctant to discipline Heidi for her bullying, as Heidi is the one organizing a fundraiser for his treatment.

Rockwell leaves a Valentine's Day card in Maxine's locker to console her. Maxine finds it and becomes euphoric. She then follows Heidi to a creek, where she kills Heidi with a [[box cutter]] and removes her heart. As Rockwell prepares to go on a date with his wife that evening, Maxine arrives at his house, offering Heidi's heart to him.

===St. Patrick's Day===
* Written and directed by [[Gary Shore]] 
* Starring [[Ruth Bradley]], [[Peter Campion (actor)|Peter Campion]], [[Isolt McCaffrey]]

School teacher Elizabeth Cullen shows her students a documentary film about [[St. Patrick's Day]] and the legend of how St. Patrick rid Ireland of snakes. She takes an interest in a student named Grainne, who, as a St. Patrick's card project, leaves a note reading "Only your deepest wish can make me smile" and a dried grass [[snake]].

After a night of drinking, Elizabeth awakens in her car with a [[snakeskin]] surrounding her. In a supermarket, she encounters Grainne, who embraces her belly. Elizabeth later happily discovers that she is [[pregnant]], only to learn from the doctor that the baby will be a snake. Elizabeth finds a drawing Grainne did of her giving birth to a snake and vomits black sludge. Throughout the course of her pregnancy, her behavior becomes increasingly strange. 

Later, a heavily pregnant Elizabeth lies in her bathtub and places a mouse on her belly to lure the snake out. The snake violently thrashes inside of her, rendering her unconscious. She is then led away by Grainne and a mysterious man, presumably Grainne's father and the father of Elizabeth's snake baby. The man assumes that Elizabeth will be horrified, but she happily embraces her role as the snake's mother and joins the cult. 

Later, a new teacher at the school gets the same message from Grainne.

===Easter=== 
* Written and directed by [[Nicholas McCarthy (director)|Nicholas McCarthy]] 
* Starring [[Ava Acres]], [[Petra Wright]], [[Mark Steger]]
 
While being tucked into bed on the night before Easter, a little girl becomes frightened at the prospect of the [[Easter Bunny]] arriving. Her mother attempts to calm her by explaining the holiday mascot's connection to [[Jesus]]. She also tells her she has to be asleep when the Easter Bunny comes, as no child has ever seen him.

In the middle of the night, the girl goes to the kitchen to get water and discovers a rabbit-like creature wearing a [[crown of thorns]], leaving chicks and candies in the living room. She attempts to sneak back to her room but is caught. The bunny tells her that now that she has seen him, she must assume his role as the Easter Bunny and will never see her mother again. He feeds her an egg that transforms her into a rabbit creature like himself.

The mother is heard calling for her daughter as the back door locks itself.

===Mother's Day=== 
* Written and directed by [[Sarah Adina Smith]]
* Starring [[Sophie Traub]], [[Aleksa Palladino]], [[Sheila Vand]], [[Jennifer Lafleur]], [[Sonja Kinski]]

A woman named Kate continually falls pregnant and receives abortions. Advised by her doctor, she attends a getaway out in the middle of the desert with other women and one man. The group becomes involved in an [[orgy]], after which the getaway is revealed to be home to barren witches who are hoping to get pregnant. They tell Kate that she is the gateway. They constrain her, and groom and care for her while cutting her off from contacting the outside. It turns out that the doctor who recommended the getaway is also part of the coven.

Kate manages to flee, but suddenly goes into labor. The witches surround her to aid in her birth. However, they all scream in terror when she gives birth to a bloody full-sized arm.

===Father's Day=== 
* Written and directed by [[Anthony Scott Burns]]
* Starring [[Jocelin Donahue]], [[Michael Gross (actor)|Michael Gross]], [[Jana Karan]]

Coming home from work, Carol receives a mysterious package from her father, whom she has not seen since her childhood. The package is an old [[Cassette deck|cassette deck player]] with a tape inside. She plays the tape, in which her father tells her he loves her and instructs her to go to the place they played at when she was a child so they can be reunited. Carol calls her mother and berates her for lying to her about her father's death. 

Upon reaching the destination as instructed, Carol realizes that the tape was recorded when she was a child. Following instructions from the tape, she eventually reaches a building with a mysterious door which she remembers entering with her father, where he asked the woman at the reception to take care of her before leaving her. In the tape, her father apologizes for leaving her, but claims he has to because he only has one chance to meet "him". 

Carol enters the door and seems to enter another world. Meanwhile, Carol's mother frantically calls her cell phone, which Carol had left in her car. 

Carol comes across a figure sitting in a chair. The voice in the tape states that he's glad she came "by her own free will". After Caroll calls out for her father, she is confronted by a dark, mysterious humanoid that roars at her. The tape recorder and headphones fall to the ground, and Carol subsequently disappears as the end of the tape continues saying "together".

===Halloween=== 
* Written and directed by [[Kevin Smith]]
* Starring Ashley Greene, [[Olivia Roush]], [[Harley Quinn Smith]], [[Harley Morenstein]], [[Shelby Kemper]].

Ian hosts an internet sex service and abuses his employees Holly, Bree, and Serena. When he denies the girls' wishes to celebrate Halloween, they attempt to push back against him. Unintimidated, he attempts to rape Serena, but the girls knock him out. Ian awakens in his underwear with a vibrator connected to a car battery superglued up his anus and a laptop placed in front of him. The girls send him demands through the laptop, warning him that he will be subjected to the vibrator if he doesn't fulfill them. They slide a knife under the door and command him to cut open his penis to turn it into a vagina. After he complies, the girls turn up the battery to full power, presumably killing him. The girls then answer the door to Nancy, whom Ian had called earlier about the job. They tell her that they are under new management and that Ian is no longer with the company due to "cutbacks".

===Christmas===
* Written and directed by [[Scott Stewart (director)|Scott Stewart]]
* Starring [[Seth Green]], [[Clare Grant]], [[Kalos Cluff]], [[John C. Johnson (actor)|John C. Johnson]], [[Shawn Parsons]], [[Michael Sun Lee]], [[Wes Robertson]], [[Karina Noelle]], [[Scott Stewart (director)|Scott Stewart]], [[Richard DiLorenzo]]

Pete Gunderson is late trying to buy virtual glasses called "uVu" for his son. A man before him buys the last remaining stock despite Pete calling about it earlier, but the man suddenly has a heart attack and can't reach his pills. At first, Pete starts to call for help, but after being reminded about his wife's demand to get the glasses, Pete instead steals the glasses and rushes home, where his wife complains about not receiving a Christmas bonus she was promised. On Christmas day, Pete's son Bobby is overjoyed, explaining that the glasses recreate your thoughts and ideas into a virtual game. On the urging of his son, Pete tries them on and sees a stripper. Later that night, Pete sneaks out of bed to try the glasses on again. At first, he sees himself receiving a blowjob from a prostitute, but after some static, the visuals suddenly switch to Pete stealing the glasses, seen from the dying man's point of view. Pete tries to hide what happened, but his wife, Sara, reveals that she saw the saved footage. Pete admits that he did it because the man "had what [he] wanted," and because he "was tired of being nice." To his surprise, Sara is turned on by this and the two have sex. Later, Pete looks through the glasses again and discovers that Sara had tortured and killed her boss after he passed her over for a bonus. Shocked, he reads the glasses' tagline: "uVu shows you YOU!"

===New Year's Eve===
* Written by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer; directed by [[Adam Egypt Mortimer]]
* Starring [[Lorenza Izzo]], [[Andrew Bowen]], [[Megan Duffy (actress)|Megan Duffy]]

Reggie is a serial killer who targets women. After murdering his latest victim, Reggie picks up another girl through a dating site, named Jean, and goes to meet with her for New Year's Eve. Their date is awkward especially because of Reggie's weirdness, but Jean, feeling sorry for him, invites him to her apartment. They return to Jean's apartment and Reggie goes to the bathroom to wash up, though he's actually preparing to use chloroform on her. He checks the medicine cabinets and discovers that Jean keeps severed limbs and organs in jars, revealing her to be also a serial killer. Suddenly, Jean rushes in with a fire axe and attacks Reggie, who further finds corpses in her bathtub. Reggie attempts to make it to the living room and has his foot severed by the axe. After making it to his jacket, he pulls out a revolver but forgot to load it (he forgot to load the gun the first time he tried to shoot his earlier victim), resulting in Jean splitting his head open and killing him. As the New Year rings in, Jean dances with her axe.

==Production==
The project originated with John Hegeman and his Distant Corners Entertainment. Tim Connors and Adam Egypt Mortimer were also producing, as well as Kyle Franke and Aram Tertzakian from XYZ Films. Executive producers were Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari, and Nate Bolotin and Nick Spicer of XYZ.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Tartaglione|first1=Nancy|title=Kevin Smith, Gary Shore & More Take 'Holidays' With XYZ Genre Anthology – Berlin|url=https://deadline.com/2015/02/kevin-smith-gary-shore-matt-johnson-to-direct-holidays-xyz-genre-anthology-berlin-1201364737/|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|date=February 2, 2015 |access-date=2 February 2015}}</ref>

==Release==
The film had its world premiere at the [[Tribeca Film Festival]] on April 14, 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribecafilm.com/stories/tribeca-film-festival-2016-lineup-midnight-spotlight-special-screenings|title=TRIBECA 2016 ANNOUNCES LINEUPS FOR SPOTLIGHT, MIDNIGHT, SPECIAL SCREENINGS, AND TRIBECA/ESPN SPORTS FILM FESTIVAL|publisher=TribecaFilm.com|date=April 8, 2016|access-date=March 17, 2016}}</ref><ref name="TRIBECA"/> Prior to, [[Vertical Entertainment]] and XYZ Films acquired worldwide distribution rights.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2016/03/holidays-horror-anthology-trailer-release-date-vertical-entertainment-xyz-films-1201719893/|title='Holidays' Horror Anthology Scares Up Deal & April Release Date|website=Deadline Hollywood|first=Patrick|last=Hipes|date=March 14, 2016|access-date=March 17, 2016}}</ref> The film was released on April 15, 2016, through [[video on demand]] prior to a [[limited release]] on April 22, 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/holidays-movie-release-tribeca-1201729401/|title='Holidays' Horror Anthology Grabbed for Release In Advance of Tribeca Film Festival Premiere|publisher=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|first=Gordon|last=Cox|date=March 14, 2016|access-date=March 17, 2016}}</ref>

==Reception==
{{expand section|date=October 2016}}
On the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 50%, based on {{nowrap|30 reviews}}, with a rating average of 5.90/10.<ref name="rottentomatoes">{{cite web|title=Holidays (2016) - Rotten Tomatoes|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/holidays/|website=Rotten Tomatoes.com|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=18 August 2019}}</ref>

On [[Metacritic]], the film has a similar 50% approval rate based on 8 critic reviews, and received 4.3/10 based on 19 user ratings. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Holidays Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/holidays/ |access-date=2025-11-10 |website=www.metacritic.com |language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{official website|http://holidaysanthology.com/}}
* {{IMDb title|4419364}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=2072613}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|holidays}}

{{Kevin Smith}}
{{Nicholas McCarthy}}
{{Sarah Adina Smith}}
{{Scott Stewart}}

[[Category:2016 horror films]]
[[Category:2016 films]]
[[Category:2010s monster movies]]
[[Category:American horror anthology films]]
[[Category:American supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:American monster movies]]
[[Category:Films about witchcraft]]
[[Category:Films directed by Gary Shore]]
[[Category:Films directed by Kevin Smith]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Kevin Smith]]
[[Category:Films directed by Scott Stewart (director)]]
[[Category:Vertical (film company) films]]
[[Category:Holiday horror films]]
[[Category:Valentine's Day in films]]
[[Category:Saint Patrick's Day films]]
[[Category:Easter Bunny in film]]
[[Category:Mother's Day]]
[[Category:Father's Day]]
[[Category:Halloween horror films]]
[[Category:American films about Halloween]]
[[Category:American Christmas horror films]]
[[Category:Films set around New Year]]
[[Category:2016 English-language films]]
[[Category:2016 American films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction horror films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Holidays (2016 film)|access_date=2026-03-03}}