Stumbling upon the 2023 horror comedy movie "Nightmare On 34th Street", from writer and director James Crow, here in 2024, of course I opted to sit down and watch it, as it was horror comedy that I hadn't already seen. Sure, I had never heard about the movie prior to stumbling upon it, so I didn't know what I was in for, nor did I have any expectations.

Granted, as I am not overly much a fan of horror anthologies in general, then I might have skipped on "Nightmare On 34th Street" if I had known that it was a horror anthology prior to watching it. But having started on the movie already before figuring out it was an anthology, I opted to give writer and director James Crow the benefit of the doubt.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list here. It should be noted that the acting performances were actually not too bad, just a shame that the contents of the script was subpar and giving the performers very little to work with.

I have to say that I found little enjoyment in the stories, or segments, of this anthology, so I should have skipped on it and just chalked it up on a hunch of it being probably just another bad horror anthology. It felt like a rather ambitious home video project.

"Nightmare On 34th Street" is listed as a horror comedy. Right. Well, you have to look hard and turn over every stone in order to find the comedy here.

If you enjoy horror anthologies, do yourself a favor and skip on this one, because this anthology just simply isn't worth the time, money or effort.

My rating of "Nightmare On 34th Street" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

If you're after a Hollywood blockbuster with high production values and mega--stars, then look elsewhere. But if you want a fun, festive concoction of great little stories showing imagination, and with varied locations and fine cinematography, then this is worth a watch.

James Crow is a hugely under-rated Writer and Director. Coralling a cast of 90 across two hours of fast-paced story-telling is no mean feat, especially within the confines of a limited budget from an independent production company. For this alone, the film and the Director deserve immense praise (and my high score!). Clearly written to be a 'tongue-in-cheek' presentation of Christmas-related stories, Nightmare on 34th Street should be watched under a cosy duvet with a hot mug of soup at hand - it is entertaining, funny and not too mentally taxing. The film is not overly complicated, but just comprises good old clever storytelling.

Some of the acting is first-class by a number of very good actors who are by no means household names, who are responsive to the needs of each storyline to be either naturalistic or slightly 'over the top'. However, some of the younger actors are not up to scratch and detract from a couple of the stories. The anthology concept works well and there is a clear and logical golden thread running through the film. My biggest criticisms are that overall the film is perhaps half an hour too long, and there are just a few too many unnecessary deaths in the stories. But overall, it is witty, entertaining and fun.

The film is definitely one to be watched every year to balance out the Christmassy Rom-Coms and schmaltzy sentimentality on offer at each year end.

Nightmare On 34th Street is an anthology consisting of 4 Christmas themed horror shorts...with the overarching theme being that they are being told to a young boy, by a disgruntled Santa Claus- turned killer- on Christmas Eve.

The first story is about the exploits of a gang of serial killers that are dressed up as "Mr. Red", an elf, and snowman...who have kidnapped a pair of siblings, and brainwashed them to join their killing spree, after killing their parents.

The next tale is about a struggling, coke addicted, ventriloquist, whose puppet is a vulgar snowman named "Mr. White"...and possibly also a killer.

The third story revolves around a mentally ill mother who is egged on by Krampus to kill her kids.

While the last story is about a killer priest- who buries his victims alive- getting his comeuppance.

As far as low budget anthologies go...this one isn't half bad.

Though, the quality of the shorts vary.

With the one about the ventriloquist and his snowman puppet particularly standing out.

That being said...the writing is better than the execution.

Some might be turned off by the production quality.

But it seems, to me, that they did pretty well with what they had to work with.

Though I felt it could have been a little bit shorter.

That aside, I thought it was entertaining enough...in a mid kind of way.

3.5 out of 10.