Well I sat down to watch the 2018 movie "Slay Belles" to sort of warm up to the Christmas season that is about to kick off. I thought it might actually be a fun way to lay the ground for all the sugar-coated and candy-sweet Christmas movies that will be coming at us like a tsunami in the coming month.

And when I saw that Barry Bostwick was in it, I must admit that I was actually having some hopes for the movie.

However, turned out that not even someone as iconic as Barry Bostwick to salvage this sinking movie project. Wow, this movie was definitely not my cup of tea at all.

Why? Well first of all, the storyline was just rubbish. I have no idea what writers Jessica Luhrssen and Dan Walker were thinking when they concocted the script for "Slay Belle". Maybe it seemed interesting on paper, but it lost all its luster and appeal in the transition to the screen.

The acting in the movie was atrocious, downright bad. Sure, Barry Bostwick managed to keep his own and stand firm, but he was just dragged down by some questionable and dubious performances from the majority of the cast.

Now, it wasn't all bad mind you. The krampus creature was actually nicely made, and it looks very interesting. I definitely did like what the special effects department had managed to do there. But it just wasn't enough to make up for a total lack of proper storyline and script.

This is by no means a Christmas classic, nor is it a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of "Slay Belles" is a mere three out of ten stars. It really isn't worth the time, effort or money.

Heading out on an adventure, a group of girls breaking into a supposed abandoned Christmas-themed amusement park find that their actions have inadvertently released the evil Krampus from being locked away and must team up with the real Santa Claus to stop the creature and restore the holidays.

This one proved to be quite an enjoyable effort. Among the more entertaining features is the highly immersive and over-the-top spirit the film has. The introduction here to the girls with their pace-paced lives being lived out online as their wild, reckless and carefree attitude as they run around filming everything gives us a great introduction to them. The scenes of them hanging out at the park doing their usual shenanigans has a lot of fun to it, which is carried out throughout the rest of the film as the goofy sense of off-kilter fun which dominates the film overall. From the concept of Santa masquerading as a swearing, filthy biker to keep an eye on the world to the constant cutbacks to their social media uploads documenting everything and the lack of urgency to the situation, there's plenty of fun to be had with the general setup here. As well, there's plenty of over-the-top fun to be had with the creature attacks. Opting for a purely practical suit-driven creature that looks imposing and impressive, the Krampus scores nicely in the series of attacks and confrontations not only with the girls in the park but also the other children in its rampage. The chasing around the abandoned theme park before meeting Santa, the side encounters on the few family's it comes across and the girls' first attempt at confining the creature before taking it back to the shop where they begin playing with it and decorations of Christmas ornaments for their site offers a great combination of high-energy action, brutality and even goofy comedy in their reactions. There's also the frenzied and fun finale that offers a solid twist with solid and surprising action, giving this one plenty to like about it. There wasn't a whole lot really wrong with this one. The biggest issue is the film's lack of explaining anything as this one favors the fun, fast-paced action rather than going into detail on anything. The release of the Krampus and what happened to it while it was being kept away for decades isn't explained, while the last half's revelation twist about several of the characters just seems thrown together to add a last-second swerve to the action. These could've been explained better had the film decided to do something more in the middle half than trying numerous attempts at convincing the girls of his true identity, causing a drop-off in the action that goes hand-in-hand with the go-nowhere subplot about the overworked police station where nothing is happening. Some of the scenes look awful with the shaking camera or being too dark to see anything, but otherwise, there isn't a whole lot to dislike here.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

Slay Belles: it's clever because 'Slay' sounds like 'Sleigh' and 'Belles' sounds like 'Bells'. Unfortunately, that's about as clever as this film gets. It's dumb. It's very dumb. But sadly, it's not dumb fun.

The humour is extremely forced and rarely hits the mark. The cast are enthusiastic enough, but comedy clearly isn't their forté and the script just isn't witty enough despite a potentially amusing premise.

The plot sees Alexi (Kristina Klebe) joining her big-breasted friends, urban explorers Dahlia (Susan Slaughter) and Sadie (Hannah Minx ),on a trip to abandoned theme park Santaland, where they intend to record their latest Adventure Girl web cast. What they don't realise is that they are not alone: the 'Christmas Devil' Krampus is on the prowl for naughty people, making the trespassing girls potential victims. Luckily for them, the real Santa Claus (Barry Bostwick) is also there to help them stay alive.

Director Dan Walker takes a gimmicky approach to his film-making, with novelty graphics and 'stylish' (i.e., annoying) editing, which is bad enough, but add in horrible wobbly camerawork and some really dark night-time scenes, and the result is a film that is not only nowhere near as funny as it could have been, but which is also fairly grating on the nerves. Walker should have compensated with plenty of gore, but barring the death of Sadie's boyfriend Brian (Rich Manley),there's not much splatter to speak of.

The film's pros are as follows: impressive opening credits, one reasonable monster, one gore effect, one passable performance (from Bostwick),two big pairs of boobs (one pair getting a brief airing).

The cons: bad acting, bad camerawork, bad comedy, too many dark scenes, inappropriate use of dubstep music, not enough blood and guts, and no gratuitous shower scene for Sadie.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for... well, it's Christmas... I'm feeling generous.