UGLY SWEATER PARTY ** USA 2018 Dir: Aaron Mento. 81 mins
Sean Whalen is fun (though underused) as a grinning, giggling Satanic / Nazi serial killer responsible for a series of festive family murders. He’s bludgeoned to death in the opening sequence, and his grue-covered Christmas sweater falls into the hands of a pair of stoners (Hunter Johnson, Charles Chudabala) en-route to a festive party where their hope is to score with a pair of horny twins.
Typical of their luckless existence, the twins turn out to be born again virgins at Felissa Rose’s woodland bible camp, and sweater-instigated bloodshed ensues. Johnson and Chudabala, introduced via sub-AMERICAN PIE scenes of unwanted boners and pubic hair shaving, are amusing enough as the loser heroes, but the movie aims at obvious targets like pervy priests, while everyone else, including Rose, goes irritatingly over the top. The dialogue is sometimes amusing (“What does the sweater want?”) and the gore – notably a ripped-off cock shoved in a victim’s mouth – is diverting, but this soon gets as weary as its generic metal soundtrack.
Review by Steven West
