Slay Ride Review: One Name Left on the Naughty List
My Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆ 2.2/5
Christmas Eve.
A Santa suit with a body count.
Eleven names crossed off.
And one young woman left on the list.
Welcome to our Slay Ride Review. Every holiday season, a fresh batch of killer Santa movies slides down the streaming chimney. Some are naughty fun. Some are coal in your stocking. Slay Ride lands somewhere in the middle, closer to the coal pile than I wanted.
Like every Kilroy review, this Slay Ride Review is spoiler free. I will stick to the premise from the official synopsis. Who is under the beard and how the night ends stays a secret.
Slay Ride Review: A Small Indie With a Big Holiday Heart
I want to start with something fair. This is a tiny independent movie. Nobody had a Hollywood studio check to cash here. The people who made Slay Ride clearly love Christmas horror, and that love shows.
But love alone does not carry a slasher. A killer Santa movie needs tension, pace, and performances that sell the fear. Slay Ride has flashes of all three. It just cannot hold onto them for long.
The plot drags in spots. The acting is uneven and often needed more help. Still, the movie tries, and I respect a movie that tries.
The Story Setup
It is Christmas Eve, and a killer the police call the Kris Kringle Killer is on the loose. He has a list. Eleven names are already checked off. He is hunting number twelve.
That last name belongs to Holly Woods. She does not go quietly. Holly fights off her attacker and makes it to the police.
There she meets Detective Donner, a veteran cop who knows this case. He tells her something that turns her blood colder than a January morning in Page County. The killer grew up in her house, and he knows exactly where she lives.
Now Holly’s whole family is in danger. They have to make it through Christmas Eve alive. That is the setup, straight from the synopsis, and that is all you are getting from me.
The Cast of Slay Ride
Here is who shows up in this holiday horror and where you may know them from.
Olivia Dunkley plays Holly Woods. She also wrote, produced, and directed the film. Before this, she appeared in the series The Vamps Next Door.
Brian Krause plays Detective Donner. Most fans know him as Leo Wyatt on Charmed, and horror fans remember him from Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers.
Mitchel Gene Shira has a key role tied to the Kris Kringle Killer mystery. I am keeping the details under wraps so nothing gets spoiled.
Mike Guerra plays Barry Woods.
Zachary Bird plays Beau Woods.
Kylee Anderson plays Candy.
Noah Kershisnik plays Jack.
Todd Wente plays Rudy Frost.
Robert Dunkley plays Officer Cane.
Monique McKellop plays Officer Thistle.
Blake Dunkley plays Officer Wiseman.
Take a second look at those character names. Holly Woods. Donner. Candy. Rudy Frost. Officer Thistle. Officer Cane. Somebody had a lot of fun with the Christmas puns, and I tip my Santa hat to that.
Brian Krause Holds the Line
Brian Krause is the most experienced actor on screen, and you can feel it. He carries himself like a man who has seen a lot of bad nights. When he talks, the movie settles down and starts to feel real.
He has been doing genre work for decades. Sleepwalkers came out in 1992. Charmed ran for eight seasons. Before all that, he starred opposite Milla Jovovich in Return to the Blue Lagoon.
Krause does not phone it in here. He treats Detective Donner like a real character with real weight. That steady presence is the biggest reason this score is not lower.
I only wish the film gave him more to do. Every time he left the screen, I missed him.
Olivia Dunkley Wears Every Hat
Olivia Dunkley is the engine behind this whole sleigh. She stars as Holly. She directs. She produces. She shares the screenplay credit with Scott Rhodes.
That is a heavy load for anyone. On a small indie, it is even heavier. You have to admire the hustle.
Dunkley has experience on the producing side, including the holiday movie A Holiday Boyfriend in 2019. Slay Ride feels like a passion project. It has the energy of a filmmaker who wanted to make her own killer Santa movie and simply went out and did it.
The trouble is that wearing every hat can leave some hats crooked. The direction sometimes lets scenes run too long. The performances, hers included, could have used a little more polish and a few more takes.
Behind the Scenes
Slay Ride is a lean little picture. It runs about 85 minutes, and it was released unrated. Eric Pasternak handled the cinematography.
The film came out on October 22, 2024, just in time for the holiday horror season.
Several cast members share the Dunkley name. That gives the production a homegrown feel. It reminds me of the scrappy, regional horror movies that used to fill the bottom shelves of every video store.
The tagline says it all: “He knows where you are sleeping.” That is a clever twist on an old Christmas song. Honestly, it might be the best line connected to the whole project.
The Killer Santa Tradition
Slay Ride walks into a long and bloody tradition. Horror fans have been getting holiday chills for over 50 years.
Black Christmas in 1974 put a killer in a sorority house during the holidays. In 1980, To All a Good Night and Christmas Evil both brought the Santa suit into slasher territory.
Then came the big one. Silent Night, Deadly Night arrived in 1984 and caused an uproar. Parents protested outside theaters because the ads showed Santa with an axe. The film was pulled from release, and a legend was born.
Since then, the killer Santa has become a holiday staple. Every December brings a new one. Some are polished studio pictures. Many are small indies like this one.
That crowded field is part of Slay Ride’s problem. When a subgenre is this full, a new entry needs a hook. Slay Ride’s hook is the house. The killer grew up in it, and the family is trapped inside it. That is a good idea. I just wanted the film to squeeze more fear out of it.
The Slayride Connection
Here is a fun bit of horror trivia for the collectors out there. The title Slay Ride has deep roots in Christmas horror.
Back in the early 1980s, the original working title of Silent Night, Deadly Night was Slayride. Writer Michael Hickey used that name when he first wrote the treatment.
Around the same time, a completely different holiday horror film called Slayride was in early development. That one never made it to the screen.
So when Olivia Dunkley picked this title, she grabbed a pun that horror fans have loved for 40 years. The name has history. The movie wearing it just needed a little more muscle to live up to it.
What Slay Ride Gets Right
A 2.2 score means most of the movie misses. But I promised to be fair, so let me credit what works.
The premise is solid. A killer working through a twelve name naughty list on Christmas Eve is a fun hook. Tying him to the family home adds a creepy personal touch.
The holiday spirit is everywhere. The character names alone show real affection for the season. You can tell the filmmakers wanted this to be a movie you put on every December.
Brian Krause brings a professional edge that lifts every scene he is in. Without him, this would be a much rougher ride.
And the effort is real. Nobody here is cashing in. This is a group of people who made a Christmas slasher because they wanted to. In a world full of soulless content, I still count that for something.
Where It Stumbles
Now for the hard part.
The plot is slow at times. An 85 minute slasher should move like a sled on a steep hill. Slay Ride too often feels like that same sled stuck in wet snow. Scenes linger when they should cut. The tension builds and then drifts away.
The acting needed help. Brian Krause aside, many of the performances feel stiff. Lines land flat. Moments that should feel scary or emotional do not hit the way they need to.
When the acting wobbles, the fear goes with it. A slasher only works if you believe the people on screen are truly in danger. Too often here, I did not.
The film also never quite finds its own personality. It has the holiday puns, but it does not lean far enough into comedy. It has the premise, but it does not lean far enough into terror. It lives in an awkward space between the two.
None of this comes from a lack of heart. It comes from a lack of polish, time, and probably money. Those are real limits for indie filmmakers, and I understand them. I still have to call it the way I see it.
A Christmas Eve Movie for Iowa Nights
Around here in Southwest Iowa, December nights get long and cold. The wind comes across the fields, and the Christmas lights on Main Street glow against the snow.
Those are perfect nights for a killer Santa movie. You grab a blanket, pour some hot cocoa, and hit play on something spooky.
I have sold plenty of Christmas horror DVDs at the shop over the years. Collectors love this stuff. Folks who grew up renting the scary stuff at the video store still hunt for holiday slashers every season.
Slay Ride has the right spirit for one of those nights. It just does not have the bite to become a yearly tradition in my house.
Is Slay Ride Worth Watching?
It depends on who you are.
If you are a Christmas horror completist, you will want to cross it off your list. You will not lose much by giving it a shot.
If you are a Brian Krause fan, his scenes are the best part. Charmed fans might enjoy seeing him in a gruff detective role.
If you love supporting indie filmmakers, this is the kind of movie that needs viewers. Small projects like this only grow when people watch them.
If you want a tight, scary slasher with strong acting, look elsewhere. Slay Ride is not that movie.
The Kilroy Verdict on Slay Ride
I wanted to like Slay Ride more than I did. The premise is good. The holiday spirit is sincere. Brian Krause gives it real weight.
But a slow plot and uneven acting keep pulling the sleigh back down to the ground. The film has flaws, plenty of them. It also has heart, and it clearly tried.
For indie filmmakers reading this, here is my honest take. The bones of a good Christmas slasher are here. With tighter editing and stronger performances, this premise could really sing.
Final Thoughts 2.2/5
This one earns a 2.2 out of 5 from Kilroy. Wrapping up this Slay Ride Review, the movie had some flaws but it tried. The plot is slow at times, and the acting needed help. Still, the premise and the holiday heart deserve credit.
“Brian Krause lends veteran grit to this scrappy, sincere indie Christmas slasher.”
ML Lamp, Kilroy Was Here Shop
Santa checked his list twice. This one needed a third pass.
