CHRISTMAS CROSSFIRE is a new Netflix Christmas movie that has lots of dark comedy, action, and blood. It starts out pretty well but seems to be at a standstill for too long. In the end, that means it's at least 15 minutes too long.

Still it's a dark comedy from a German Christmas movie, which also has a lot of crime and thriller elements. It's not dull or unpleasant by any way, but it could have been so much better.
When the film starts, Dark's fans are likely to perk up.

It starts with a voice from the highly popular Netflix sci-fi series Dark that sounds wonderfully familiar to the narrator. Unfortunately, for this movie, the kind of expectation this opening scene might conjure up is entirely false.

And it's a real shame that Christmas Crossfire would really have been a cool horror comedy. In the style that we know from Better Look Out or even an adult carry on Home Alone, you know.

In fact, there is nothing supernatural in this German Netflix movie, so it’s all about the weirdness of human nature. And yes, it is funny at times and there are grotesque scenes and dark humor. It just seems to be lacking those final 10-20% of edge to really make an impact.

Basically, it’s not dark enough to be a true crime-thriller and it definitely isn’t kitsch or campy enough to work as a horror-comedy.

Watch Christmas Crossfire on Netflix now!

The director and co-writer of Christmas Crossfire is Detlev Buck. He’s also seen on-screen as the character, Sigi, which is a key character that plays a big part in the final half of the movie.

The other screenwriter behind this German Netflix movie (org. title Wir können nicht anders) is Martin Behnke. This name might not be familiar to you, but Martin Behnke did actually write five episodes of Dark (for season 1 and season 2) as well as help with the Netflix docu-series A Perfect Crime.

If you like movies where losers like to pose as winners (you know, the kind of people who peaked in High School) and lots of people end up dead, then this is definitely worth checking out. Also, to be honest, it really does have moments of being very entertaining. Mostly, I’m just irritated by the missed opportunity of creating something really memorable and kitsch.

Christmas Crossfire is out on Netflix from December 4, 2020.