So this new Hebrew slasher provides some blood, lots of boobage, corny one liners, subpar acting, a runtime that overstays its welcome, and a decent looking killer with a cool name: The Hanukiller. Nothing new to see here for the most part. More gore and practical effects and would've helped tremendously. Trimming 15 mins would've helped too as the film drags on a bit.

Brief cameos from Sid Haig, Pj Soles, Caroline Williams, and Dick Miller were welcome additions.

Not bad but not great either. Something to watch on a lazy Tuesday afternoon.

5 out of 10

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"We need more Jewish horror movies!" I agree because at the moment Nazis have a ton more, but let's just not start with this movie. Hanukkah barely gets by thanks to its notable supporting cast and crewmembers, slick cinematography, and gratuitous nudity. The awkward pacing, stilted dialogue, annoying characters, and jokes that fell flat, however, really tested my patience (I split this into two sittings). It's on to something, but couldn't quite stick the landing.

This Catholic boy is just gonna mosey on back to nunsploitation now.

This movie has so much potential that gets wasted in favor of aimless writing and "humor" and a whole lotta gratuitous boob shots. However, I did genuinely enjoy PJ Soles's appearance, so one star for her making her material work.

There desperately needs to be more Hanukkah horror movies, but this ain’t it.

I can excuse that it was offensive to just about anyone. I can forgive that it was badly shot or poorly acted. But I can’t forgive the lack of inventiveness and willingness to really try something.

The poster is awesome. Definitely a 5/5. Unfortunately the movie is absolute garbage. There's nothing positive that can be said about it. Nothing ever seems to be happening meanwhile there's an inexplicable 1 hour 45 minute runtime.

Generic horror with horror icons in it, which didn't really do much for it as it should have so that's when it's time to worry when big actors like this don't make it any better. Stuck in one place and nothing made much sense.

Jewish folklore is chock-full of mythology that should work exceptionally well for horror, from golems to dybbuks and more, so it’s a real shame that this drivel is what exists, on an island, for Hanukkah-themed spooks. Let’s just say it isn’t too surprising to find out the director was raised Catholic, because most of the Jewish references are ham-fisted or completely irrelevant (the holiday itself is almost a red herring, there’s basically nothing here to suggest the killer or the days in question have anything to do with this time of year).

Other than an early scene involving a skinning of a skinhead to makeshift a yarmulke, a legitimately scary and interesting subtextual scene, this movie is a downright piece of shit. Some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen, embarrassing lighting, sound and cinematography, a veritable bevy of absolute nonsense. Hard to find much of value. Bummer.

*awkwardly changes the subject*

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The credits song was actually better the rest of the movie lol.

I don't even think they resolved the plot. The fact I'm not sure should say something

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This movie has so much potential that gets wasted in favor of aimless writing and "humor" and a whole lotta gratuitous boob shots. However, I did genuinely enjoy PJ Soles's appearance, so one star for her making her material work.

theres a creepy and stylish horror movie stuck trying to live alongside an abysmal not-another-teen-movie type film here, and it just fuckin sucks. damn shame, because theres something cool there that it wouldve been fun to see, a really good hanukkah horror movie.

Unfortunately, one of the best Hanukkah films there is that isn’t a lifetime film.

I don't know if Eben McGarr wanted to make a cheesy but very much done slasher that just happened to use some jewish elements or a existential thriller about fanatism and secularization and I don't think he does either. What he managed to do was really neither.

I saw an ad for this film on Twitter last month, and decided to watch it because the poster looked intriguing.

Well, I rented it, pressed play, then turned it off less than halfway through. It’s seriously one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. I didn't bother to finish it, because of the racist jokes, abysmal acting, horrible pacing, and annoying callbacks to other horror movies.

After three bad holiday horror movies in a row, I really hope that tomorrow's is actually good.

0/10

i wish i liked this better :/ a couple interesting concepts here and there, although the plot was barely related to hanukkah. also, the horror icons such as sid haig and caroline williams that showed up were in it WAY LESS than i expected. i own this on blu ray now, so i'll probably revisit it at some point in the far future.

I was sold on this movie the moment I saw the taglines “Dreidel to the grave” and “a Torah-fying new tale of Horah.” The opening scene with Sid Haig is great, the credits included Kane Hodder, Dick Miller, and Harry Manfredini, and there was a really fun Halloween reference early on. So things seemed promising! But that’s also where things took a turn for the worse... and it never recovered.