Overview
New Christmas, new spate of fresh festive flicks to add to your seasonal viewing: that's now an annual trend in these streaming platform-saturated times. A creative spin on A Christmas Carol, but as a musical starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, is one such newcomer vying for your eyeballs now that the merriest time of the year is upon us. And, dropping on Stan on Thursday, December 1, Australia's own Christmas Ransom is another.
Everyone has their Christmas viewing rituals, whether you watch your way through every Home Alone movie each year (yes, even the recent one), pop on It's a Wonderful Life with the family after a big lunch or prefer saying yippee ki-yay to Die Hard. Until recently, however, it's likely that watching Aussie festive films wasn't high on your list, given this country of ours doesn't have all that much seasonal fare to its name.
Back in 2020, streaming service Stan aimed to help change that with A Sunburnt Christmas, a festive caper about a criminal, some kids and end-of-year hijinks — aka Australia's answer to Home Alone and Bad Santa, in a way. In 2022, the platform is now adding Christmas Ransom to the list, starring Miranda Tapsell and Matt Okine.
As first announced back in September — and as you can now see in the just-dropped trailer — Christmas Ransom stars Okine (The Other Guy) as every kid's second-favourite person during festive season: the owner of a toy store. Things aren't too merry for his character, however, when his shop is held up by thieves on Christmas Eve. And yes, as the name makes plain, he's held for ransom.
These kinds of Christmas movies usually involve children, whether or not they turn them into Macaulay Culkin-level stars — so obviously a couple of kids get caught up in the heist. To save the day, they enlist the help of Tapsell (Top End Wedding), who plays a pregnant security officer.
Stan notes that this new on-screen Christmas gift is inspired by Home Alone, Die Hard and Elf. If you've ever seen just one sesaonal flick for even just a few minutes, you will have spotted plenty that's predictable about the setup.
Alongside Tapsell and Okine, Christmas Ransom stars Ed Oxenbould (Wildlife), Genevieve Lemon (The Tourist), Bridie McKim (Bump), Evan Stanhope (Thor: Love and Thunder), Tahlia Sturzaker (Ascendant) and Chai Hansen (The Newsreader) — and boasts Adele Vuko (Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am) in the director's chair.
Add it to your festive viewing alongside this year's other new Aussie Christmas film, if it also surfaces in time: the upcoming movie based on Paul Christmas classic 'How to Make Gravy'.
Otherwise, this newcomer will join the likes of A Sunburnt Christmas; Bush Christmas, both the 1947 and 1983 versions; the animated Around the World with Dot; and recent-ish horror movies Red Christmas and Better Watch Out — the latter also featuring Oxenbould.
Check out the trailer for Christmas Ransom below:
Christmas Ransom will be available to stream via Stan from Thursday, December 1.