2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

MartinHafer When the film begins, Benjamin (Walter Brennan) has brought his four daughters home using various pretenses. His real goal is to gather them together to ask them to do him a favor...murder his wife Elizabeth (Julie Harris). He's convinced she's trying to poison him and although he's been a poor father, he tries to use guilt to get them to do the deed. Not surprisingly, they don't....but soon the daughters start dying off one by one. Who is responsible?This is a good made for TV film with one big problem...the casting of the daughters. You are expected to believe Sally Field (26) and Eleanor Parker (53) are sisters! A mother and daughter, maybe...but not sisters. Some just be able to look past this...I couldn't. It's a shame as with a more believable cast, the film would have been even better. The plot is interesting and the film worth your time...though I did predict the ending.

acidburn-10 The plot = Four sisters are summoned back to they're family home by their sick father who suspects that his current wife is slowly poisoning him Though the sisters disagree on the validity of their Father's rantings, it soon becomes clear that someone wants to silence the girls as well! But who could it be? There's nothing like a good murder at Christmas time. An old Gothic mansion, mystery and suspense are all the makings for a good horror, in this early 70's TV movie. Although not bloody or gory, it's the performances that makes this movie work, especially from the 4 sisters, we get Alex played beautifully by Eleanor Parker whose the oldest sister who watches over her three younger siblings ever since they're mother died, then we have the party girl Jo (Played by British Actress Jill Haworth), Freddie the tragic pill popping alcoholic whose never got over her mother's death (A wonderfully hammy performance by Jessica Walter) and the youngest sister the sweet naive Christine (Played by Sally Field) who would go on to bigger and better things. We also have Julie Harris who plays the step mother who was once accused of poisoning her last husband, could she be doing it again.The dark eerie settings of the mansion and the tension between the sisters really makes this movie work mixes up the horror/thriller themes of the 50's and 60's and before (old dark house; sibling rivalry; American Gothic; grand inheritances and murderous motives) and what was to become the slasher standards of the 80's. Sally Field makes a wonderful heroine like when she's getting stalked in the hoods by someone with a pitchfork and yellow raincoat. This movie was very low budget and it does show in some parts and also, this movie does get quite boring at times, but other than that, this relatively unknown thriller makes for good viewing.

Lee Eisenberg Actually, "Home for the Holidays" has little in the way of horror and little in the way of Christmas. It comes across as a sort of excuse to gather these various stars (Jessica Walter, Sally Field, Julie Harris, Walter Brennan) together and give the audience the task of guessing who the killer is. I'll admit that I didn't guess, but otherwise, the movie consists of people getting on each other's nerves (I probably would have gotten like that had I been with them).So, it's not terrible, just little that we haven't seen before. I just thought that it would be neat to see Sally Field do horror. But let's hope that from now on, she sticks with the kinds of roles with which she's most associated.PS: Another "Flying Nun" cast member (Shelley Morrison, aka Sister Sixto) also starred in a psycho-killer movie in the '70s: "Devil Times Five".

Halfbreed2627 Four daughters return to the old homestead when they receive a note from their elderly father saying his new wife is slowly poisoning him to death. The daughters are an eclectic bunch; an alcoholic obsessed with the memory of their dead mother, a many-times married blonde, the eldest sister who constantly frets over them and the youngest who doesn't seem to know what's going on through most of the film, played by a very young Sally Field. The rain has washed out the road (hate when that happens)the phone is dead and someone is bumping off the family one by one. For an older tv movie this one is actually done pretty well. Decent writing and well acted, it will have you guessing. **1/2