Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this Christmas weekend

With Christmas falling on a weekend this year, it's holiday events galore. There's also a new pop-up exhibit, college football bowl game, concert from a hometown group, screening of a classic holiday film, holiday circus, and stand-up comedy.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Note: All of the events are happening as of press time, but COVID-19 is rapidly changing the events landscape. Best to check a venue's website for updates before heading out.

Thursday, December 23

Holiday events
If you haven't had a chance to check out a holiday event this year, there is no shortage of options. You can go the Instagram-route with Snowday and Santaland at Galleria Dallas; the Dallas traditional route with The Trains at NorthPark; the outdoor route with Holiday at the Arboretum; and many more. You can check out all the options on our event calendar.

Christmas lights
Some of the biggest displays around will be on for just a few more days, including the TV-famous Burkman Holiday Home of Frisco, which is ending its run early. Here is a complete list of the top drive-thru, immersive, commercial displays, and more. And here are the best neighborhoods to cruise through to see dazzling lights. Heading to Fort Worth this weekend? That list is here.

Sweet Tooth Motel presents Holiday Pop Up
Sweet Tooth Motel/Hotel is an Instagram-friendly exhibition that has been popping up all over Dallas-Fort Worth (Rewind is currently open in Allen). For the holidays, they'll present a special pop-up at AT&T Performing Arts Center. Guests can step inside the bright pink container on the Center’s campus between the Center Cafe and the Winspear Opera House and be transported to a magical winter wonderland. The free pop-up will be open on December 23, 26, and 30.

Frisco Football Classic: Miami (Ohio) vs. North Texas
Frisco is a prime location for the college football bowl season this year. Two days after the 4th annual Tropical Smoothie Cafe Bowl comes the inaugural Frisco Football Classic at the same location, Toyota Stadium. The game will have a local feel as the North Texas Mean Green will take the short trip down from Denton to take on Miami (Ohio) RedHawks from the Mid-American Conference.

Pentatonix in concert
Arlington's own Pentatonix got their big break when they won the third season of NBC's The Sing-Off in 2011. Since then, the a cappella group has gone on to release five regular albums and five Christmas albums, including the brand-new Evergreen. You can expect the full spectrum of those Christmas albums during this concert, taking place at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Majestic Theatre presents It's a Wonderful Life
You could stay home and watch holiday movies or you could watch a classic movie in a historic theater. The Majestic Theatre, which opened to the public in 1921, is teaming up with the Texas Theatre to host a special screening of 1946's It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. An angel will get its wings when the people of Bedford Falls get together to support George Bailey.

December 24

A Magical Cirque Christmas
A Magical Cirque Christmas is a holiday production that features a variety of fantastic circus performers. Audiences at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie can experience the enchantment of Christmas as Magical Hostess Lucy Darling takes them through an evening of breathtaking cirque artists, accompanied by favorite holiday music performed live.

December 26

Sal Vulcano & Chris Distefano - A Night of Standup Comedy, Babes
Comedians Sal Vulcano and Chris Distefano will team up for a special night of post-Christmas fun. Vulcano is best known as a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe that stars in the TruTV series Impractical Jokers. Distefano, who starred in the MTV shows Guy Code and Girl Code, co-hosts the podcast Hey Babe! with Vulcano. They'll perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Pentatonix will perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie on December 23.

Photo courtesy of RCA Records

Pentatonix will perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie on December 23.

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Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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