Ready to binge-watch holiday movies? Add this film shot in SC to your watch list

Canada plays a big part in many Hallmark movies, but South Carolina setting have been used in several major films in the past few years.

Charleston plays a big part in a Christmas movie on a Hallmark channel this month. Another movie, intended for release this month, was delayed until next Christmas due to editing problems.

“USS Christmas,” on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel was filmed aboard the USS Yorktown in Charleston Harbor, but most of the movie was filmed in Wilmington, N.C.

“USS Christmas” is about a newspaper reporter from Norfolk who goes on a Tiger Cruise, a real-life activity of the U.S. Navy, in which family members (called “tigers” in Navy speak) are invited to go to sea to better understand what their sailor does on board.

Maddie, the newspaper reporter, is asked to write a story about her sister, a fighter pilot.

Like every Hallmark movie, there is a love story, this one involving a naval officer — of course described as “handsome.” He hates Christmas, and people call him Grinch.

The story twists and turns, but suffice it to say it involves spilled wine, a mysterious aged journal found in the ship’s archives and a dance studio.

For anyone who knows anything about the glorious escapism of Hallmark movies, it’s not giving away the plot to say Maddie and Grinch fall in love, but the journey there is what brings us back again and again.

Another holiday movie filmed partially in Greer, but mostly in Landrum, South Carolina, and Tryon, North Carolina, was supposed to be released this month, but some of the footage was destroyed in a New York City flood, the screenwriter, Vicki Vass, said.

“Christmas at the Grey Horse Inn” is about Charlotte, a writer who flees a high-pressure life in the big city — a holiday movie mainstay — to take over an inn — yep, another holiday constant. The inn and its horses, which are from the actual bloodlines of horses owned by Queen Elizabeth II, are in trouble.

Charlotte fears she’s going to have to sell the inn to pay the back taxes.

How will she get the money, and who will she fall in love with along the way? The possibilities may be predictable but still lovely.

Vass said the movie is a love story dedicated to the Upstate in South Carolina, where she and her husband moved to in 2018. They fled the snow and cold of Chicago, she said,

She’s not sure where the movie will be released, possibly in theaters or Amazon Prime. She has two more Christmas movies in the works and last weekend started another. She says she’ll have a rough draft by the end of the month.

Even though Christmas movies have something of a formula, she said the secrets of success are to make the characters real, have a unique hook and entice the viewer to want to invest their time in watching it.

Last year’s “Christmas in Carolina” was filmed in several locations in South Carolina, from the Midlands to the coast. It’s about a woman soured on Christmas who goes home with a friend — ahem, we can’t see what’s coming — who just happens to be a retired NBA star. Among the settings are Rivertown Bistro and Riverwalk in Conway.

Magic happens as their South Carolina holiday unfolds.

Hallmark sort of featured South Carolina way back in 2013 when “Christmas in Conway” debuted, starring Mary-Louise Parker and Andy Garcia. The screenplay was written by Greer native Stephen Lindsey, but sorry, no South Carolina scenes for you in that one. It was filmed in Wilmington.

This story has been edited to correct the release date of “USS Christmas.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 8:59 AM.