Director: Lucien Eisenach
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After a strange series of murders, a man discovers a connection between the murders and a mysterious Santa Claus-obsessed killer who had conducted a vicious rampage across town years earlier and was thought to have been killed only to discover they’re the ones responsible for the new spree.
Review:
Overall, this was a somewhat troubling if still mildly enjoyable follow-up. One of the more likable features here is the rather intriguing setup here offering a new take on the formula of the original. Bringing up the connection involving the suspects’ family history that ties into the behavior of the killer is a nice idea here at giving this the perfect red herring for the action to come which is all enjoyable enough. From the opening attack on the roommate to the dream about the Santa killer dismembering a victim, and an ambush on a skeptical police officer in a remote apartment, the attacks here are generally solid indie-style confrontations that offer the kind of cheesy confrontations that propel this one along. As the scenes come together to help move the kind of storyline here where the killer continues appearing to people and savagely attacking them in these brutal flash encounters, it all comes together quite well to give this a lot of decent positive points.
That said, there’s a lot to this one that doesn't really work here. The main issue here is a lack of focus storyline that makes it nearly impossible to figure out what’s going on. So little of this makes sense as the approach taken here is just seemingly random appearances by individuals without much context about their connection to what’s going on or what any of this means. It takes so long for the point of this to tie in with the previous rampage and what’s going on here can wear out its welcome before it even starts waiting for that point. It’s not helped at all by the other issue here as the overarching cheapness on display becomes a big factor. Not only featuring flimsy gore effects and an ever-present haze that replicates the guerilla-style sequences shot here, but the randomness also extends to the use of stock footage from the original or flashback scenes of this one to boost the running time. It’s all wrapped together into a wholesale disappointing effort as the sizable flaws featured here, both on their own and because of each other, are what brings this one down.
Overview: */5
A generally underwhelming holiday-themed slasher indie, there are some pretty big issues to be had with this one which holds it back quite heavily from what it could’ve been. Those who are fans of this particular style or appreciate the first one might be the main audience for this one while most others out there should heed extreme caution here.
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