Director: Danny Steiman
Year: 2005
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
When a 1,000-year-old bet finally runs its course, Santa Claus is finally allowed to return to his true dark ways and begins a massive campaign of bloodshed across the country, forcing a descendant of the man who imprisoned him to again find a way of stopping the homicidal rampage.
Review:
This one was far better than expected and has so much to like about it. One of the better features of the film is the incredibly intriguing setup that offers one of the more unusual twists on the traditional Santa slasher effort. The twist here, unlike other holiday slashers, is that this is the real Santa rather than some lunatic in a Santa costume. Here, it's actually him, and with that comes a fantastic backstory explaining how it got that way involving what the actual purpose of the holiday is about. The creativity of intertwining the belief in what Santa originally set out to accomplish on the day, how the trick originally came about, and what the impending end of that is set about to unleash on the world offers a highly impressive setup to pull everything off. That the main character Goldberg actually does a very impressive job in the role, making it campy and fun yet totally believable, is the main source of enjoyment in this as seeing a demonic Santa Claus dishing out tons of violence with his zeal is fun to watch.
That leads to the other impressive factor here as the amount of kills here is really insane. There's a large kill count, almost reaching the three-dozen mark, and plenty of them have a holiday theme to them such as a star topper from a tree thrown into the back, a candy cane shoved into the forehead, a wreath used to strangle, blown up with explosive presents, and fire lights wrapping up a victim. There was also a large assortment of non-holiday-themed violence, including holding a metal pole to then be kicked into a light post, bashed in the head with a table leg, having a turkey leg shoved in the mouth and shoved into a table, and being pinned to a map using tons of little evidence pins, but clearly the holiday-themed ones where he more fun to watch. There's plenty more to go around, so if one doesn't strike your flavor another one will come along soon enough to take its place.
That is another great factor for its success in that it moves along so fast that it's already on something else before you have time to dwell on pretty much anything, giving it a whirlwind pace that really suits the film. The action is also pretty nice, giving it a small collection of sequences that stand out and give a little more push over the cliff. The opening slaughter is one of the best examples, as it's such a blur that it's only upon thinking afterward does the true nature of what happened takes place. The chase through the forest is the better of the two car-chase-style encounters, becoming a rather traditional action-film chase that keeps the excitement up alongside the goofiness of the tactics used against them. Aside from a really abrupt ending that doesn't explain anything and a criminal lack of gore on display, the only thing that can really knock this down is its cheesy, fun atmosphere. It's not for everyone and is a really acquired taste to enjoy fully.
Overview: *****/5
Full of holiday cheer, dead bodies, and a fun, rewatchable spirit, this is one of the better holiday-themed slashers even for those who don't get the joke. Highly recommended to those who appreciate this style of genre fare, are fans of holiday-themed genre material, or are curious based on the creative crew while most others out there should heed caution with it.
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