Director: Charles E. Sellier Jr.
Year: 1984
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Slayride
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Thought to have been cured of his psychosis, the trauma a young boy associates with Christmas is rekindled by an encounter with Santa Claus which makes him go on a rampage through town dressed as Santa doling out punishment to everyone he comes across while the authorities try to stop his carnage.
Review:
This was a highly enjoyable and decidedly sleazy slasher effort. One of the better elements on display here is the length it goes to fully present its warping of traditional Christmas traditions and themes which allows for some really exciting times within this. The opening encounter with the grandfather, the decidedly sleazy carjacking attempt that triggers it all, and the ensuing scenes in the orphanage not only include the scenes of him seeing all the carnal transgressions and the hilarious Santa encounter but also the treatment he undergoes because of his time there all paint a very important picture of the psychological prognosis that he's tormented with.
This is undoubtedly helped along by the crucial Christmas party at the store he works at which triggers everything again and starts the rampage in earnest by again triggering those hidden impulses and setting the action off with a truly fine stalking sequence within the aisles of the darkened store all bestowed with festival ornaments and decorations which features some pretty brutal deaths as well.
That continues nicely here with a strong series of brief encounters which are based on shorter attacks and minimal stalking that becomes all sorts of fun here with the babysitter encounter, the bobsledding teens, and the encounter in the convenience store which all add to a rather fun time here with plenty of tense stalking, gory deaths, and the demented sensibilities about warping the traditional holiday festivities which is what adds so much to this one.
While all these efforts allow for plenty to like here, there's still one area that needs work which is the absolutely long time spent on the set-up before actually getting to the good stuff since the kills don't start in earnest until the forty-minute mark with an about equal amount of time spent on those actions so it does have a long build-up to get through which is somewhat of a challenge here. The warping of the holiday traditions may be hard to take for some but that's part of the charm here so that doesn't matter as much as the other flaws.
Overview: ****.5/5
A fun, cheery, and demented Christmas slasher that doesn't have that much really wrong with it, this emerges as one of the finest genre efforts of the period and certainly lays claim to being one of the finest holiday-horror films as well. It is easily recommended to most genre fans regardless of your affinity for the material or the style here which is what ends up being its main drawback for those that don't like slashers or holiday horror fare.
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