Say Hello to Christmas' Mike Myers.
Straight away as the film opens we see a young women tied up and a man making a Santa Claus mask. The mask itself was surprisingly creepy as it was only one of those ''clear'' plain masks with the mouth cut off and a beard in its place. (Those masks are damn creepy anyway).
We cut to a basement shot with a guy wrapped in Christmas lights and so starts the killing spree.
As we travel with Santa and the main character, a young deputy sheriff called Aubrey we seem to meet a whole cast of different clichéd characters. The Sheriff himself played by Malcolm McDowell who in his own right is a legend of film. Once again though unfortunately cast as a nut. A complete nut.
The surprising thing is that there are so many characters that could have had more opportunity to have development, it was as if a lot of characters were introduced ready to be developed into some likeable character but then either lazy writing happened or scenes were cut.
The funniest of all characters is a 14 year old girl who I have to give the ''biggest little shit of the year award''. You'll see what I mean. We also meet a pervy priest, an old man who strangely comes out of a catatonic state to sound like he is possessed by demons and more. (No there is no demons by the way, obviously it was the whole slasher film warning guy).
I won't get into any spoilers but there are a few scenes reminiscent of the original looking like some sort of homage.
There were clues throughout the film as to what will happen, a more straight forward one being someone stating that 'The Town is dead'.
Obviously referring to the killing spree that soon follows.
I like the fact even though there was no point in the slightest to add these hints in they still have done.
I just really don't know where to fit this film. Serious slasher or comedic cheese fest?
Some parts of the film really do try to be serious and aren't funny in the slightest, instead they draw you in. Whereas other scenes are pure hilarity, some deaths are ridiculous and funny but most of the laughs come from the dear old Sheriff being some sort of bat shit crazy.
I hope the Blu-Ray is an uncut version of the film and has more scenes in to develop other characters which you have no feeling for and also to show some more of the killing. We see some gory scenes but some deaths which have less gore seem to be cut to not show it which is quite strange.
If there is an uncut version out there with some good bonus features then I will probably purchase when it comes cheap.
Definitely worth a watch but not worth a buy at full price.
In all I have to give it a 6/10 Santa Slays.
And Santa does Slay.