Eight year old Billy Chapman sees his father shot dead and his mother's throat slashed (after her shirt is torn open) by a man dressed in a Santa suit. From then on he has a phobia about Santa Claus. He's brought up in a orphanage where the evil Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin) abuses him cruelly. At the age of 18 he's working in a store and has to dress as Santa on Christmas Eve. When this happens he goes crazy and starts killing people left and right. He's on his way to visit the Mother Superior and settle an old score...
When this came out in 1984 many people (parents in particular) were outraged that a movie featuring a killer Santa was being shown. Theatres showing it were picketed and the film was hastily withdrawn by the distributors. All this controversy made it a huge favorite when it came out on video. That's too bad cause this is a pretty worthless and mean-spirited slasher film.
The story itself is pretty sick and within the first 20 minutes we're hit with a near-rape, swearing, bloody killings, sex and child abuse. After that I was pretty numb to everything else. There are a lot of killings (about 12 I think) and some are actually pretty gruesome and fun (especially Linnea Quigleys)...but this film really seems to enjoy seeing innocent children being beaten or traumatized. This film actually has TWO scenes in which guys in Santa suits are gunned down in front of children! I find scenes like that reprehensible in any sort of film. It also has bad acting (Chauvin especially), a stupid script and is surprisingly dull too. The only good thing is that Robert Brian Wilson gives an OK performance as the killer Santa.
But, all in all, this is a cruel, vicious, badly made slasher film that doesn't deserve all the attention it gets. A 1 all the way.
When this came out in 1984 many people (parents in particular) were outraged that a movie featuring a killer Santa was being shown. Theatres showing it were picketed and the film was hastily withdrawn by the distributors. All this controversy made it a huge favorite when it came out on video. That's too bad cause this is a pretty worthless and mean-spirited slasher film.
The story itself is pretty sick and within the first 20 minutes we're hit with a near-rape, swearing, bloody killings, sex and child abuse. After that I was pretty numb to everything else. There are a lot of killings (about 12 I think) and some are actually pretty gruesome and fun (especially Linnea Quigleys)...but this film really seems to enjoy seeing innocent children being beaten or traumatized. This film actually has TWO scenes in which guys in Santa suits are gunned down in front of children! I find scenes like that reprehensible in any sort of film. It also has bad acting (Chauvin especially), a stupid script and is surprisingly dull too. The only good thing is that Robert Brian Wilson gives an OK performance as the killer Santa.
But, all in all, this is a cruel, vicious, badly made slasher film that doesn't deserve all the attention it gets. A 1 all the way.