CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

 

(a.k.a. YOU BETTER WATCH OUT; a.k.a. TERROR IN TOYLAND. Director/screenwriter: Lewis Jackson.)

Storyline

A toy factory employee goes on a killing spree after a Christmas-related meltdown.

Review

CHRISTMAS is a unique, excellent entry in the Santa’s-on-a-rampage genre, a work that did not get the box office and critical kudos it deserved when it came out. It has since become a cult classic, helped by the fact that John Waters lavished love on it, going so far as to provide an audio commentary for Synapse Films’ 2006 Special Edition DVD of the film.

What sets CHRISTMAS apart from Claus-has-got-a-blood-dripping-bag flicks is that the main character, the gone-murderous Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) is not simply seeking revenge for a personal wrong. His motivations stem from the holiday chasm of people’s professed “goodwill towards men” and what they’re doing to those around them. His co-workers at the Jolly Dreams toy factory play tricks on him and call him a “schmuck” behind his back; his boss’s publicized charity is a sham; everybody around him, even his concerned brother (Phil, played with equal intensity by Jeffrey DeMunn) is a Christmas naysayer in Harry’s eyes.

Then, of course, there’s the traumatic realization of thirty-three years prior, that Santa Claus isn’t real, revealed when Harry─then a young boy─saw his mother have sex with his father while his father wore a Santa suit. This impels Harry to preserve the Christmas spirit, lest it die at the hands of corrupt, unfeeling others.

Once Harry snaps, he reels from one surreal event to another: he kills somebody, and a few minutes later, finds himself the awkward toast of a Christmas party (where people don’t notice the blood on his Santa suit); not long after that, more violence occurs, and the last fifteen minutes of CHRISTMAS intentionally plays out like much of the ending of James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN (1931), replete with torch-wielding New Jerseyites. Some people might be put off by the offbeat, occasionally lagging (drama) pacing of CHRISTMAS, which is not a hyper-focused slash-and-kill horror flick, and that’s fine─every film is made for a certain audience, and CHRISTMAS has deeper message than the usual, jump-cut-edited killer-on-the-loose flick, and film geeks might recognize Rutanya Alda, billed as Ratanya Alda, who played Theresa─Alda later appeared in other films, including AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982).

The ending is atypical of the genre, a finish that leaves Harry’s fate open to interpretation. Since the tone of the film is sympathetic to Harry’s point of view, I have my own take on it, a mix of what really happened and how Harry sees it, but others might view in a less forgiving or more fantastic, holy-cow light. Either way, this one of the most original Santa slasher-mixed-with-social-commentary flicks ever made, one the viewer likely won’t forget, like it or hate it.