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.

BLOOD BEAT (1983)

 

(a.k.a. BLOODBEAT; director/screenwriter: Fabrice-Ange Zaphiratos)

Storyline

In rural Wisconsin, a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s family starts having sexual reactions when the ghost of a vengeful samurai starts attacking and killing everyone around her.

Review

This strange film opens with a hunter (Gary) shooting a deer with an arrow, bringing it home to his off-putting, psychic artist wife (Cathy, convincingly played by Helen Benton) and her getting upset─it seems she’s been having migraine-inducing visions again. While Gary guts the deer in the yard, his son (Ted) and daughter (Dolly) arrive for a Christmas stayover with girlfriend and boyfriend in tow. Uncle Pete also arrives about this time.

Sarah, Ted’s girlfriend, is a less neurotic and a non-artistic version of Cathy. Sarah does not understand why Cathy silently stares at her with spooky, hostile intensity when they first meet. Other family members brush off this clash, chalking it up to Cathy’s sensitive, mood-flip ways. Sarah, however, is unable to shake off Cathy’s attitude. Cathy tells Ted that she knew Sarah, a surprise guest, was coming because “a mother knows everything.”

While putting sheets on their bed, Ted tells Sarah that the people who lived in the house prior to Cathy and Gary were psychoanalysts “or into meditation or something” before abruptly moving out without saying why. He says this after Sarah, also psychic, gets a reddish negative-print vision of the room, accompanied by the sound of a crying baby--a baby that is no longer in the house. Sarah, further unsettled, looks about the room at Cathy’s abstract, disturbing paintings and the gold-colored Asian figures scattered on shelves around the room.

Bad events occur. Sarah wakes up during the night and finds samurai armor and a sword in her bedroom trunk. Cathy, downstairs, has a vision and starts painting the black figure of a samurai warrior and recalls when she─then a girl─ found the same samurai armor and sword. When Cathy, like Sarah now, told her family about it, there was no blade and armor! One thing that seems to be different in Sarah’s case: she is multi-orgasmic when the samurai kills.

The family panics, their lights start flickering, kitchen knives and soda cans fly (as if by their own volition), and Cathy does her spooky psychic routine while they, separately and together, battle the samurai.

I read that BLOOD BEAT is considered a cult classic by some viewers. I see why. It’s nutty. That said, it lags in pointless, extended scenes with bad dialogue made worse by flat acting and jarring soundtrack choices (classical music). Many of the actors are one-time cinematic performers. The director (Zaphiratos) wrote and directed one other film, LA GRANDE FRIME (1977). The limited filmic output of these people is not surprising.

Is BLOOD BEAT worth seeing? If you have the patience to sit out its flaws, yes. It’s not the worst film I’ve seen, there is a weird intuitive flow to it, and it’s unique for its setting-storyline combination, so I’m glad I’ve seen it. Chances are I will not watch it again, unless it’s with a make-fun-of-it friend.