I've always compared this movie to The New York Ripper in that it shows the grimy, sleazy main street of a big city during the 80s. Not just that but the pacing of the two movies is similar. Every five minutes there is either some kind of police conversation, erotic scene, or a bloody kill. This has one of the highest body counts of any slasher movie and does feature bloody and memorable kills. While it does have that going for it, the characters aren't all that interesting. Edmund Purdom, Dick Randall, and Alan Birkinshaw don't direct suspense sequences well. The movie goes in between two female characters while not giving us much about them. That exposes the biggest issue of this movie which is the lack of continuity because of the film's troubled production. Despite all those flaws, at around 85 minutes I'm more entertained by this than most 80s slashers. The mystery is never boring, and there are a lot of kills and sleaziness so I'm never bored.
Synopsis: Somebody with very little Christmas spirit is killing anyone in a Santa suit one London holiday season, and Scotland Yard has to stop him before he makes his exploits an annual tradition.
I've all ready said that this movie reminds me of The New York Ripper. It reminds me of it completely in its structure. While the openings are different, the opening scenes last about the same amount of time, then the credits, and then everything else. Slasher movies that have this formula work for me the best: a few minutes of police investigation dialogue, cut to a quick kill, cut to something erotic, police investigate kill, then another kill happens, more of something erotic. That is the formula those two aforementioned movies share and it really works for me. You don't get to know these characters too much and it doesn't spend enough time deciding which character is supposed to be the main character between sex worker, Sherry (Kelly Baker), and Kate (Belinda Mayne). The two police investigators, Harris (Edmund Purdom) and Detective Sergeant Powell (Mark Jones) are really just there. They don't do anything special, but cops need to be in the movie. That being said, there are some fun character moments.
When the one guy dressed as Santa Claus comes to see Sherry perform I do enjoy the interaction where he asks if her mother knows what she does for a living and she says her mother owns the place and that she is filling in for her. Kate's boyfriend, Cliff (Gerry Sundquist) is a jerk. Kate's father is the second Santa Claus dresser to get killed. After that Cliff thinks that taking her to a pornography shoot with his friend Gerry (Kevin Lloyd) will cheer her up for some reason. As soon as they get to Gerry's studio I enjoy the back and forth Kate and Cliff have, "I'm delighted," Cliff says. Kate says back, "I'm bloody furious," to be there. At one point at home Cliff and Kate talk and he doesn't seem to be taking her seriously at all, after her father was just killed. He says "come back to the real world sometime." It is no surprise that at the first opportunity he seems okay cheating on Kate with the model Gerry is working with. I like the moment where Cliff and Sharon (Pat Astley), the model, go outside and he walks away from her after seeing the cops there. Now for whatever reason the killer corners Sharon and doesn't kill her, even though she is wearing a Santa costume. He just runs a razor blade over her body and ogles her and then goes away. I do like the next day when the two cops come to see her and she is just okay being topless the whole time.
Despite all of these fun character moments none of them really stand out to me. What does standout is the kills. While Purdom is far from a great suspense director the kills themselves are plentiful and bloody. As soon as you think the best kills have happened, another one happens. There is one at the London Dungeon which is the best set piece and the most suspenseful kill of the movie. There is one where a Santa is literally killed while roasting chestnuts on an open fire. This is one of the only slasher movies I know of where the killer targets more men than women. I do like the more giallo aspects to it though. There is a mystery the whole time, though that mystery becomes a lot more obvious when you realize two characters involved never share a scene together. Before the killer's face is actually revealed they do very little to disguise their voice and their outfit is always the same. Again, chop that up to incompetent directors and troubled production. One of the kills takes place at a concert where Caroline Munro shows up to perform. There is one part where the killer Santa chops off a guy's junk in the bathroom. Another great double kill is when he stabs a guy with a bladed shoe, then claws him with sharp brass knuckles and then stabs him in the neck. Then another Santa runs over and fights the killer and is stabbed in the eye. Some great FX in that part on the eye wound. The mask that the Santa killer wears with a fixed grin is awesome.
A look at the killer in this movie
Spoiler Section
I do like some of the more giallo aspects to this. Kate starts her own investigation and finds out that Harris has no birth record. She calls his house at one point and finds out from his housekeeper that he goes to Parklands, a mental institution once a month. Meanwhile a reporter named Giles (Alan Lake), who we have seen in scenes that only don't have Harris, is revealed to be the killer. The killer kidnaps Sherry through her peepshow booth after she tells the cops she would recognize the killer if she saw his eyes again. Kate is eventually caught at home by Giles and killed after revealing that she knows he is Harris' brother. Powell eventually tracks down Giles near Kate's house but is killed by a home alone style trap where Giles rigs a car to some power cables and Powell is electrocuted. While he plans to sacrifice Sherry to, "show all the evil that Christmas represents." Sherry escapes and eventually Giles falls over several staircases but when she goes to check on him he springs to live and kills her. A flashback is then shown, Deep Red style, where a young Giles sees his father dressed as Santa cheating on his mother with another woman. When she catches him they argue, and she dies by falling down some stairs. Harris gets home and opens the present labeled "don't open till Christmas." It explodes and the movie ends.
All of the characterization is thin. Since I like movies like the New York Ripper where there are kills and sleaze aplenty, I really enjoyed this despite the obvious flaws. I even like the little things. The score by Des Dolan sounds like the most Cassio heavy score ever, yet I still enjoy it. I like the military style text for the credit font. The killer killing people dressed as Santa is fun. So many people break the Scream rules in this movie, like Sherry going over and inspecting Giles' body. The mystery is so obvious when you realize neither Giles or Harris have any time on screen together but the investigation aspect is still well done. I also enjoy lines like Harris saying "My name is Ian but I'm not Scottish." Purdom is always fun. You never get any slasher movies where the final girl is a sex worker. You also don't get many where both possibilities as a final girl are killed. The police investigation story combined with someone investigating feels quite like a giallo. The only problem is giallo movies focused less on high body counts and more on well drawn out kill scenes, and usually not this many character narratives. Drop Sherry from the story all together and maybe have a few less kills and more sequences like the one at the London Dungeon and this would be almost perfect.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: Watch Joe Bob Briggs' latest Christmas show to find out more:
The film took almost two years to complete after original director Edmund Purdom quit the job and Derek Ford took over but was fired after two days. The distributors then hired Ray Selfe to complete the direction and Alan Birkinshaw to rewrite parts of the script, including the original ending and the London Dungeon sequence, and much of the footage was completely re-filmed.
SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:
- Prior Evil: A young boy witnesses his father, dressed as Santa cheating on his mother. His mother catches them and she dies in an accident while falling down some stairs.
- Body Count: 18
- Whodunit: Yes
- Mask or outfit: plastic grinning mask
- Locale or organizer: London
- Best Kill: Spear to the mouth with party favor still in mouth
INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH AND SLASH COUNT
railroad spike through the mouth: 1
Knife: 6
Burned to death on a Grill: 1
Gunshot to the mouth and out through the head : 1
Broken Bottle to the Neck and Eye : 2
Spiked Glove : 1
Machete: 1
Razor Blade castration: 1
Jumper Cable electrocution: 1
Strangulation: 1
Falling down stairs: 1
Bomb Explosion: 1
SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY
- Kingdom: Post Halloween and Friday the 13th, Has giallo sensibilities, City location
- Phylum: Serious, Police Investigation whodunit
- Class: Slasher set in London at Christmas time
- Order: 1984, though filmed years before
- Family: Full Upper body nudity shown from one woman
- Genus: Just as much of a fun setting and location as the slasher elements, Good investigation mystery, bland final girl characters
- Species: High body count, really bloody kills and FX work, a few standout kills, trademark look with the grinning mask. Good twist, but obvious upon rewatch
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