While thin characterization and uneven pacing prevent this from being one of best Christmas horror movies, it is still a decent one. I enjoy the sorority house setting and how quickly the kills come early, though at the sacrifice of some character development. This is the best looking killer Santa suit in any of these kind of movies. This movie also does something that most slashers don't. Midway through the movie some of the people find out what is happening which causes some interesting developments and conflict. Well before Scream wowed audiences with a twist, this movie does something too that makes the killer much more explainable and well written. Give me any slasher involving younger adults and teens getting together in one locale and getting killed off one by one and I will enjoy it. This one though does have a high body count, some bloody kills, and a thrilling conclusion, though it has flaws.
A look at the killer Santa suit in this movie
Synopsis: A group of teenagers at a party find themselves being stalked by a maniacal killer in a Santa Claus costume.
The movie starts with a typical slasher movie prior evil where a woman falls off a balcony at a sorority house as she is hazed by other women. Two years later, days before Christmas the house is being cleaned out. Five women: Nancy, Melody, Leia, Trisha, and Sam stay behind to meet up with their boyfriends for the weekend. Nancy is presented early on as the typical shy, wholesome girl you see in slasher movies and the rest of the girls convince her to give the house mother, Mrs. Jensen, her milk laced with sleeping pills. One other student, Cynthia, and her boyfriend, are killed outside while the other girls have dinner.
The men, T.J., Alex, Tom, and Blake are met by the girls at the airstrip. They all go back to the house. Melody and Tom are killed quickly. Later that night Blake and Sam are killed while having sex. This is the issue with this movie to me. There are seven kills in the first 30 minutes or so, eight if you include the prior evil. While some are bloody, they really compromise any sort of character development. I wish this movie had just started with the men showing up so that we could get to know these people more. Melody has a cute British accent, Sam makes sounds like animal while she has sex, and they are making out in front of everyone that night before everything starts. While I like those quirks I'm not really given anything to work with. Cynthia and her boyfriend are complete body count characters. Other slasher movies have done this better. Think of Annie in Friday the 13th or Claire in Black Christmas. They both had more personality than any of these first six characters killed, combined.
I said in the thesis that I enjoyed the setting. The sorority house is shown to be big which acts as a good tool for blocking out the screams of people in the house and how people don't hear anyone die. I do like the use of muted lighting and how dark the movie is at times. That adds to the atmosphere. The music has some insane Cassio sounding work. It is bonkers. The day for night shooting adds to the charm. While none of the women are particularly drop dead gorgeous they all look real. Jennifer Runyon as Nancy gives me Jennifer Jason Leigh vibes and might be a bit prettier. The foggy camera lens at the beginning made it feel more like a flashback and gave it a dreamy vibe which this movie has.
The movie does start to flip at the midpoint a little. Melody looks really hot in a bikini and I enjoy her seduction of Alex and how he acts all sporty the next day instead of talking about molecules and science like he was the day before. At this point Ralph, who is the gamekeeper is found dead. Ralph is a harbinger of doom. This movie was actually released about four months before Friday the 13th but the similarities are interesting. Once Ralph dies, three cops show up. Two are assigned to stay at the house for the night, which breaks the traditional slasher element of the characters not knowing what is going on until late in the movie. There is not much of an investigation and more just the characters doing what they do. I like that because in most slasher movies an investigation messes up an all ready fun movie. This still keeps being a fun sorority sexcapade movie. This moment also divides the characters as TJ strongly believes nothing is going on. Leia keeps banging anyone that moves including one of the cops. Alex and Nancy both think the others are dead and whoever killed Ralph is still around...
Spoiler Section
That is perhaps why Alex and Nancy make it to the end. Even before Friday the 13th T.J. and Melody are promiscuous characters who get killed because of it. The kills in this movie are actually quite good. The first two people to get killed aren't killed notably. About as notable as their characters are. Sam and Tom get killed by the killer in a knight suit using a bow and arrow to shoot Tom and decapitate Sam with an axe. That was good. The garrote wire kill on T.J. was great. The blood splash on Melody was a nice touch. Melody goes and finds the helicopter pilot at that point, played by the porn king himself, Harry Reems. They are killed when another killer Santa shows up and activates the plane propellers. That kill is silly. The shot just cuts to some blood hitting the plane. While this happens, at the house Nancy is confronted by the other Santa killer who reveals herself to be Mrs. Jensen. She is the mother of the girl who fell from the balcony. There is a great suspense sequence where Nancy looks for her and she waits for her on the other side of a wall in the hallway and tries to stab her. Jensen chases Nancy up to that same balcony and falls from her death. Some questionable editing here as we only see her lunge toward Nancy but never show what Nancy does to make her fall. She just screams and we see her on the ground. At this point the other killer Santa reveals himself and it is the lead cop who showed up to investigate, Polansky. He reveals himself to be the father of the girl who was killed. Alex kills him with the bow and arrow that was used earlier. Leia had been caught by the killer earlier and went hysterical and is now left on the balcony dancing and humming like someone invading your dreams humming in the background. What an ending as Alex and Nancy just leave her there.
There is some clever and different writing from what you would expect in a slasher movie. Early on of Mrs. Jensens's friends who hates the students shows up for one scene and anyone who has seen these types of movies might assume she could be the killer. She never shows up again and never gets killed. Making Mrs. Jensen the killer was less obvious. Seeing this movie now, she never is shown drinking the milk that Nancy gives her, making that more interesting. Now, Polanksy never shows up until the middle and the end, but because he is an authority figure I never thought of him being the killer. I expected Melody and Alex to keep hooking up but he instead takes up with Nancy about midway through. They have a cute relationship as Alex at one point calls her cute and she says she isn't. Later they dance after Alex says she is cute again, to which she says, "I would rather be beautiful." To that, Alex says, "you are." Leia is found by the killer in the bathroom after sleeping with the first cop. The cop then has a knife in his back while opening the door and I had expected to see him get killed. So there are directions I thought this movie would go and things I would see that went the opposite way and I appreciated that. Leah and Cynthia get topless in this by the way which adds to the typical slasher feel. The two killers twist was great because that made me wonder who did what. If Polansky did the kill with the bow and arrow his end is a sort of poetic justice. David Hess directed this movie and he was no stranger to some blood so I think the bloodier kills could have been his influence. I would have liked this movie even more if he had played Polansky or one of the other cops.
SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:
- Prior Evil: A woman fell from a balcony and died during a sorority event. Now her parents want revenge.
- Body Count: 15
- Whodunit: Yes
- Mask or outfit: Santa Claus
- Locale or organizer: Sorority House
- Best Kill: Axe decapitation
INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH AND SLASH COUNT
Falling : 2
Knife: 4
Crossbow: 2
Offscreen Head Wound: 1
Garrote wire: 1
Axe: 2
Rock: 1
Propeller blades: 2
SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY
- Kingdom: Post Halloween, Pre Friday the 13th, which is interesting because it has similarities, 1980s. One location.
- Phylum: Serious, with some levity provided by the characters and the typical characters that want sex.
- Class: Slasher set in a sorority house at Christmas time.
- Order: 1980
- Family: Full Upper body and full side boob shown from two women
- Genus: Just as much of a fun setting and location as the slasher elements,
- Species: High body count, moderately bloody kills and FX work, a few standout kills, trademark look with the Santa suit. Nice two killer twist.
Rating: 7/10
Trivia: Jennifer Runyon didn't know Harry Reems was a famous pornstar until someone on set told her.
Making him just the pilot was a good choice as the guys would have had no girls to bang had they let him come to the house.
Kill Count: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqZzPGQepfY
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