Christmas Evil DVD Review

• 15th Dec 2012

This is the season of good will and cheer to all men – and of horror films with a killer Father Christmas. Christmas Evil (that went by the even more festive title of You Better Watch Out on its initial release) is one of a spate of horror films released in the 1980s that had either a murderous Santa Clause or Christmas trauma at its centre – an antidote for all those post-Scrooge Christmas haters. Perhaps among the best known of the Christmas terror films was the rather awful series of films which began with Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) which is about a boy traumatized by the murder of his parents at the hands of a killer dressed in a Santa Claus outfit. He grows up seriously mentally disturbed and a gentle giant until one year he flips dressed in a Santa Claus costume and goes on a murderous rampage. There is also Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984), Jack Frost (1997) and my favourite title of all, the hilariously titled Gingerdead Man (2005), and not forgetting the best of all the festive horror films, Black Christmas (1974), which while it doesn’t have a murderous Santa Claus it’s still not exactly festive cheer as an unknown serial killer stalks young girls departing for Christmas in a sorority house. But of this type of film Christmas Evil was the first. It is one of those films that deserves some cult status, but never really achieved it. This is probably due to the fact it’s not exploitative or violent enough. It has pretensions of being a low budget study of mental illness.

The story of Christmas Evil is about a 6-year-old boy who grows up traumatized and his childhood being rocked as he spies on Santa Claus having come down the chimney and seducing his sexy mother in her lingerie not realizing that Santa is in fact his own father. This marks the boy in a most Oedipal way. Cut to years later with Harry Stradling (Brandon Maggart) now a disturbed middle-aged man who decks his flat out in Christmas tat, cuddly Santas and has never appeared to grow up. He also holds a job in a sales position at a toy factory and is disappointed at his colleagues who don’t seem to love the toys like he does. He also spies on the local children and marks those who have been good or bad children over the past year. His brother is better adjusted, married with a family and seriously concerned by his brother’s welfare. With the Thanksgiving Parade marking the start of the holidays, Harry becomes to appear more agitated to the point that his job comes under threat and eventually he cracks in his Santa outfit and begins to murder those he feels are not appreciating the magic of Christmas.

Christmas Evil, as with all the thorough packages of cult horror and exploitation films released onto the market in the past couple of years has been released by Arrow Films and is packed with a host of extras including commentaries and most curiously of all audition tapes of those who received parts and those who were hopefuls. It’s a handsome package with plenty of extra stuff including artwork but as with many films in this catalogue not one I would be rushing to see again despite its potential for cult status. It’s not that it is such a terrible film, in fact it’s better than one expects but rather it takes a long time to get going and actually has pretensions to being a semi-serious study of mental illness rather than the outright for shocks or laughs as with previous films. Still it’s better than Silent Night, Deadly Night but way worse than Black Christmas. And a merry bloody Christmas to you all.

Chris Hick