Review of Christmas Evil (1980) by Kendall I — 21 Dec 2011

5% Christmas, 5% horror, and 90% B-movie glory.

PLOT:Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) was scarred for life as a child when he found out there was no such thing as Santa Claus in a horrible way. Nowadays, he works as a toymaker and is friends with the neighborhood kids, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. He keeps his own list of who's naughty and nice so he can give the kids what they deserve that he didn't get, but people like his scroogy co-workers that get in the way also get what's coming to them: death and revenge. It's actually a pretty dull plot, but it's executed with campy, B-movie glory.

ACTING:The acting was pretty good actually. Maggart did a great job of acting insane and jolly all at the same time. The child actors were, of course, pretty dreadful. The shiner besides Maggart is the guy who played his brother.

SCORE:Besides the Christmas songs, the horror score was pretty unique and very unnerving.

EFFECTS:The effects were used to shock value, but you could tell they overdid it a slight bit; the effects of a B-movie.

OTHER CONTENT:This movie had its moments of Christmas warmness, its moments of unnerving murders, and its moments of utter boredom, but overall it was B-movie glory. Everything in here was done to the unnerving max in a weird way-that of a B-movie, not to mention the bizarre, sensless.

Ending. It's definitely a horror to watch for fun and not to take too seriously.

OVERALL, an ok Christmas B-movie with a campy plot, good acting aside from the children, unique and unnerving score, shocking and overdone effects, and a fun, bizarre, and senseless ending that only a B-movie could pull off.