Review of Christmas Evil (1980) by Bryan G — 23 Dec 2009

While looking for films to watch and review for Christmas I discovered that there are an awful lot of horror-themed Christmas movies out there. And a lot of them feature a murderous Santa Claus. Lewis Jackson's Christmas Evil has the distinction of being the first killer Santa movie that I mildly enjoyed and wasn't completely annoyed with. The film is largely flawed, but it kept my interest because of its dynamic main character.

The movie starts off with a young boy sneaking downstairs Christmas Eve and discovering his mother doing a lot more with Santa than just kissing. This completely traumatizes the boy, and 33 years later Harry (Brandon Maggart, who is great in the film) has adopted the mentality that he is Santa. He even takes on many of Santa's well-known duties. There is a particularly creepy scene where Harry, on the roof of his apartment, uses a pair of binoculars to spy on the neighborhood children. He writes his findings in two books, one for naughty children and the other for good children.

I think the problem I've had with most killer Santa movies is that the reasoning for this person to go on a killing spree never felt right to me. But the way Lewis Jackson's film sets up the character of Harry Stadling, and with the crummy way his life is even though he tries to spread Christmas cheer, I more or less understood why this guy would go on a rampage. I'm not saying I condone what he does, but for the first time I accept what a film like this offered up for the character's reasoning.

I was a bit worried that Harry was going to take vengeance on the "bad children" of his neighborhood, especially a foul-mouthed little pervert he spots. But luckily the film doesn't go down that route. Instead, Harry goes after greedy and selfish people he has to work or interact with everyday. The deaths aren't particularly memorable, so don't expect much out of his killing spree. And be warned, the movie is over half way done with by the time the murdering starts up.

Harry drives around in a van that he has painted a slay with reindeer on. This vehicle is involved with one of the most unexpected and memorable endings I've seen in a horror film. Christmas Evil isn't particularly great, but it kept me entertained and most of the lingering thoughts I still have about it are positive ones.