Review of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (2000) by Wyatt P — 29 Dec 2014

UHHH...okay? This is one of the strangest Christmas films ever made. I recently caught it on TV and I hadn't seen the damn thing since it originally debuted on TV back in 2000. 14 years later, whilst flipping through channels, I saw that it was on and I my immediate response with a grin on my face was, "Holy shit! I haven't seen this in years!" For whatever reason, I was excited to rewatch this relic from childhood even though it had been so long since I had seen it.

Yes, admittedly, the film is quite corny...and frankly, bad. But it was bad in a strangely amusing way that was also endearing to me for whatever reason. I guess it was something that appealed to the B-movie fanatic in me, but it also has a certain charm going for it with all the ridiculous Christmas cheer sprinkled on top. I can't lie, I love this stupid film, and I will never be able to justify to a sane person why I enjoyed it so much.

The story revolves around a boy named Jake Spankenheimer who is very close to his grandmother. His grandparents run a store called Spankenheimer's which while small, is a beloved part of Cityville, especially during the holidays.

However, the city's richest and most powerful man, Austin Bucks, wants to buy it like all the other stores in the city and despite his generous offers, Grandma Spankenheimer refuses to sell, much to the chagrin of Cousin Mel who starts to formulate a plan to get Grandma to sell the store and make the family rich.

Cousin Mel decides to sabotage Grandma's fruitcake in the hopes of sending Spankenheimer's into financial ruin, giving Grandma no other choice but to sell it to Austin Bucks. But the sabotage has an unexpected effect when Grandma leaves home to bring the fruitcake to the store when she suddenly gets run over by Santa and his reindeer, which Jake and his grandfather both witness.

Grandma, however, is now missing after the bizarre incident, which devastates Jake, but delights Cousin Mel since she will now have an easier time trying to sell the store, which she does by tricking Grandpa into signing the deed over to her. Jake finds out what happened and meets with Austin Bucks who agrees that the sale will not go through if Jake can find Grandma in a week.

Now, Jake must go searching for his grandmother not only because she is dearly missed (Well, by him at least. The rest of the family doesn't seem to give a flying fuck that Grandma's missing and possibly dead), but also to save the store since she has to be found in order to negate the sale of the store. In the process, he goes on a bizarre journey involving Santa, the elves, amnesia, kidnapping, a court trial, and more to stop Cousin Mel.

The story is insane. I went into as much detail about the plot as I could to give you an idea of what it's about, but it's actually even weirder than what I described. The scenarios are so outlandish and bizarre that they become oddly fascinating by themselves, while also raising random questions the film surely didn't intend (How strained is Grandma's relationship with the rest of the family? Only Jake actually cares when she goes missing, not even Grandpa - her husband - gives a shit, either). I know the film is meant to be goofy, but with all the strange tangents it goes into, it's hard not to be fascinated by its lurid madness wrapped up in holiday tidings like some surrealist film or psychological film. One thing's for sure: I definitely wasn't bored by the story.

The voice acting is also fascinating in itself, especially how the actors are put into such strange characters and work their way into an insane storyline. Though working with something so bizarre, the actors are lively and fun as they bring their strange characters to life. I enjoyed the performances across the board even though they were very over the top and quite corny.

The film's bizarre blend of comedy and adventure was a lot of fun to watch. I laughed both when the film wanted me to and when it didn't want me to. Plus, with all the bizarre scenarios involving kidnapping, fraud, and Christmas cheer, there was a lot going on for a film that was only 50 minutes. For a B-movie fanatic there are all sorts of strange things to observe here.

Overall, this film is indeed very stupid and mostly a ridiculous exploitation of an already stupid country Christmas song. Still, it's one of the most fascinating and bizarre messes I've ever seen. I've seen very strange surrealist and art house films that weren't nearly as insane as this children's Christmas special was. Still, this is a film I will no doubt continue to treasure in future years because it has very weird charms going for it, plus my stubborn nostalgia which seems to always leave the rose-colored lenses on...and I wouldn't have it any other way.