Christmas Evil (1980)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I learned about this movie from John Waters and if there's one thing I know, it's that John Waters has never let me down. He said of the film, "I wish I had kids. I'd make them watch it every year and if they didn't like it, they'd be punished."Christmas Eve 1947: Harry Stadling (played later in the film Brandon Maggart, who is the father of Fiona Apple) watches his father - dressed as Santa - get sexy with his mother. He gets so upset that he smashes a snowglobe and uses it to slice up his hand.Fast forward to 1980: Harry wants to be Santa. He sleeps in costume, his home is constant decorated for the holidays, he works in the Jolly Dreams toy factory and keeps a book of who is naughty and who is nice. Of note, the toy factory was owned by the family of producer Edward R. Pressman and were known for making the board games Triominoes and Mastermind.Harry notices an employee that called in sick is at the bar, even after he had to fill in for the man on the assembly line. He gets so mad that he smashes one of his dollhouse figures and cancels Thanksgiving. There's a bright spot, though, as his boss announces that if they increase production, they can give toys to the kids at a hospital.Harry realizes that everyone sees him as a loser, so he has a nervous breakdown and becomes Santa. He starts making toys in his basement and steals toys from the factory to give to the hospital. But he also does some insane things - like leave dirt on a bad kid's door. And oh yeah - he murders a bunch of young adults who make fun of his costume, an act which his co-workers witness. Harry goes full nutzoid, destroying his nephews gifts and replacing them with toys he's made and killing a co-worker and leaving more toys behind.He attends the company Christmas party and dances to an increasingly faster an more frenetic version of "Here Comes Santa Claus" before threatening to put people in his bad book.Then, Harry activates the assembly line and makes more toys before getting his van stuck in the mud. He escapes a mob who recognizes him as a killer before making it to his brother's house. A battle ensues between the two, but Harry escapes and he's forced to drive his van off the bridge by the mob. But in his mind, the van flies off like Santa' sled to the words of "The Night Before Christmas."Obviously, this is not the movie to share with the kids. But if you're an adult who has had it up to here with the holidays, by all means, this is the tonic you're seeking.

Christmas Evil begins with an introduction, where a young boy cuts himself with a piece of broken glass- from a snowglobe he smashed- after discovering his mother receiving oral pleasure from a man in a Santa costume.This causes him to forever associate the pain he felt from this trauma, with Christmas (you'd think this would turn him into a full blown misogynist, but it doesn't). Rendering him all stalky- with a particularly keen interest in the neighbours...and a Santa fetish, of course.He takes this role very seriously, too. Keeping tabs on all the local children (via voyeurism); documenting their good and bad behaviour.One Christmas, after witnessing the greed of management at the toy factory where he works, he snaps, and fully embraces his Santa alter-ego, on the one day of the year that the rest of the world might accept it.Everything goes well for him at first. He even comes off as benevolent for a while. But things start to take a darker turn when people start to mock and belittle him, after which he starts to get all slashy...and it's all downhill from there.But he never comes off, truly, as a monster. Rather, someone who is mentally unstable, but well meaning, acting out, out of frustration.You can make of that what you will, but it ultimately leads to the film's conclusion...which is both bizarre and wholly unexpected.In fact, I think it might be one of the weirdest conclusions I've ever seen in a horror flick. But the whole thing is pretty weird, in an awkward sort of way, so I guess it is a reflection of that too.The whole thing plods along pretty slowly, and comes off more awkward than it does entertaining (probably due to the absence of gore, in this gore-saturated day in age), but it's watchable. And it's certainly something different than usual...so there's that.5 out of 10.

This 1980 horror film stars Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn and Dianne Hull. This focuses on mild-mannered yet disturbed guy, Harry Stadling (Maggart) who works for a toy company. He loves Christmas and wants to help bring toys to some of the children in the neighborhood. He's been traumatized since he was a kid learning that Santa Claus isn't real. He's also been taken advantage of by some of his co-workers and they don't believe in their company's products as much as he does. On Christmas Eve, he decides to dress up as Santa bringing joy to the nice and terror to the naughty. DeMunn (The Hitcher) plays his brother, Philip and Hull plays Philip's wife, Jackie who are both concerned about him. This isn't a bad film that's also known as "You Better Watch Out" with a decent cast as well as some dark humor. I recommend this for horror/slasher fans.

Harry loves Christmas, maybe a little too much. His house is decorated for the festive period all year round, and he constantly sings Christmas songs. He's also an employee at a local toy factory and keeps an eye on the local kids to see who's good and who's bad (he keeps both bad and good books in his house). Harry's problem is that he's a good guy trapped in a world full of arseholes who constantly take advantage of his good side. Like the guy in his work who dupes him into working a shift, or the new management who couldn't care less about Christmas. What's a guy to do? Well, Harry's not the most stable person, and gradually loses his mind as he sees the true meaning of Christmas being forgotten in amongst all the money grabbing and bad kids. So, being a big Christmas fan, he decides to 'become' Santa so that everyone gets what they deserve, good kids and bad kids, and good adults and bad adults.He glues his beard on, paints a sleigh on his van and…well I won't say much else. There's not much horror in this film, beside a couple of killings (mainly folks who don't like Santa), plus a fair amount of pathos and touching moments as Harry really does play the Santa bit to the full for the kids. Sadly most of the adults don't understand and the cops are out to get him. Throw in a torch bearing mob and a weird ending and you've got a film that's a must-see. Part horror, part drama and all round weird tale with quite a bit of emotion, Christmas Evil stands out as a film that's hard to categorise, but that's what makes it so good in the first place. A real gem.