A killer wearing a Santa suit and mask are killing off immoral teens, sleazy models and dysfunctional adults due to a disturbing past of his dark secretive life as a child and the head Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell) and his sidekick Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King) is on a mission to track this killer down in which this maniac seems to know Aubrey's personal information causing a threat to her family as to top everything off.
For a start of a slasher film in today's standards looks quite impressive as we have good close up shots on the killers hands shaving as well as him creating a Santa mask along with intense moments on a woman tied up crying which gives the film a good dark feel to it all as well as him doing some intense moments like having another guy tied up in Christmas lights and how this maniac turns them on and this guy gets electrocuted. Some of these moments were used often in other flicks that we have seen and seems to do the job and was carefully focused on too.
A nice heartwarming moment with the deputy Aubrey Bradmore having her discussions with her parents while preparing for Christmas which looked convincing and realistic. This scene was nicely written in and shows a good soft spot to her instead of her being stern and tough like we spot in alot of the scene's that we see her doing action with the crimes happening.
Another moment that grabs your attention here is when we spot a bratty young teenage girl getting demanding with her mother which looked good and dysfunctional which we spot no discipline on the daughter showing she's in control which is so common in today's society that we have a feeling the Santa killer will be doing her in and boy does it look intense when we find out as to what happens to her along with a nice shot looking up on the Santa killer wearing the deadly mask as this should please you slasher fans on how the presence of this killer looked.
A nicely focused moment on a model named Tiffany walking past the Santa killer near a back alley staircase and then saying something bad about him later with a nice close up shot on the killer turning his head to stare at her which leaves a chilling impression that she will be his victim in time for what she said to him.
Also some nice shocking moments with the killer chasing after a topless model as well as what he plans to do to her which can please the gorehounds who love their horror violence big time.
Another moment we spot a dark humoress moment with a dysfunctional employee named Santa Jim Epstein being sarcastic towards a child which makes you wonder about him as we have people like that in our lives and thinking that he's poisoning minds of children as well as Aubrey having a chat with him and things seem negative as this looked strongly done in and memorable to anyone who saw this flick.
Also a perfect creepy moment when we spot Reverend Madeley speaking mysteriously towards Aubrey as this draws in nicely to the horror story as well wondering as to what kind of preacher is he since some religions can be brainwashing and what we spot him talking about proves it big time.
Plus there's moments when models are advertising and this preacher takes pictures of their breasts as this seems to pay a tribute to Jimmy Swaggart and seemed awfully corny while spotting all of this.
A nice moment with a rebellious teen named Dennis taking money from his catatonic Grandfather as this draws you in thinking the killer is gonna do him in very soon along with a perfect jumping moment when Grandpa himself grabs at him and warns him to run when he sees Santa as this looked good, shocking and darkly done.
There's a perfectly annoying moment with Madeley poisoning his preaching towards only two people in his cathedrel as this looked incredibly lame to watch even if it's supposed to look intense and disturbing but the Santa killer definetely comes in to shut him up big time which I cheered and pretty gruesome to watch as well when we spot this along with fast paced action too.
Great dark moments on a boarded up house as well as Aubrey looking around and getting sick by what she spots as it leaves a nice creepiness to everything along with making you wonder if the killer will come out of nowhere and attack her.
A nice still moment between the couple Dennis and Hilary having a good time as acting naughty but not showing any skin yet making out. Plus a good moment as he is dressed in a Santa suit along with her being tricked by him and the killer which makes her think it's Dennis himself. However when this still moment is supposed to make you jump when the killer attacks it yet fails but still nicely shot on what we see here and good graphic special effects too.
A perfect confrontation between Aubrey and Sheriff Cooper on what's going on as their discussions looked perfectly aggressive and well shot too.
A perfect moment between Cooper against the killer when he points his gun towards him and this maniac has a flame thrower yet you get a disappointing feeling when you spot Cooper acting like the superhero knowing that he's going to lose this deadly battle. Another well focused and well shot moment.
A nice shot on Aubrey when she enters her hom and a back shot on her father in a chair in which we get a real sad moment by what we see here that it teases you very well as what had happened at her home along with a nice shocking situation too. Certainly looked good and emotional by how the reaction is to this.
Interesting moments when Aubrey fights against the killer using axes like they were having a sword fight towards one another which looked fun to watch all of this happening.
We have a camera zooming away from the Santa mask on fire which takes way too long as we kinda get the hint that the killer got away and survived as to what had happened before.
Bottom line is that this film was loosely based on the 1984 cult classic sicko controversial Silent Night Deadly Night but very loosely as it's a different story alltogether with using some familiar scene's like in the first one. If anything it was a tribute to it more than anything. I couldn't get into this film very much though even if I wasn't too wild over the original either. It's a film that's been done a number of times and some cheesy and annoying moments doesn't make it much better either. However the budget and CGI effects looked impressive. A shame though that there was no snow and they shot it in Manitoba where there's lots of it in the winter. My guess is they filmed it off season which was a poor choice.
The acting isn't too shabby as lead actress Jaime King (Aubrey Bradimore) lived to play the head deputy in the film by having a no nonsense attitude into her part of the film. I liked her tough as nails behavior and was convincing whenever she got aggressive or to the point with stuff. Also focused perfectly when pointing her gun and making commandments. She also shows a nice versatality into her role by acting loving towards her onscreen family and being lighthearted as well as humoress which is a good change to her personality indeed. She was believeable as well by acting emotional with her crying which grabs your attention here and making you feel bad for her she does it this well. She certainly can become a scream queen with a credit like this one.
Malcolm McDowell (Sheriff Cooper) was a bit cheesy in his performance but in a fun and good way as he still had it and proved to be quite a ham by what he portrayed in this one. Although he tries to be serious with his sterness it's hard to take him seriously while he does this. Yet shows a good heroic attitude near the end of his performance while pointing his gun at someone which looked pretty impressive and offered a good personality due to this.
Ellen Wong (Brenda) did her part smoothly as the laid back one working in the police headquarters in which she spoke convincingly calm with what is happening as well as showing nice tense upsetting emotions when the terror strikes her. She had the right appeal to do all of this to top it all off.
Donal Logue (Santa Jim Epstein) had th emost effective supporting role in this film as a typical redneck and really studied his part convicningly well with whatever he had to do here showing off a perfect sarcastic nasty humor towards an onscreen child as well as getting gruff and harsh to towards others. Shows off great negative energy while getting aggressive towards someone else. Makes you feel like wanting to hit him and put great effort into this.
Lisa Marie (Mrs. Hilary Haywood) came across nice and sharp with whatever she does especially her blocking as well as her cold speaking or smooth actions. Does well with her bluntness or aggressions too. However when she screams in terror when she is about to be attacked she needed to pick it up a bit but she wasn't terrible. Had the perfect hot looks as a slick model.
Erik J. Berg (Dennis) performed his role fairly convincing as an immoral teen who has attitude and makes you hope he will get his in the end along with showing a creepily charming attitude. Plus was believeable by acting greedy too and taking advantage of others. Shows off some nice charisma when he acts alerted and anxious too offering some good hyped up energy.
Curtis Moore (Reverend Madeley) was another one who had a real effective part in the story in which he had a nice coldness to the beginning of his presence making himself perfectly mysterious in whatever he did. Also does a fine job by acting sleazy in a certain spot. Yet, at the same time was a bit silly while doing this but yet it worked well into his favour. He sometimes got carried away with his wicked preaching as he seemed a little too forceful while doing all of this and a bit over the top. However he was a real attention grabber with whatever he did here.
A topless model has her breasts revealed while getting her photo taken along with her running away from the killer
Oh you gorehounds and slasher fans will love this....
A chopped off hand and head is revealed in a dark room.
A sharp object is stabbed through others blood splurting out.
A woman's leg is chopped off and then her body is grinded in a wood grinding machine.
Preachers wrist is chopped off and brutally as well as bloodily stabbed prefusively.
Head is chopped in two by an axe.
Woman is impaled bloodily by deer antlers.
Deputy's eye is stabbed by a spear.
Person's intestines are hanging out.
Side of an officers head is burned to a crisp.
The killers face is burned to a crisp and looking horribly gruesome.
Tons of bloody stabbings and slaying showing off alot of violent bloodsheds here and there.
A ton of powerful composing which sounds very mainstream in today's standards as we hear some nice chiming sounds along with trumpet playing especially some sad sounds for the near ending moment of the flashback sequence as to what happens to a family from what the killer remembers. Also alot of great deep trombone composing too which sounded good and dark. Also more great gloomy deep bass guitar thumping and the synthesizer music too. We also hear powerful drumbeats and cymbals clashing too fitting in well. To top it off some great thumping noises for the jumping moments which works every time in a horror flick. All of this was put together by Kevin Riepl
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