CHRISTMAS 2023: CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980) “…If You’re Bad Boys & Girls, I’ll Bring You Something…Horrible.”
Now before all three of you get too excited, listen: I have absolutely no intention of writing up Holiday Horror flicks all throughout Christmastime the way I did in September and October. At least I don’t think that’s gonna happen. But who knows? Until we find out, consider this write-up a one-off because to be totally honest, scary Christmas movies are a sub-genre I’m not really all that familiar with and haven’t been compelled by in the past. Not to sound like a prude, but the idea of introducing slashers or monsters into the season has always felt a bit tacky to me. But many years back I came across a little something called Christmas Evil from 1980 and whoa boy, did it become quite the exception!
Christmas Eve 1947
Christmas Evil (also known by its original title as Better Watch Out) opens up with our protagonist, a young boy named Harry Stadling rushing down to the living room on Christmas Eve only to find his mother getting all freaky deaky with Santa Claus. Instantly traumatized by this admittedly nightmarish visual and not realizing that Old Saint Nick is actually his old man, little Hank snaps right back upstairs to his bedroom.
Once there, he has a bit of a Citizen Kane moment with a snowglobe in that the rest of his life is about to be informed. The poor kid cuts himself on a shard of glass from the broken globe and we are now off to the races inside of his head as the film…
Cuts to 33 years later and Harry is now a grown man played by Brandon Maggart (Fiona Apple’s Dad, wha-???) who has convinced himself that he’s indeed the true Santa Claus. YEP! To the point where his day job is working at a toy factory and his off the clock hours are spent stalking the neighborhood children. Y’see, the guy is keeping a list of who’s naughty and nice and well, this is where the plot really takes off as shit naturally goes North.
What I love about this movie are the intentionally hazy visuals and a moody score alongside an absolutely outstanding performance by Maggart. It really is an excellent example of a descent into madness with the lines of empathetical standards regarding what’s good/bad blurring, then collapsing before our main character’s eyes.
A lot of people cite the billion dollar earning, academy award winning Joker film starring Joaquin Phoenix as being primarily influenced by Taxi Driver but I’d be shocked if that film’s director had never seen Christmas Evil as well.
My favorite review from researching wikipedia comes from Tom Huddleston (Time Out) who scored the movie a 4 out of 5: "In contrast to most slasher flicks, this isn’t about anything as simple as revenge. (DIrector) Jackson’s concerns are bigger: social responsibility, personal morality, and the gaping gulf between society’s stated aims at Christmastime—charity, hope, goodwill to all men—and the plight of those left on the outside: the children, the mentally ill, the ones who don’t fit in. It’s a great-looking film, too: one shot of a suburban street lined with glowing reindeer looks more like Spielbergian sci-fi than low-budget horror. Bizarre, fascinating, thoughtful, and well worth a look".
Oh and it’s got one banger of an ending too.
The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-Ray boasts an excellent 4k transfer along with a couple of commentaries (including one featuring John Waters in conversation with Director Lewis Jackson). Outside of that though the other extras are a bit sparse. But one clever addition are some exiting cards from preview audiences giving their thoughts from an advanced screening which are for the most part overwhelmingly negative and also hilarious.
