Christmas Bloody Christmas: Have You Been a Good Little Girl or Boy!

Christmas Bloody Christmas was originally pitched by writer/director Joe Begos as a sequel to 1984s Silent Night, Deadly Night, but was rejected as the plot veered too far from the original storyline.  This didn’t stop Joe who continued to develop the movie. In the film, a= company has repurposed a sophisticated AI robot to replace shopping mall Santa Clauses, but they seem to be malfunctioning and are all recalled, but before they can all be collected, one snaps and goes on a murderous rampage.  The film centers around Tori (Riley Dandy), a vinyl record shop owner and her employee, Robbie (Sam Delich), on Christmas Eve as she, and her coworker, have a quick drink with some friends who own the local toy shop where the nefarious Robo-Santa is stationed. Soon after the pair leave their friends, the Santa comes to life and begins killing everyone in his path, and for some undisclosed reason is fixated on killing Tori.

I am not sure why, but I kind of liked this film more than I probably should.  It definitely has it’s issues, but it also had a kind of truth to it as well, that being said, the person I watched it with despised it and couldn’t wait for it to end.  One thing that is important to me when watching a movie, is having at least one character who you like and can connect with.  Tori and Robbie are extremely foul mouthed and openly talk about their sexual encounters in a very crass fashion, but there was something very natural and true in the actors’ performances which helped me connect with the pair, especially Robbie. The pair debate which bands are better, favorite Christmas songs, and which movies within a franchise are the best.  These are all debates I have had with my friends. The only part of the dialogue I thought to be a bit distracting was the excessive dropping of the “F” bomb every other word.  Yes, I realize there are people who talk like this, but sometimes it just gets to be a bit much. In addition, Tori seemed to end up yelling a lot, when it wasn’t really necessary making it harder and harder to like her as the movie progressed.  My co-audience member couldn’t stand Tori and was hoping she would be picked off first!

As far as production values go, this is a low budget horror “flick” and as such, I wasn’t expecting much, and we didn’t get much. I feel like there was a missed opportunity, as many shots are done from Robo-Santa’s viewpoint, and there was not “high tech” element to these camera shots.  No computer code scrolling off to the side, or “night vision” modes.  Even the very movement of Santa felt more human than it should have. Visually, the set design with the use of neon against dark backgrounds was interesting and stylistic, but some of the shots were a bit too dark.  I don’t normally like gore for the sake of gore, and this movie is gory, but the camera never lingers long enough for it to be overwhelming.   I enjoyed the music selection and thought the choice of songs complimented the action, especially since music is an integral part in the lives of the two leads.  As I have said, I thought the dialogue had a ring of truth to it, but I don’t feel the story was fully explored.  We get a lot of character exploration in the beginning, where very little useful information is given, and get the most minimal of explanations as to why Santa snapped and why he was obsessed with Tori.  This could have easily been woven into the storyline.  As a whole, to me, this was an entertaining mindless horror flick with some good performances, realistic dialogue, but they could have filled out a bit of the story and cut some of the vulgarity and crassness.