CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

Streaming on Tubi and Screambox!
Directed/Written by Lewis Jackson.
Check out the trailer here!!

After learning Santa isn’t real by witnessing his father dressed as Santa performing some lewd acts with his mother as a kid, Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) was pretty scarred as a kid. As an adult, Harry finally snaps when he is belittled at work at the toy factory, dresses up in a Santa costume, and goes on a rampage; rewarding those who have been good and killing those who have been naughty.

CHRISTMAS EVIL might not have been the first evil Santa flick, but it does it in a gritty and grimy way that feels more like a docu-drama on mental illness than an over the top killer Claus movie. Harry is a very sick man and CHRISTMAS EVIL spends a whole lot of time with him, allowing us a window into his world long before he finally snaps. We see how he keeps a naughty and nice list for the neighborhood kids and peeps on them from his apartment. We see how fragile he is around his boisterous co-workers who are quite jaded about the Christmas holiday and don’t take pride in their work at the toy factory. Finally, we see the glee in his face when he first dons a Santa costume, laughing maniacally when seeing himself in the mirror. But none of it is over the top and Brandon Maggart plays everything seriously and sadly. It’s this earnest portrayal of a very broken man that forces the viewer to feel for Harry in a way that you don’t normally get to in most killer Santa flicks which focus mainly on the rampage. SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT deals with similar themes, but because Harry is older and plays things on a much more realistic level, there’s a level of investment and pity I had with Harry’s character that the more murder-centric SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT just doesn’t achieve.

Once on his spree, which really doesn’t occur until half of the movie is over with, Harry is quite brutal with his Christmas wrath. But it isn’t like the over-sensationalized spree of SNDN with the killer muttering “Naughty” and hanging Linnea Quigley on deer antlers. Harry’s simply begins with a daytime attack on the head of his company in full view of the public and then spirals out of control from there. Again, it’s the realism that drives this film deeper into the viewer’s heart and makes it less exploitative and more of a slap in the face of a sadder reality of old time standards going by the wayside.

The murders are not sensational, but as Harry’s mind frays more and more, his unpredictability is what drives the tone to a fever pitch as a mob forms to take out this danger to the community. There’s a wonderful scene where a group of children surround Harry as Santa, protecting him from their parents. Of course, this scene is followed by the angry mob pursuing Harry through the streets with torches which is rather ridiculous. I mean, where the hell did they get torches in this modern age?

But if SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT is THE DARK KNIGHT of killer Santa movies. CHRISTMAS EVIL is its JOKER, focusing more on a pitiful and very sick central figure in an uncomfortably intimate way. The parallels between CHRISTMAS EVIL and JOKER don’t end there as both are products of a broken system and lash out in their own violent way to try to fight it. The ending of CHRISTMAS EVIL is one of the things many criticize, but I felt, like JOKER, it represents the main character’s full acceptance of the role he has chosen for himself, with reality being an afterthought. It also might explain away those torches the mob is carrying as, by that time, Harry is at the point of no return at this point.

The performances are better than they should be, with Brandon Maggart delivering a sympathetic take on a madman, reminiscent of Peter Lorre’s character in M. Shrewd eyes will catch some familiar faces in the background such as THE GREEN MILE’s Jeffrey DeMunn as Harry’s brother, SUCCESSION’s Peter Friedman as an exec at the toy store, BREAKING BAD’s Mark Margolis as another exec and HOME IMPROVEMENT’s Patricia Richardson as one of the concerned mothers.

Having seen CHRISTMAS EVIL as a kid, I really didn’t like it back then, but I’ve gained a new appreciation of it as an adult. It’s a more mature deconstruction of the downfall in Christmas Spirit by way of a very sick man. The film is quite the downer, but ends on a note that is surprisingly hopeful that the Christmas Spirit may still exist. CHRISTMAS EVIL is a film that I most definitely will be revisiting again in my seasonal holiday viewing.