One of my all time favorites.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a very different Christmas movie, especially for its time. While presented as a slasher, it's really more a psychological drama which shows main character's fall into madness (including the episode from his childhood which started it). He's a pretty moronic character as a person, but he's pretty much real and feels like based on a real person, definitely not your typical movie cliche. He's very obsessed with Christmas (even sleeps in a Santa costume), and he has specific moral values which he wants everybody to follow, for that he has a book of "naughty and nice" boys and girls (he literally spies on children in the neighborhood to find out what are they doing). And while he's very angry about people making out and seeking for pornography, there's an episode where he watches his brother doing it and it doesn't look like he's disgusted, quite on the contrary. On one day he just looses it and becomes "Santa", drives and his van delivering presents to children, but also kills some specific people he doesn't like.The movie is quite memorable and full of Holiday cheer and atmosphere, despite the story. The ending is very surprising and I glad they did it that way, you'd never expect something like this (the cinema magic as it is).

John Waters recommended this film in his essay "Why I Love Christmas" ("I wish I had kids. I'd make them watch it every year and if they didn't like it they'd be punished") and you can definitely see why it's his kind of film, a low budget radical punk anti-Hollywood original. If it hasn't already been remade it would be a good property for a gifted filmmaker to take on, as its faults, including a certain lack of narrative focus and coherence, a painfully low budget and too many unattractive male cast members with receding hairlines, are easily remedied, while its essential material is great: a man driven into a violent psychotic breakdown by his inability to reconcile the corruption and cynicism of everyday American life with its ideal of innocence and purity as represented by our fetishistic worship of Christmas and its god, Santa Claus, who in his delusions he tries to become. As Waters notes, this is not one of those Christmas-themed horror movies, but a psychological thriller thick with bitter sociological satire. It's "Taxi Driver" with jingle bells.There are definite Watersian touches in this film (the raunchy sounding vintage Christmas recordings, kitschy Christmas lights and moments of dirt-black social commentary, including allusions to Geraldo Rivera and his exposure of rampant child abuse at Staten Island's Willowbrook institution, which was still in operation when this film came out) but I also see echoes of Cassavetes and Scorsese in its raw depiction of the unfashionable boroughs of New York City and its decidedly unglamorous inhabitants. What I like best about it though is that it takes on the American obsession with having a merry Christmas and shakes the living daylights out of it, pointing out that for many of us there is no such thing, and even when it does come along there's likely to be some nut out there--a reckless driver, a jerk at the party, or even a member of our own family--waiting to ruin it for us.

All-Star Video | BlogspotChristmas Evil is such a strange, hybrid-genre film, I can see why the marketing is so terrible. All the posters, descriptions, and trailers are misleading. It gets lumped in with Silent Night, Deadly Night and Black Christmas, but I think that's a problem. Those are both great films, but this is not really a slasher film. This is not a horror film. This is a genuinely original psychological film more in the vein of George Romero's Martin or Taxi Driver than Halloween. That being said, it's got some genuinely crazy awesome gore sequences and is extremely entertaining. Harry Stadling (brilliantly played by Brandon Maggert) is forever scarred when he decides to go downstairs on Christmas Eve to see the real Santa Claus and instead sees, what we presume is his dad, getting physical with his mom. Not surprisingly, the kid is disturbed. To be fair, that's pretty messed up. As a result Harry grows up overly obsessed with Christmas. He keeps tabs on the neighborhood kids, spying on them with binoculars and writing them down in the good boys and girls book or the bad boys and girls book.Harry works at a toy manufacturing shop, Jolly Dream, and has recently been promoted to manager, where he is horribly sad that he no longer works directly with the toys. His coworkers are douchebags and one of them fools Harry into working one of his shifts so that he can go out with his wife, but in reality he is going to the bar with his friends, which Harry sees in a later scene. Harry's bosses laugh at him for wanting to donate a lot of toys to the children at Willowy Springs (the horrible State Hospital). Harry becomes more and more agitated as he sees all these people not having the Christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, Harry has finally had enough. He paints a sweet Santa sleigh on the side of his van and glues a white beard to his face, but then seems to immediately regret it, trying his best to tear it off. Maggert here takes over the role completely with his eyes and shows the mad desperation growing within Harry. He embraces the becoming of Santa.From here, Harry steals toys from Jolly Dream to bring to the Hospital. It's really quite amazing how the tone of this movie continues to shift. Harry's generosity is genuinely touching. This is the moment that every great Christmas movie is able to capture, the idea that the Christmas spirit is all about generosity. And yet, it then changes quickly again as he parks his sleigh van outside his bosses' church as they attend Midnight Mass. As the parishioners exit the church, some yuppie bastards in their 20s notice Santa outside standing by his van. They immediately approach him. One of them says to him:"Well, Santa, are you ready for a busy night?"Harry responds, "I have something for you." The smarmy bastard replies, "Oh, what is it? I have superlative taste." (how outstanding is that?Harry then stabs the yuppy in the eye with the gun of a toy soldier. It's super grotesque and incredible. He sinks a hatchet into the other yuppie's head and then runs to his sleigh van to escape. The gore effects are cheesy but awesome. But, Jackson lets the camera linger on the leftover chaos. What could just be a really sweet, and super funny, moment suddenly turns very dark. I found myself laughing and then immediately getting quiet. Harry comes across a Christmas party and stops to watch through the window. Harry's sad eyes linger on the happy group, and then two men inside notice Harry and bring him inside. Awkwardly, Harry enters the group, but is soon caught up in the excitement and after much merriment, Harry delivers an amazing monologue to the children at the party:"And, I'll bring you something... horrible."Harry is chased by mobs of people searching for the killer Santa Claus. From there, Harry gets stuck in a chimney, has his revenge on his co- worker, gets choked out by his brother, and then punches his brother in the face. With a great surprise ending, Jackson has provided us with what is fast becoming my favorite Christmas movie.-J. Moret, allstarvideo.blogspot.com

Now that Arrow Video brought this out on DVD it was time again to pick up this horror. We do all know the classics Black Christmas (1974) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). It all starts very silly with two children and their mother sitting on the stairs seeing how Santa comes down the chimney to give some presents. Harry does believe in Santa but his brother tells him that Santa is his dad. When they all go to bed Harry goes down again to see Santa again but what he sees changes him forever. Santa is giving mommy a lickety-clit.Back forward a few years and Harry works at a crummy factory as a toymaker but deep inside he only wants to be the real Santa. Shaving gives him a joy with the white foam giving him the Santa beard feeling. Once it's Christmas he's out as Santa.Sadly that's all that we do see here in Christmas Evil. It's low on gore and even blood. The only thing we see is an eye-stabbing and an axe going into a skull. He even gets stuck in the chimney. He do becomes a deranged Santa but it's really camp and the end scene is really cheesy with the last words coming out of The Night Before Christmas and just look what happens, cheesy isn't it?Kleenex lovers will think that the licking of Santa is erotic, well let me tell you there is nothing to see, no nudity at all. Christmas Evil as a title is misleading thinking you will see a good old season slasher, it isn't, it's more a drama. Horror buffs will discard it, I'm sure of that. It wasn't my thing neither. Coming out in the glory days of gore and blood this is a really bad Santa flick.Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5