The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

There are quite a few Christmas themed slasher flicks, among which such genre classics as Silent Night, Deadly Night and the legendary Black Christmas hold top tier rankings. While not on the same level as those, "Don't Open Till Christmas" still has it's place. Directed by and starring the Dean from the awesome splatterfest "Pieces", this film also has the same producers.Sleaze is the name of the game here, and lots of gratuitous nudity and general exploitation are found throughout the film. The style of the killings and the settings such as the peep show and London Dungeon make me think of "The New York Ripper", which I can't help but wonder if it was an influence. The entire premise is pretty wild, as a murderer is targeting people dressed as Santa, and kills at least ten of them. While not heavy on the gore, the few more explicit scenes are actually pretty well done, especially the sliding eyeball.The movie is however pretty disjointed at times, with one major character basically just disappearing with at least a half hour left with no real explanation. There aren't any characters to be particularly invested in, and all fall pretty flat. I will say that the final girl was not who I expected it to be, and the very ending was a cool little treat."Don't Open Till Christmas" has it's faults, but in the wee hours of this Christmas Eve morning, I definitely more than enjoyed it and would certainly watch it again. 'Tis the season.

Gory, inane slasher flick has a murderous psychopath stalking Santa Claus' in London, as baffled detectives (Purdom & Jones) struggle to find leads let alone a suspect. Daughter of a Santa costume wearer (Mayne) who was speared at a Christmas party does her own investigative work, but it's her boyfriend (Sundquist) who's the prime suspect. Joining the wasted talents of Purdom, Mayne (Ferdy's daughter) and Alan Lake (Mr Diana Dors), are familiar faces Mark Jones, Kevin Lloyd (pre- Tosh in the long-running police soap "The Bill") and the frequently topless Pat Astley, in something of a self parody. If you thought that sultry Caroline Munro would be reason enough to tune in, you'd be mistaken; she plays herself in a three-minute music video that serves as the background to one of the ghastly murders, apparently promoting her fledgling singing career. Once noted Shakespearean actor Purdom turns up hot on the heels of "Pieces" for another slasher companion, this time he's also behind the camera, although he was replaced and the film's original ending re-shot (you'll see the narrative and personnel change noticeably after Purdom and Mayne dine at the restaurant). Consequently, the double-headed climax looks disconnected.The acting is variable, and the dialogue absurd, while the explanation for the killer's motivations (told in flashback) is laughable; the only redeemable feature is the film's tasteless and macabre sense of cruelty to the poor old, often sozzled Santas, slain in about a dozen different ways: digging implement gouges out the eyeball of one, another is speared through the mouth, gunshot to head, machete across face, hot plate face melt and the crowd favourite, the castrator. Apart from that novelty, the rest is a load of reindeer droppings.

A vicious psycho brutally bumps off various unlucky guys dressed up as Santa Claus around Christmastime. It's up to the dour Inspector Ian Harris (a very sour and indifferent Edmund Purdom, who also fumbled the direction) to catch the maniac. While this movie totally fails to provide any true chills or tension, it certainly succeeds in delivering a steady succession of grisly and ghastly murder set pieces that are randomly injected throughout the narrative with an appealingly appalling lack of finesse and cohesion: one poor tubby dude gets castrated while using a public lavatory, another has a spear shot into the back of his head, a third's face is fried on a grill, and so on. Moreover, Purdom does manage to effectively create and sustain a thoroughly nasty and seedy tone, there's a hefty corpse tally of 14, the foul script blithely breaks the usual established slice'n'dice rules (for example, the final girl is a cheery harlot instead of the customary virginal innocent), and the St. Nick victims are mostly despicable jerks (one Kris Kringle is offed while visiting a sex shop on his lunch break!). The cast do their best with the tawdry material: Alan Lake as creepy low-rent tabloid newspaper reporter Giles, the fetching Belinda Mayne as the distraught Kate Briosky, Gerry Sundquist as Kate's insensitive boyfriend Cliff Boyd, Kelly Baker as bubbly peepshow booth worker Sherry Graham, and Mark Jones as Harris' partner Sergeant Powell. Caroline Munro makes a cameo appearance as herself singing a cruddy disco song in a nightclub. As a tasty added plus, buxom blonde Pat Astley bares her fine shapely body several times as brash nude model Sharon. Alan Pudney's cinematography makes neat occasional use of a prowling hand-held camera. Des Dolan's quivery synthesizer score does the generic ooga-booga hum'n'shiver trick. Worth a watch for fans of sleazy holiday horror fare.

2016 slight edit:This film is great to be honest. It's far from scary, but it's a top line cheesy eighties slasher film, full of quirks and the usual madness that makes films like Pieces so great. Plus, it has a brain damaging ending. What else can you ask for? A killer is targeting people dressed as Santa. It's up to Edmund Purdom, who's a cop, to stop whoever it is. This isn't your usual slasher flick. There's no teenage annoyances here, and most of the film is set in Soho, London. The list of suspects isn't that huge either(although I did get the identity of the killer wrong) and the 'final girl' isn't who you'd expect it to be.Quirks? There's a musical number (Warrior of Love) by Caroline Munro that's almost the best part of the film (and comes out of nowhere) a bit of gore, some of the most bluntest nudity you'll see, heaps of sexism, daftness, and, as I mentioned, the ending will have you weeping tears of laughter. I loved it. This IS the perfect companion piece to...er... Pieces. Purdom is just as daft here as he was in Pieces, but this time he directs also.