"Christmas Evil"

[Gunga Diner]

I'd like a moment of your time so that i might ever so briefly direct your attention to a little gem that came out in 1980 and went criminally unnoticed called "You Better Watch Out," known in some circles as "Christmas Evil"

The plot follows a man named Harry who, as a young boy, accidentally walked in on Santa Claus (in actuality his father in Santa garb) eating his mother out. It drives him insane. As an adult he is obsessed with Christmas lore and Santa Claus, even with dreams and delusions of someday being Santa. He keeps tabs on all the kids in his dreary New Jersey neighborhood (naughty or nice), works obsessively in a Toy Factory where his co-workers ridicule him. But one Christmas Eve, he decides to become Santa and do his duties as Santa, which include his own sociopathic brand of vigilante justice.

This sounds like the build-up for a gimicky, tongue-in-cheek slasher film. But instead, we are treated to a tragic, disturbing character study of a psychopath. It's occasionally darkly funny, but overall it's just a sublimely horrifying bit of brilliance.

FearNet is featuring it this month if you get FearNet or get Freezone on COX digital cable, so scope it out if you get the chance. I can't recommend this movie highly enough. Watch it tonight or tomorrow night. It'll stay with you for a while.

 

[Dave McFly]

i saw it when i HAD fearnet, damn morons at Time Warner had it removed .

 

[The Dark Defender]

I have a copy of this on dvd that I got really cheap with some other low budget Christmas horror movie from decades ago on the disc with it.

Never realized Troma released a dvd of it. Maybe I'll pop it in later. I have Silent Night, Deadly Night in right now, my favorite Christmas-themed horror film.

 

[X-Woman]

I just watched this movie on Comcast On-Demand. I didn't think it was that great. A little slow, actually. I guess I was expecting a little more gore. I'll give it another shot, though. Seemed like it had good psycho potential.

 

[Thundarr]

I never got around to seeing that one. I've seen the original Black Christmas dozens of times. The 2006 remake just to see if it was any good (as I figured, it was crap). And I've seen Silent Night, Deadly Night for the first time last year and it was a hoot. I've actually been meaning to see Christmas Evil sometime soon, but I forgot the name of it. I'll be sure to watch it as soon as I can. It sounds like a lot of fun.