For decades,Christmas has been the perfect setting for horror films. Shown most recently in this year’sIt’s a Wonderful Knife, the most wonderful time of the year has its dark side, from greed to how lonely and isolating the season can be. Even a fun family horror film likeGremlinsin 1984 tapped into those darker themes. While those real-life woes can be frightening to see play out on screen, Christmas-set horror movies have also created another subgenre:killer Santas. Most holiday horror films with a murderous Saint Nick are either cheesy or not meant to be taken seriously, but one slasher with a villainous Santa Claus features the creepiest version of the man in red that you’ll ever see.Christmas Evilgives us a man who is losing his mind and believes he’s the real Santa, and he’s out to kill anyone who has been bad.
The History of Killer Santas in Horror
There is nothing more innocent than the idea of Santa Claus, an almost Christlike figure of good who makes toys for children and delivers them all over the world on one magical night. Anything full of light, however, has its dark side. Santa is also a stranger, a supernatural man who breaks into millions of homes in the dead of night. What’s up with that?!There is something a little creepy behind the character of Santa Claus, and horror has used this many times as a jumping-off point. 1972’sTales From the Crypthas a segment called “And All Through the House,” where a woman (Joan Collins) who just murdered her husband is now stalked by an escaped homicidal maniac (Oliver MacGreevy) dressed up as Saint Nick. In 1984 cameSilent Night, Deadly Night, another murderousSanta slasher deemed so offensive that it was pulled from theatersafter just two weeks.
Though those films were meant to be scarier, recently,killer Santas have been used for more over-the-top comical horror. In 2005, wrestlerBill Goldbergplayed the “real” Santa, who comes down the chimney to kill rather than deliver presents, in the perfectly titledSanta’s Slay. In 2022, an animatronic Santa Claus goes haywire and begins a killing spree inthe funChristmas Bloody Christmas. Last year also introduced a badass Santa (David Harbour) in thegory action filmViolent Night. In 1980’sChristmas Evil, however, there was nothing to ho-ho-ho about when it came to this killer dressed all in red.
The Terror of ‘Christmas Evil’ Is Found in Its Realism
From looking at the marketing ofChristmas Evil, it’s apparent how badly it wanted to cash in on the popularity ofHalloween, another holiday-set slasher that came out two years before. One of its posters shows Santa holding an axe, with a line above it reading, “1ST CAME “HALLOWEEN … THEN CAME “FRIDAY 13TH”… and NOW CHRISTMAS EVIL.” The film’s trailer even rips offHalloween’s “The NightHeCame Home” tagline with “The NightHeDropped In.” For writer and directorLewis Jackson, he wasn’t trying to make aHalloweenclone, though he admitted in aQ&A after a screening at the Alamo Dratfhouse Ritz, that the film he’d spent ten years writing only finally got made because ofHalloween’s success. He said:
“The only reason I got the movie to get made was becauseHalloweenwas made, and I had come up with another holiday… They wanted another holiday movie, except they didn’t know what was in my head, which was nothing like what was in John Carpenter’s head. I can’t help it. There’s nothing I can do about it. He had one idea, I had another idea. He made a billion dollars, I made shit.”
Christmas Evil, despite its ad campaign, is anything but aHalloweenorFriday the 13thclone.The killer here is nothing likeMichael Myers or Jason Voorhees. This is something vastly different, a deeper psychological horror filmmore akin toTaxi DriverorJokerthan anything else. WhileChristmas Evildoesn’t have the best acting, it works by focusing not on gory kills, but rather a man’s descent into madness. Though Jackson said producers told him it was “slow and boring,” that slow burn ability to take its time is what sets it apart.Christmas Evilis a story about a man named Harry Stradling, (Brandon Maggart, who just so happens to be the father ofFiona Apple), who as a small child saw Santa Claus getting it on with his mom. Not knowing that this was his dad dressed up, it was the inciting incident that warped his fragile mind.
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Who said the most wonderful time of the year couldn’t be terrifying?
Three decades later, Harry is a Travis Bickle or Arthur Fleck-like loser, a forgotten man working a bad job at a toy factory. The bullied guy, who is already obsessed with Santa, dresses up like him at home and has posters and toys of the jolly guy all over his house. He creepily watches kids in their homes through binoculars, keeping a list of who’s been good and who’s been bad. As he is betrayed by everyone around who isn’t into the spirit of the season like he is, Harry begins a descent, his broken mind now convincing him that he’s the real Santa. He paints a sleigh on the side of his van and has now progressed to watching kids through their windows and behind bushes. Then, just as Travis Bickle shaves his head into a mohawk, andArthur Fleck paints his face white, Harry Stadling cackles madly as he glues a white beard to his face. That break from reality is scarier than any slasher caricaturewith a sharp knife.
‘Christmas Evil’ Has One of Horror’s Most Unforgettable Endings
On Christmas Eve night, we see Harry’s transformation complete. He looks as close to the “real” Santa as you may imagine, and now he begins breaking into homes, large knife in hand, to leave presents for good girls and boys under their Christmas trees. When Harry is mocked on the street by a group of people for his Santa getup,Christmas Evilmomentarily turns into a more traditional slasheras Harry stabs several of them to death before fleeing in his van.That’s the usual for a slasher movie, but here it happens 50 minutes in. With this being a character-driven film over a body count gore fest, it makes it all the more terrifying when Harry finally does lash out. Right after, he goes to a Christmas party and dances with everyone in his Santa suit, full of cheer as if the murders never happened.
A killer in another Santa slasher would just stay bad throughout every act, but with Harry believing he is the true Saint Nick, the fact that he is capable of being nice and not killing everyone in his path makes him more unpredictable. There’s even a moment so realistic that it’s both sad and funny when Harry tries to go down someone’s chimney, only to realize he can’t fit. It’s back to being scary, however, as he goes in through a basement window and then slits the throat of the man inside with a Christmas star. On his way out, the dead man’s kids give a big smile to Santa and he smiles back.
On Christmas morning, the townsfolk find Harry and chase after him. He doesn’t put up a fightlike an emotionless slasher, but runs, a man scared. He still has that unpredictable link to humanity left inside him. Not even Harry’s brother, Philip (Jeffrey DeMunn), is able to stop him though, as Harry knocks him out and escapes into his van. It leads to a creepy and unforgettable final image, with Harry as Santa in his sleigh van being forced off an icy road by the mob out to catch him. Philip looks up as the van crashes through a bridge railing and flies through the air in slow motion. Inside the van, Harry’s eyes go wide. He’s flying. We hear a voiceover from Harry say, “I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.” The van flies upward toward the moon. Has Harry completely lost it in the last seconds of his life, before the van crashes and sends him to his death, or is he truly flying? Maybe, just maybe, he’s become the real Santa after all. The possibilities are chilling.
In hisChristmas EvilQ&A, Lewis Jackson said heintended for the film to be ablack comedy, but instead, people were offended by it. While there is nothing to be truly offended by, there is more going on here than dark laughs. Sure, some scenes are funny in their absurdity, but that darkness is truly scary. In a decade of cookie-cutter slashers, Jackson sought to make something that wasn’t just another Michael Myers wannabe. He wanted to tell the story of a man who felt real. Harry Stadling is losing his mind, but he is very much a human being. That quality, like Travis Bickle and Arthur Fleck, makes him capable of anything. Harry’s not going to just have scene after scene of him burying a bloody axe into someone’s chest. He’s a person who believes he’s the face of good, and it’s his job to crush anyone who has been bad.
