After seeing Mommy get her freak on with Santa Claus, Harry Stadling (BRANDON MAGGART) develops into an emotionally crippled man obsessed with all things Christmas. By day, Harry works in middle management at the Jolly Dream toy factory (“Remember, if it’s not a Jolly Dream, it’s not worth having!”), and by night he maintains meticulous notes on the good and bad doings of the neighborhood children. Moss Garcia, a bratty little boy on Harry’s radar, is relegated to the naughty list for having impure thoughts and “negative body hygiene.” While watching the Macy’s Day Parade, Harry begins his descent into yuletide madness, and crafts a traditional Saint Nick outfit out of plush red fabric, ample thigh padding, and fur trimmings. He slathers his face with gum spirits, applies the requisite snow-white beard and mustache, and sets out on Christmas Eve to distribute toys to kids at the Willowy Springs Hospital in a white raper van with a sleigh painted on the side. After dropping off the toys, Harry spends the rest of the evening giving people what he feels they deserve. For the good boys and girls, it’s toys; for the bad grown-ups, it’s axes to the forehead, throats slashed with tree toppers, and eyes gouged out with toy soldiers. On Christmas Day, Harry is cornered by a crowd a townspeople, and one of the cinema’s best chase scenes involving a mob with torches pursuing a soot-covered maniac dressed as Santa Claus driving a beat up van ensues. Definitely more of a black comedy than a Santa slasher flick, CHRISTMAS EVIL is grounded by MAGGART‘s masterfully understated performance. He makes the homicides seem justified since the victims were definitely naughty, and that’s pretty nice in my book.

INDELIBLE SCENE(S):

• Young Harry cuts himself with a snow globe after catching Mom & Santa under the tree
• Toy soldier to eye!
• Harry’s impromptu X-Mas polka at the VWF post
• The Christmas broach Harry takes to the face
• The closing scene where Harry drives off the bridge… you should see that white raper van fly!