Following the trauma of seeing his father dressed as Old Saint Nick and groping his mom on Christmas Eve - young Harry became totally Santa-obsessed. As an adult, his apartment is packed with Christmas shit, he works in a toy factory and goes so far as to neurotically spy on and catalog the the neighborhood children's behavior in his own personal naughty/nice books. As the holiday season approaches and Harry's dismal, detached life weighs on him more and more, he begins his transformation into Santa Claus with some payback plans set for Christmas.
Can't say I would classify "Christmas Evil" as a full-fledged 'slasher' film since it doesn't start in on the body count until pretty late and just for the fact that it doesn't 'feel' like one. It more so goes about chronicling the further mental deterioration of an already disturbed guy with a big boner for Xmas. The way in which it is presented is very convincing for the most part and the guy who plays Harry does a terrific job of not over-selling the 'madness'. When the time comes for him to break out the Xmas van (emblazoned with a hand-painted sleigh motif, of course...), the film imposes some nicely conflicting sentiments of sympathy and disdain surrounding the character, as he spreads both Christmas cheer AND bloodshed and fear on those who have in the past or DO fuck with him during his Yuletide odyssey. The scene of the asshole church-goers getting fucked up is too awesome.
"Christmas Evil" isn't up there with films like, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", or the aforementioned, "Maniac", though it IS a really cool and commonly overlooked film that also captures a bleak, yet FESTIVE 'vibe'.
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