Christmas Bloody Christmas

Once Christmas horror films provided a form of relief to those craving a break from peace and goodwill to all men. Now each winter brings a slew of them, so that they feel almost like part of the festive package. Overall quality has steadily gone downhill as they have strained to squeeze a little more blood out of increasingly anaemic themes. With a simple plot about a killer robot Santa, Christmas Bloody Christmas might sound like more of the same, but writer/director Joe Begos really knows how to tell a story, and against the odds, this film is a gift to jaded viewers.

Riley Dandy plays Tori, a record shop owner who, like many people in retail, is feeling the strain of dealing with festive shoppers. She wants to spend the evening getting drunk and having fun with her Tinder date. Employee Robbie (Sam Delich) has other ideas, however. There’s a suggestion that the two have been close in the past and he makes no secret of his interest in her, but his bitching about her date is backed up by other people, so she relents and agrees to go for a drink with him instead.

Before all this has happened, in the opening sequence, viewers have been treated to a montage of fictional news coverage and advertising in the style of films like Robocop and The Running Man. In the course of t his we have learned about the new robot Santas in shops, which are based on military technology but can now bring joy to all the family. Later, rolling news coverage on a television set in the background informs us that these Santas have been subject to recall. You can guess the rest. As Tori and Robbie enjoy their evening, chatting to assorted friends, drinking and flirting, a rogue Santa Claus is stalking the streets, taking the management of the naughty list into his own hands. Once he finds our heroes, he absolutely will not stop, but Tori is not the kind the kind of person to go down without a fight.

Garishly lit in bright streaks of neon, yet with nothing careless about it, Christmas Bloody Christmas has a stonking soundtrack, great costume design and vibrant performance which still convince in context. This is The Terminator with bells on. Its artistic debts are duly acknowledged in conversations about films, which frees it from the tired ritual of imitating scenes or dialogue, so it can play with these tropes on its own terms. There is plenty of blood and gore and there are some creative chase sequences, filmed in Begos’ usual dynamic style. Dandy is a charismatic lead who gives the film plenty of personality even during the stretches in which only she and the blank-faced killer robot are on screen.

Ultimately, these sequences drag on a little too long, as Begos faces the same difficulty as James Cameron: how to dispose of a seemingly unstoppable monster which keeps resurrecting itself. His solution, when it finally comes, is fun to watch and suits his characters. Though not as strong as it might have been, this is, for the most part, a pacey and energetic film which will give you just the boost you need after one silent night too many.