Christmas is a time ripe for reinvention as a horrifying, blood-splattered time for mass murder, but also...it's not, is it? It's Christmas. The mostly squeaky clean, incorruptible holiday in the calendar. Even miserabilist indie band Eels did a song called Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas. Christmas can never really be totally terrible. Which is probably why most horror films set during the season never quite work, instead coming across even more cheesy and try hard than your usual slasher flick. Do you know what else helps in making your horror film come across cheesy and try hard? When it involves Father Christmas as the murderous villain. Not just a maniac dressed as Jolly Old Saint Nick (something which will be coming up in good time), but Santa Claus himself, leaping down chimneys and slaughtering entire families, before escaping on a sleigh driven by his "hell-deer". Yes, these are all things that happen. And most of his victims appear to be getting the chop because they're Jewish which...is a little troubling. Still, several famous Jewish actors - including James Caan and Fran Drescher pop up to get knocked off almost as quickly. Oh, and Santa in this case is played by former professional wrestler Bill Goldberg, because of course he is.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
