Christmas Evil, or to call it by it’s much cheesier and awesome title; You Better Watch Out, focuses on a man who after witnessing his mum being touched up by his Dad dressed as Santa grows up to be a mentally unbalanced Christmas obsessed loner. He works in a toy factory where he becomes disillusioned by corporate greed and shoddy workmanship. He keeps track of the local children to see who’s been naughty and nice, he’s generally a bit creepy. This Christmas though he can’t take the indignities of life any longer, snapping he takes to meeting out gruesome punishment on the ‘naughty’ whilst dressed as Santa Claus.
The first film that springs to mind in terms of the plot is Silent Night, Deadly Night and it’s terrifically awful sequel. Where it differs though is that Christmas Evil takes a more ‘art-house’ approach to the murder and psychology. Those looking for a grim Halloween style Christmas slasher will be mostly disappointed. Yes there are some grisly murders with fantastically over-the-top 80s gore but that comes way into the films overly long runtime. Harry Stadling is our “hero/villain” of the film, director Lewis Jackson spends a great deal of the film showing his downtrodden, Christmas obsessed existence as we build to the moment he finally snaps but it’s all done with the least level or dramatic power. Someone gets him to work his shift at work. Oh no the horror! He must die. He spots a young boy cutting photos of women out of Penthouse. The little shit, he must be punished! You may think that these small acts further emphasise Harry’s insanity but the film shows it so matter-of-factly a camper that it feels as though we’re supposed to be watching a chilling psycho-drama like Targets or Maniac. In fact Maniac did a similar thing to this film, but much more troubling and gorier. The films opening shows us Harry’s reasons for becoming the man he is today. On Christmas Eve he comes downstairs to find not Mommy Kissing Santa Claus but Santa lasciviously groping his mother. After seeing that he heads to the attic where he smashes a snow globe – in a very Citizen Kane orientated shot For some reason this turns him into a Christmas fixated hermit. Would that sight not actually turn him off Christmas? Why destroy a snow globe if he loves Christmas?
The highlight of this new DVD release is the commentary track with Lewis Jackson and John Waters who amazingly claims it to be his favourite christmas film of all time. Apparently he even used to screen it at his Christmas shindigs. They spend a great deal of time discussing how the film was misunderstood by audiences and critics as being dull. They reason that it actually has a slow-burn, ‘arty’ vibe that most audiences didn’t understand. Sadly the film is just dull. Brandon Maggart who plays Harry Stadling is far too much of a ham to fully convey the unraveling psyche of a man on the edge. He seems to think he is in a campey slasher flick as opposed to director Jackson’s harrowing vision. We do learn on the DVD though that he is in fact Fiona Apple’s Dad – nice bit of trivia. We stay with Harry for most of the film sadly and he’s just not that interesting to watch. Acting wise the highlight is Jeffrey DeMunn who horror fans will recognise from The Walking Dead and most other Frank Darabont films. He plays Harry’s middle-class, sensible brother who is at his wits end. There is also a notable early roll for Patricia Richardson who Tim Allen disciples will know as Jill Taylor in Home Improvement. Other than these and a couple of other interesting trivia facts there isn’t really a lot to recommend Christmas Evil. Perhaps you may find the chilling, slow burn horror that John Waters seems to see in the film but in this case I’m staying with the pack and say that it is laboured, dull and not actually scary. It’s less Christmassy but you’re better off with Maniac.
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