Wanted to treat you all with a perspective on a little sugarplum called "Santa's Slay".
I went into this little film with an odd mix of apprehensions.
It was produced by Brett Ratner, whom I've enjoyed a lot of his films, yet starred former pro wrestler Goldberg...a jumbled bag, indeed.
From the opening scene, however, I was hooked...we go from a cookie-cutter Christmas movie beginning ("Family Around The Table For Christmas Dinner") into a twisted, hilarious, and darkly satisfying realm that lets you know in no uncertain terms that this ain't "Miracle on 34th Street". If you flipped this on a television channel and came in at this beginning, I think you'd be floored...you have a cast of known and famous actors around that table, and it looks for all the world like a made-for-tv Christmas film kicking up, until Santa appears and everything takes a turn for the surreal.
Moving through the flick, you run into several scenes that really don't make sense plot-wise, but you just HAD to have them in any film about a Santa Claus with an evil bent...the main plotline is actually well-thought out without tripping over itself, and the history of ol' St. Nick is told in a flashback using stop-motion puppetry that we're all used to from Christmas classics; a stroke of genius. The ironies and in-jokes abound, and it's worth watching more than once to catch what you missed the first time around.
I have to say I was pleasantly shocked by this one; the production values were far higher than I expected, the cast was excellent (the lead was really the only complete unknown in a starring role, and he acquitted himself nicely), and the story itself was far superior to what I was expecting.
"Santa's Slay" isn't going to be put in there with the typical holiday horror fare with "Black Christmas" or "Silent Night, Deadly Night", but instead I think it's in a class by itself; kind of a "Return of the Living Dead" of Christmas horror.
I myself was very pleased...it's going to be on MY Christmas viewing list from now on.
Merry Christmas, kiddies!
