Psycho Santa/ Satan Claus

For the upcoming holiday season, Sub Rosa has put out a double bill of Killer Santa movies, but are they going to fill your stocking?

First up is Psycho Santa. Let me say this, first off. This movie is padded all to hell. By padding I mean scenes that take fifteen minutes and accomplish nothing. One scene that comes to mind is a scene where a girl goes to get rocks while her friend showers(?!). Yes, these ladies are fine as hell, but seeing water on boobs intercut with a girl picking up rocks for what seems like ten minutes, just doesn’t cut it for me, when the title deals with a killer Santa. To make a long story short, these two chicks are waiting on their friend for a Christmas slumber party or something, so they put on great looking lingerie and dance around. That’s cool as well, but it leads to nowhere!

The actual story behind the whole movie is a man telling his woman about the serial killing Psycho Santa, so he goes off into these stories, like that one, one dealing with a blind lady, and another, with Eric Spudic. The main problem with these is that it seems the director just threw a bunch of worthless walking and talking in there, when there should be more… slaying(hehe). That being said, when Santa shows up, good things happen, like a cool slit throat and a big candy cane to the eye.

I will be honest with this. I feel at first this movie was wanting to be something. Maybe something happened during production to stop it, or someone left, I don’t know. What I do know, is that there were decent kills, great lighting(mood, all about mood), but no story. I hope this Kier character tries one more time to give us the real Psycho Santa.

Second is Satan Claus, from Rounds Entertainment and Max Cerchi. I found this one to be more enjoyable that Psycho Santa, but it still lacks. But this does have the good stuff, blood and boobs, and doesn’t seem to padded, although it does have a slightly confusing story. It’s problems lie in the acting, and lighting. The acting, is overacting, especially from the Captain in the movie. He probably has done a lot of stage work in his time, or so I guess. He has a good look, but he doesn’t come across as real to me. Everyone else is average or below, but they get the job done.

The lighting kicks ass to me, except for one thing. In the police station, people are sitting in their office and writing, with no light. I am guessing the blue light is representing moonlight coming through the window. Might just be me, but that is bothersome to me. Other than that, night looks like night. It is very dark, but I like darkness that is dark. You can see what’s happening, but just enough…

Overall, I can’t really recommend this DVD. There is good camerawork and lighting for people that want to learn about lighting, but hey, most people want to watch a good movie. Satan Claus is good, and is worth seeing, but with nothing else really on the dvd worth mentioning, it’s your call.