From time to time horror film makers point their carnivorous camera lenses at Santa Claus and create holiday horror treats that tear and claw at the world’s fascination with jolly old Saint Nick. This season is no different with two European filmmakers putting Santa through the wringer. With both features hearkening back to the ancient European legends of Saint Nicholas, the Krumpas and Sinterklaas, Jalmari Helander’s Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale from Finland and Dick Maas’ Sint (Saint) from the Netherland take two different paths in exploring the old legend. Both are wildly successful. With Rare Exports, Santa and a horned helper called Krampus are excavated from the Korvantunturi Mountains creating a chilling bizarre anti-holiday tale; with Sint, the focus is on the spirit of Sinterklaas returning on December 3rd to take revenge and feels more like a modern day version of an 80’s slasher film. It doesn’t matter if you’re naughty or nice, you don’t want to run up on either of these creepy old men.
Over the years, there have been many variations on the concept of an evil Santa stalking his victims through the snowy December landscape. One of the first and most famous was Amicus’ Tales from the Crypt (1972) where a naughty Joan Collins faces a killer in a Santa suite on Christmas Eve. Based on a strip in EC Comic’s Vault of Horror, the film was produced by Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg and directed by Freddie Francis. In 1980, director Lewis Jackson brought Christmas Evil, featuring a homicidal Santa, to the theaters to little or no fanfare. Since then however, the film, also known as You Better Watch Out, has become a cult classic with cult filmmaker John Waters calling it the “greatest Christmas movie ever made.”
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