Santa Claus (1959) Christmas

Santa Claus (1959) This film is not really a horror movie but since it had the devil in it I had it on my watch list. Apparently a classic Mexican Christmas movie it is something many people watched all through their childhoods. Since I am really only covering Christmas Horror I will right this review ass if this was a horror film.
  Deep in space a malevolent being watches over the planet earth. Confined to his prison for all but one day a year this being is watching and making lists of potential targets. He is Santa Claus (Jose Elias Moreno) living in his crystal prison waiting for his time to return to earth. He is not alone there in his prison, no he has taken many child slaves. Forced into stereotypical grouping by point of origin they are forced to sing for the evil being, an insulting caricature of their society. Then they are forced work tirelessly building trinkets for this man to use to bribe other children in a massive behavior modification plan.
He watches the earth through his giant telescope waiting for December 24th, the one day a year he is allowed to leave his prison, fly to the earth and break into house after house putting his plans into action.
Hidden from him in the hot lava filled interior of the earth is Pitch (Jose Luis Aguirre Trotsky), who against all odds tries throughout the movie to keep children from falling under the spell of Santa. Portrayed as a devil in the film which is really just propaganda for the "Jolly" one. He tries his best to get some kids to ignore the brainwashing and live their own lives. Santa who can see pitch when he comes to the surface is infuriated that anyone is upsetting his plans to have all children behave as he wishes. These three boys who resist Santa are shown as bad because they refuse to be brainwashed and with the help of Pitch may come out of this with their wills intact. Also shown is Lupita (Lupita Quezadas) born to a poor Mexican family all she wants is a toy doll. Her Mother who has already grown up under Santa's influence wants her to be a good girl. This means you have nothing but if you behave in accordance to a strict set of rules and wish very hard maybe the arbitrary Santa will throw a trinket your way. Her Mother (Nora Veryan) knows for all her platitudes to the wonders of Christmas that really the poor often receive nothing. You would think for all the magic Santa has he could help Lupita's father find work, but know helping people is not his game. Getting everyone to act one way, his way is what it is all about.
  The third character is the rich boy named Billy (Antonio Diaz Conde hijo) who because he has all the toys and trinkets he wants can't easily be pulled into the Santa scheme. Santa has to get him believing that his parents are too inattentive and should spend every minute with him. When this does not seem to work Santa on Christmas eve actually has to intervene with the parents themselves. He drugs them with a cocktail to make them do as he wishes and that way can get Billy into his army of followers.
  On the 24th of December Santa flies to the planet and starts the long process of bribing the children of the world. He is armed with a sleeping powder created by the imprisoned Merlin the magician that when blown into the air puts anyone to sleep so Santa can have his way. On top of this his has a key that unlocks any door making his breaking and entering all the more easy. Sometimes though he still likes to slide into a house through the chimney although it is unclear in the film why he would have to when in possession of a magical key. The last tool of his trade is a magic flower that  when sniffed makes the smeller invisible. This way he can very easily escape detection.
  Pitch works tirelessly through the night to foil Santa's brainwashing attempts but armed with only ideas he is hard pressed to fight against the magically armed fat man. He tries though and is foiled at every turn. This is what most of the film focuses on. Santa pushing his "everyone behave how I want you too." and I will bribe you with toys, countered by Pitch trying to convince people they are being brainwashed. Like in so many horror movies the end is inevitable with little Lupita being lost in the end with doll in hand she joins the troops of Santa. The three boys who help Pitch are scorned and receive coal in their stockings, but at least retain their free will.
  Pitch for his part does everything he can to keep Santa away from kids, heating door locks and even trying to steal Santa's slay but the beast is too strong for him. He tries to get the people of the city to notice him, but help from Merlin keeps the battle a draw and we will have to deal with the voyeuristic pedophile again in the future.

Overall this film was pretty horrible, preachy and condescending to anyone who did not fit the Santa message it was hard to watch. Portraying Pitch as a devil was a theatrical choice that I found heavy handed. The moralizing about what good behavior is was too much for me. Even the one hope I had for little Lupita was squashed, she was bought off for a bit with a doll but her situation was left dire. No food and no work for her parents will quickly show her that a toy can't be eaten. So the red suited beast gets her behavior in line but does nothing to improve her situation, figures.
Rating (2.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, some just more recommended than others.

Christmas Evil (1980) Horror Christmas

Christmas Evil (1980) - aka "You Better Watch Out" is a story about Harry (Brandon Maggart), an adult who was traumatized as a child when he discovered Santa was not real. Now a man in his forties he builds up to the snapping point because no one seems to want there to be magic in Christmas anymore, and the consequences of his breaking are deadly.
 The film starts with a Norman Rockwell like scene of a Mother (Ellen McElduff) with her boys sitting on the stairs on Christmas Eve. They are watching Santa, his Dad (Brian Hartigan) of course as he goes about his business in the living room. The kids are happy to see him eat the treats they left out and after a wink from Santa he goes up the chimney and the kids are sent to bed. Later that night young Harry hearing sounds downstairs goes to investigate. He is shock and traumatized to see Santa on his knees playing with the lingerie around his Mother's private parts. Santa is a fraud and he was a fool ever to think differently. Poor little kid runs up all the way to the attic. He is devastated and when he drops his snow globe while flashing to the scene downstairs and then cuts his hand he has a physical trauma to go with the psychological one.  This is the extent of his problems and although I think, everyone who watches this film will consider this a small harm the writer & director, Lewis Jackson  sees it differently.
  Now most of us realized long before we were told that Santa was not real. Living in a reality based world we did not believe in flying reindeer and magical men giving toys. Harry here must have been nine or ten when he discovered it. It seems a bit old but that is where the story has us so we will just accept it. I know for myself and growing up poor, either I was not very good or Santa was a guy in a suit with a fake beard at the VFW Post, who smelling of scotch had one present each year for us poor kids. The magic was not there for me. Nor for poor Harry who spend the rest of his life trying to find that Christmas magic again. He by the time we join him in the present is a middle manager in a toy factory the Jolly Dream. Not respected by his coworkers he is living a dreary life, no spouse or girlfriend, a dead end job, and little prospects for change. Still he strives though to make Christmas a special time. He surrounds himself with decorations, sleeps in a Santa hat and so wants to capture that special holiday feeling. He makes a beautiful authentic Santa outfit, and paints a red slay on his creeper white van, he really wants Christmas to be special again.
  There is something not right with the man though, and the picture shows us that right away. We see him with his binoculars looking into the houses of the neighborhood children. He is keeping a book with each kids name and listing their deeds both good and bad. Its really creepy him sneaking around houses, hiding in bushes and peeping through windows. He is particularly displeased with a mean little boy named Moss (Peter Neuman) who you have to be concerned may only get coal if Harry has his way. Since we know this is a horror movie we know this is the year he will snap and the first forty minutes is setup and then all the things that build up to his break.
  He hears the humbugs at the toy assembly line talking about how Christmas is the hardest time of the year. His bosses let him in on a scheme to get media coverage for giving toys to sick children but the details mean they get the coverage but the kids may not get the toys. He is bullied by a coworker, Frankie into taking a shift on the line only to find out later that the reason was a lie. He starts to lose it as we see because the director keeps flashing the scenes of his break just so we won't forget the reasons why. The snap comes at the company Christmas party and hearing about the hospital toy scam. He goes into the  warehouse and collects a bunch of toys to deliver to the hospital. Dressed as Santa he breaks into the neighbors houses and puts or takes toys from them.
 Eventually he is bothered by the memories of the people who sort of tried to spoil the season for him and he goes to hunt them down. He kills the executives from his company as they come out of church. He sneaks into his bully coworkers house and kills him. Word of the killer Santa is now all over the television. The subplot is of his relationship with his brother Phil (Jeffrey DeMunn, of recent Walking Dead fame). Phil has watched out for hi all these years and is the humanity trying to pull him back from his madness.

  The ending of the film is a bit crazy. After a confrontation with Phil harry heads back out into the night, only to have his van get stuck in the snow of a strange NY neighborhood. Here the people have been watching the news and when the children run up to Santa, the parents become concerned. Eventually the confrontation leads to Harry fleeing for his life, from torch wielding townsfolk. I am serious it is a lynch mob chasing Santa. The fantastical ending has to be seen to be believed. Overall I thought this film was a slow burn with too small an initial shock for any lasting damage to the main character Harry. It does not make a lot of sense that 35 years later he is just getting to the breaking point. There was the funny as shit bit where the cops are having a suspects line up with a line full of Santas. Still the movie was not very good in my view and I am not going to recommend it.
Rating (4.0) 5.0 and p are recommended, some more recommended than others.