In the grand tradition of Black Christmas, Gremlins, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Krampus, and many more, Christmas came early for horror fans at the Hollywood Legion Theater on Wednesday, October 5th as Beyond Fest attendees were treated to an advance screening of Joe Begos’ latest neon tinted, blood soaked massacre, Christmas Bloody Christmas.
Director Begos has had an exciting career in the last decade, making his feature debut with Almost Human in 2013, and most recently with the modern vampire thriller Bliss and the violent siege film VFW, both released in 2019. Christmas Bloody Christmas is a welcome addition to Begos’ growing filmography of movies that are the modern day midnight movies, the ones you had to wait until your parents fell asleep to catch on cable.
Begos, his editor Josh Ethier, effects team Russell FX (Josh and Sierra Russell), the majority of the film’s cast (Riley Dandy, Sam Delich, Abraham Benrubi, Jonah Ray, and Jeff Daniel Phillips), and a buzzer beating run-on from composer Steve Moore, were all in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Begos explained that the concept for his violent Yuletide slaughter originally began as a pitch to reboot Silent Night, Deadly Night that was ultimately passed on, so he decided to make his own Christmas horror classic. The film follows a young record store owner who couldn’t care less about the holidays who just wants to party, but a killer robotic Santa Claus malfunctions and has much more violent plans for anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way.
Coming in at a lean 87 minutes, the film boasts Begos’ usual neon aesthetic with over the top violence that’s certainly not for the squeamish. Shot on 16mm film and featuring an impressive Santa animatronic rig and gross out gore effects from Russell FX makes the experience much more visceral, and the practical effects make each kill more gruesome than the last. Frequent Begos collaborator Moore lends a score that pivots between heavy guitar driven riffs and ominous electronic tones that keeps the audience in suspense throughout.
Abraham Benrubi plays the murderous Santa Claus robot, in a Terminator-like pursuit of protagonist Tori Tooms, a young record store owner who’s just trying to get drunk and maybe even get some on Christmas Eve. Benrubi’s performance is completely silent, and all his performance is conveyed entirely through his terrifying physicality, and Riley Dandy delivers a strong performance as Tori, reminiscent of Linda Hamilton’s performance in the previously mentioned Terminator, but Dandy’s performance very much stands on its own, particularly in the final harrowing confrontation between Tori and the Santa that just won’t die. There’s some great moments of comedy in the film as well, largely between Tori and coworker Robbie (Sam Delich) as they trade back and forth about which horror sequels are better than the original and what the best non-traditional Christmas song is, which means 2022 is the year that I learned Lemmy from Motorhead did a version of “Run Run Rudolph,” as well as a very memorable sex scene in a toy shop between comedian/actor Jonah Ray and frequent Begos actress Dora Madison.
This is sure to become another classic in the genre of holiday horror films, and the world will finally get its chance to see Christmas Bloody Christmas when it releases in theaters and streaming on Shudder on December 9th.
