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You'd better watch out--Santa Claws is coming to town

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 02/20/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Ah, Christmas and psychopathic, murderous, obsessed movie star fans-you can hardly think of one without the other. It's the holidays, but no one is having a holly, jolly Christmas. B movie scream queen Raven Quinn (Debbie Rochon)-zoologist, scream queen, wife, and mother-has just had a fight with her husband, and he is threatening to divorce her once he gets back home from an out-of-town photo shoot. Her in-laws despise her because of her body-baring film career (although they have no problem with her husband photographing naked women in his job). The only person she can turn to is her ingratiatingly nice neighbor Wayne (Grant Kramer). What she does not know is that Wayne is completely obsessed with her, maintaining a Raven shrine inside his house. With her marriage on the rocks, he thinks the time is right to make his move. Now, Wayne has some problems; just ask his mother and uncle-oh, wait, you can't ask them because he shot them to death as a young teenager. He wants Raven all to himself, and this raging desire compels him to murder everyone who might get in his way. By the time the end game rolls around, Wayne has transformed himself into the dastardly Santa Claws, and he decides who has been naughty and who has been nice.Obviously, this is a low-budget B-movie production. Some effort went into making the film, but there's no mistaking its origins. The acting is quite bad at times, although I think Debbie Rochon puts in a better than average performance as Raven; the sets are sadly unimpressive, especially the furnishings in Debbie's home (she and her husband could certainly have afforded better furniture); and the accompanying music is oftentimes just a step above elevator muzak, although I do give the filmmakers credit for attempting to insert relevant songs to accompany the story as it progresses-the intent was there, but apparently the money was not. Grant Kramer gives an inconsistent performance as the serial killer and Raven fanatic Wayne, and this limits the effectiveness of this movie to some degree. It can be rather painful to watch him sitting before his shrine confessing his love for Raven, but he comes across pretty well in those scenes requiring him to be psychotically angry and frustrated. I must also mention the murder weapon of choice here-it is a little plastic set of claws that wouldn't scare a child in the middle of a graveyard on Halloween night. This little toy is quite deadly in Wayne's hands, though. What I found really funny was the appearance of the murder victims after the fact; someone basically just took fake blood and daubed a few spots here and there on the bodies. Certainly, there are problems with this movie. I for one am still confused about one particular sequence wherein several scenes seemed to be presented in the wrong order. I have to admit, though, that I really did enjoy watching Santa Claws. I would have enjoyed it even more if, instead of having to watch the shadow of the claws rise and fall against the wall, I had been allowed to actually witness the brutal murders as they took place-there is really no blood and gore to speak of here."

A FUN FLICK

Greg | USA | 10/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fun slasher flick which doesn't take itself to seriously. It has a wicked sense of humor and not only features the skewering of murder victims but it skewers the film industry too. It's not for everybody and those who dislike slashers should stay away, but for the rest of us there's a lot to like about this movie. The cast and writing are both on target and if you "get" these types of films you should definitely get Santa Claws."

Not very good. Not even quite a horror film.

Thomas M. Sipos | Santa Monica, CA | 11/26/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I wouldn't even call this a horror film. Horror requires some "unnatural threat." Something mysterious and larger than life. What made HALLOWEEN a horror film is that Michael Meyers wouldn't die.

SANTA CLAWS is more akin to THE TOOLBOX MURDERS and MANIAC and VISITING HOURS (although not as "slick") in that we see the killer right away, and we see that he's a seedy and pathetic little man. So he lacks the awesome power of a Michael Meyers or Jason Vorhees.

SANTA CLAWS is also not a horror film in that about half the film (and it's a short 82 minutes) is just various women posing semi-nude for the camera. The story is about an obsessed fan (Grant Kramer) who kills everyone around this horror-porn movie actress (Debbie Rochon). So we spend much time at the porn studio watching various actresses being filmed topless. If that's what you want, great, but know that this is as much a soft-core porn film as horror.

Not much story (what porn film has a substantive story?). The acting is uniformly bad. The "walls" wobble when struck -- we also glimpse where the tops of these "walls" end. And the special effects are laughably poor. Unlike many slashers, this killer sticks to only one implement, a relatively mild-looking garden rake. He hits people with it, leaving small red dots, which we're supposed to think are gashes. Doesn't look it.

Debbie Rochon bears some resemblance to Parker Posey, though without the talent. Grant Kramer evokes Chris Elliott, though not as funny. All the actresses in this film appear to have massive breast implants.

Certainly there are many better "killer Santa" films. While SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT has historically garnered the most attention, I'd say that CHRISTMAS EVIL is the most inspired and thought-provoking, while DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS is a personal favorite.

I'm giving SANTA CLAWS a generous two stars because I'm a fan of both Chris Elliott and Parker Posey."

An Interesting Story.

Greg | 05/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this film had a great premise and I enjoyed the two lead performances; Raven and Wayne. It focuses a little too long on the nudity, but an interesting commentary piece on the B movie industry."