A psychotic killer Santa terrorized Norway for 13 years before he was finally caught and locked away. He stayed in solitary confinement for six years before escaping to finish what he started. The deranged Saint Nick was hunting down the members of his naughty list and slaughtering their families. I guess coal stopped getting the point across. Turns out, the next person on that list is dead and her daughter’s friends have all gathered in her home for Christmas. Santa is unaware of this but he shows up anyway to deliver his special brand of Christmas cheer.

                I know that there is no shortage of axe-wielding Santa flicks this time of year but this one has a little more to offer than just a Christmas party full of attractive people dying. Sure, there’s that too but there are elements of a crime thriller, a touching Christmas story that starts to take shape, and then there are the slasher elements. The Halloween influence is evident: the killer is silent and does lots of stalking and staring from the shadows and there is even an Ahab who will do anything to stop the killer. While the influence is there, it doesn’t feel like a rip off; there’s a fine line and Christmas Blood stays firmly to one side of it. Christmas Blood feels like Se7en, Halloween,and Black Christmas had a love child that was raised in the bleakest region of Norway.

                Why the bleakest region, you ask? Because the atmosphere in this movie is just that:bleak. The outdoor scenes are exactly what you would imagine winter in Norway would be: constantly dark with a metric shit ton of snow and unceasingly howling winds. Inside, where our group of protagonists is partying their way to Christmas, things are damn near as dreary. None of the characters in the house are really likeable some just aren’t as bitchy as others. The house is dim and a little dingy and most of the cast looks unenthused. The movie feels like a cold snowy night and that is perfect.

                There is plenty to like about this movie. Even though the characters are largely unlikeable for their own reasons, the performances are really good. It definitely makes for some really enjoyable kills when Kris Kringle comes a-knockin’ to check some names off his naughty list. It’s really well shot and the lighting is nice. It’s dark enough to set the atmosphere but not so much that you need to crank the brightness on your TV to see what the hell is going on. The kills may not be the most original but they are good. One place where the Halloween influence is absent is in the kills. This evil Santa delivers buckets of blood wrapped in spilled guts.

                I have one complaint with this movie and I’m not sure it’s really even a complaint.Mother fucking mouth noises. Seriously. These motherfuckers are always eating and they all eat super loud. It doesn’t matter if it’s chips, a gingerbread man, or cake over a naked dead girl it’s always the loudest food ever. I guess,though, the goal of any good horror movie is to get under your skin and this is definitely a way to do that. So, I guess I get it but I don’t fucking like it.

                All in all, would I recommend this movie? You bet your jingle bells I would! This is one of the darker films on my Christmas watch list, but it is definitely on there! You can check it out on DVD or about a million VOD platforms tomorrow, just in time to kick your Christmas season into high gear.

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