For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. During the month of December, as has become tradition, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2022—a year that can still do with plenty of peace and joy. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch.
As films like Violent Night and Die Hard demonstrate, Christmas isn’t always the safest holiday for some. Terrorist attacks, mob strikes, natural disasters, even family accidents or abandonment could happen. As Shudder’s newest exclusive film, Christmas Bloody Christmas shows, even a malfunctioning murderous Santa Claus robot could sully a drunken Christmas Eve of sex, nachos and punk music.
A repurposed military project from the U.S. Department of Defense, the RoboSanta Plus animatronic was created as a substitute for mall Santas, despite living in a world where fewer shopping malls exist. The robots were meant to provide Santas that are always fresh with responses, something that humans often lose. Unfortunately, the RoboSantas have suffered a malfunction that reverts the androids to their original defense war programming, leading to many deaths in the area. In the film, after leaving a Christmas party at a toy store, Tori (Riley Dandy) invites Robbie (Dam Delich) back to her place, unknowingly being stalked by the store’s RoboSanta that has already murdered their friends and is on a mission to kill anyone in it’s path.
Director Joe Begos originally wrote Christmas Bloody Christmas as a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, originally released in 1984 about a man whose childhood PTSD over witnessing his parents murdered by somebody dressed as Santa causes him to go on a killing spree on Christmas Eve. After straying far from the original concept, the film eventually merged with The Terminator, becoming its own story. Unlike Silent Night, Deadly Night and The Terminator however, there is no explanation for the robotic malfunction or the killing spree. As news reports at the opening of the film state what the robots are and about their recall, there is never an explanation about their original programming, such as how the military project had been used or what is setting off the murderous glitch. Despite its flawed story and setting, there are plenty of reasons Billy Chapman is triggered in Silent Night, given the career in which he was placed upon leaving psychiatric help– a toy store in December with lots of Santa Claus imagery. The robotic killers here have no such obvious inciting factor, but proceed to simply murder any humans they see and tracking them until the task is complete.
Nevertheless, the characters in this story remind audiences that some Christmas films do not need to be perfect, or even popular, to be a favorite. While Bob Clark may have directed A Christmas Story, he also created Black Christmas nine years prior, a movie that has been forgotten by some after the less than adequate sequel to the 2006 remake. Christmas Bloody Christmas may be fun and a great use of a nonsense murderous android to watch for 86 minutes, but as a slasher flick it fails to provide a comprehensive reason for existence, ultimately to be forgotten and replaced by a different classic from Begos in the future.
Christmas Bloody Christmas is available to stream on Shudder and AMC+.
