SlashBack Cinema

Christmas Evil (1980) – Yuletide Horror & Cult Legacy

• Ryan Dreimiller, Shanny Luft • Season 1 • Episode 46

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What happens when you really commit to being Santa?

This week on SlashBack Cinema, we unwrap Christmas Evil (1980) a grimy, slow-burn (or is it no-burn??) holiday horror film that exposes the dangers of embracing your inner Santa. Naughty, nice, or completely feral… this is one weird seasonal trip. We unpack its unsettling themes, peculiar character choices, and how this overlooked gem became a cult favorite plus what makes it uniquely creepy in the Christmas horror subgenre.

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Shanny Luft:

Santa's watching, and this time he's judging with a body count. Today we unwrap one of the most unhinged holiday nightmares of 1980 Christmas evil directed by Louis Jackson, trim the tree, sharpen that slay and hope that Santa doesn't snap. This is slash back cinema.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Before we get going, I've got to light my holiday torch here.

Shanny Luft:

What movie did we see where someone sharpened a candy cane and then stabbed people with it?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Oh, that was in on the apocalypse. Yes. And so for the viewers at home, they can't see what I'm doing. I'm setting a stick on fire right now, because every house needs its own torch.

Shanny Luft:

Is that? Why do you have a blow torch just laying around your house? What is that about?

Ryan Dreimiller:

You know, I like blowtorches instead of lighters.

Shanny Luft:

It looks like you just lit a cigar. What is that?

Ryan Dreimiller:

This is San Paulo. It's like a stick. It's a fragrance stick. It's a burn it to does it ward off demons? Incense, it wards off demons. And, you know, brings good fortune. So, yeah,

Shanny Luft:

nice, yeah. Well, our podcast could use some of that. All right, so have you ever heard of this movie? Christmas Eve First, we should say this is one of those movies that has like, three different titles. Did you come across that?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, I did see that. What? I didn't write down the titles. What do you got?

Shanny Luft:

All right, hang on, I didn't write them down either. Oh, Jesus Christ. Christmas evil is what the movie is. But oh, it was called, you better watch out. I think that's what the director wanted. And then it was also called Terror in toy land.

Ryan Dreimiller:

I think all these are terrible titles, although Christmas evil is interesting, but after watching the film, I don't know that that is the best title for this film, but

Shanny Luft:

I feel like you, what you and I have discovered? One of the many things you and I have discovered is that if a movie rolls out and it has multiple titles, that is already a sign that something's wrong, yeah, it's not a good sign,

Ryan Dreimiller:

unless it's an Italian horror film, which then, you know, they take to the next level.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, something in the translation right, could get lost. But yeah, I read that the director found out that the movie title had been changed to Christmas evil when he was watching the

Ryan Dreimiller:

movie. Wait, so what was his original intended title?

Shanny Luft:

I think he liked you better. Watch out. Oh, interesting. Okay. But then I came across people online who had just known it as terror in toy land, which I don't think that's that is the worst of the three. Yeah, I agree. You know, a question I have for you, Ryan is, why are there so many Christmas horror movies? I mean, specifically Christmas, you don't see this many Easter horror movies. There's not that many Hanukkah horror movies. Is there something about Christmas that just lends itself to horror movies and murder action international Pictures presents the gruesome holiday shocker

Unknown:

elves, Christmas evil the night he dropped in after Black Christmas, they'll never be the same again. Did you ever find the Christmas killer? Never got a reliable description of the man. His name is crompus Time for some seasons, beatings. No one dressed as Santa Claus is safe. You've made it through Halloween. Now try and survive Christmas.

Ryan Dreimiller:

I do have some thoughts on that, and like a it's really got nothing to do with Christmas, the whole Santa thing. So let's just set the record straight there. But if you do dig into the history of Santa and go back before it became this Hallmark, kind of consumerist thing, I mean, it's back to Germany and Austria. We talked a little bit about this, that Krampus episode, but, like, it is kind of bizarre. Like, like, we're all excited about somebody breaking into our house. At the root of it is judgment on good and evil, and then you're either gonna get rewarded or punished. And like, you know, in the German traditions, what Krampus was beating kids with sticks, and also people that get really into Christmas, which I do, like the whole thing, but like, somebody dresses up like Santa Claus, like you might be a little bit weird, like, at some level of distrust, similar to, maybe, like clowns, like, although clowns, for me are way worse than than Santa Claus. But I don't know what's your hot take on this.

Shanny Luft:

Actually, I think you're on to something. I do think that there was a darker edge to Christmas in earlier times. And when you look at like, those Germanic stories, St Nicholas is, like, he's got a buddy who's just a little darker in the kind of the evil version. And then even in the songs, like, Santa knows if you've been bad or good. That's like, one of the things I liked about this movie is I did feel like it took seriously the idea that Santa is not, like a completely wholesome character for good that he punishes the people who deserve to be punished and rewards the people that deserve to be rewarded. So before we get too far into this, you want to give us a little summary.

Ryan Dreimiller:

So Christmas evil from 1980 we've said this before, and it gets thrown out, thrown around quite a bit, and I'm starting to have a different take on what slow burn actually means. Scenes for these types of films, but it is definitely a slow burn psychological holiday thriller where this toy factory worker, he's already got some stuff going on from childhood trauma. Well, he finally snaps and decides to become Santa, and in really quite an unhinged way, it's essentially this guy manifesting Santa Claus and then meriting out gifts to the good kids and punishment to those that are have been bad or perhaps wronged Santa him as the Santa So, right, that goes from there. So it is definitely an interesting film, and not what I expected as we line this one up to watch it, right?

Shanny Luft:

And so the main character, I thought his name was Mikey. I think because he reminded me of his name is not Mikey. I think his name is Harry Terry, yeah. But in my notes, I kept writing Mikey, because when they show him as a kid in, is it the 40s or the 50s? Yeah? Opening scene, yeah. He, I think he looks exactly like Mikey, the kid from the life cereal.

Ryan Dreimiller:

All right, yeah, so didn't you? Harry died. Man, what

Shanny Luft:

was it for Pop Rocks? Oh, totally. Note to self. Don't try Pop Rocks and soda. Yeah, kids explode. So, yeah, Harry, he's like, traumatized by the scene at the beginning of the movie. Do we want to say anything about the scene in the beginning? How would you describe that

Ryan Dreimiller:

starts off, very wholesome, and then I think it cuts to the kids going upstairs and going to bed, while the one boy wakes up goes back downstairs, and apparently Santa's brought presents for for other people in the house, including mom. And this, just like this little scene of Santa and mom getting intimate and Well, boy that really, that really did a number on little Harry there. He was never quite the same after that. Christmas Eve,

Shanny Luft:

Harry sneaks downstairs because he thinks he hears Santa Claus, and then he sees his dad dressed as Santa and his mom, and they're in in a compromising position, and that's supposed to be the explanation for why poor little Harry is traumatized. Is it? Is the dad wearing a Santa outfit because he's there to trick the kids into believing in Santa, or is this some kind of weird Santa fetish that his mother and mom has. I didn't understand why he was dressed as Santa making out with with his wife.

Ryan Dreimiller:

My take was that he was dressed, he had dressed up a Santa for the kids. It was a whole thing that they did. But, you know, since this was John Waters favorite Christmas movie, it could be a Santa fetish. And they were doing a little like, you know, role play thing. Who knows? Yeah.

Shanny Luft:

So then it cuts to 1980 and then Harry's an adult, and he's got this, like, weird it's a very uncomfortable character. He has, like, binoculars, and he's like, spying on little kids bedrooms. It's kind of like Hitchcock's rear window, but only if Santa Claus were spying on young children. And then he writes down like, whether he has a book where he, like, literally writes down like their good and bad behaviors. There's one kid looking at Penthouse magazine, and so he's like, keeping track of all their good and bad behaviors.

Ryan Dreimiller:

That kid had a long page of his naughty list, and including using profane language and looking at obscene images, so that that kid's definitely getting cold or worse.

Shanny Luft:

I that's what I want to ask you about, because I was immediately concerned. I've never seen a horror movie, and whether this is a horror movie, we'll have to come back to but I've never seen a horror movie that had so many young children, like under 10 years old. And I thought, is this guy going to kill these children in this movie? Because the plot seemed to revolve him just watching them on his camera. It was a little disturbing.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, a little creepy. There's a story unfolds. You realize he's gotten this promotion from working the line to Harry being, yeah, part of management. But he's incredibly awkward and weird.

Shanny Luft:

So he works at this toy factory, and then it's kind of like the the Lucille Ball kind of toy factory, where you just stand on the line, and then toys roll pass, and you're quickly trying to, like, put together,

Ryan Dreimiller:

I guess. And I was looking at that factory, and I was like, I was like, that conveyor belt was, like, filthy, like I spent all the time of, like, watching the background. I'm like, Wow, this place is a hot mess. And I did, like, read in the lore, like digging into it that apparently it was actually a toy factory.

Shanny Luft:

I mentioned earlier that I had doubts that this was even like a horror movie. I don't know, what did you think? I mean, it wasn't. I felt like, I think this movie gets lumped in with like Silent Night, deadly night, and all of the kind of slasher movies from the early 80s and early to mid 80s. But I'm not sure that's actually what this movie is. It actually reminded me of a super cheap version of taxi driver where the main character is just like slowly losing. His mind as he spies all the evil in the

Ryan Dreimiller:

world well. So that is what when it when I had reached out the Reddit are hard, just posted, hey, recommend a movie. And multiple people recommended this film. They did say it was sort of the taxi driver of psychological thriller slash holiday horror, which I think you're tracking with how people have thought about and considered this movie. Yeah, there is some murders in this, but it is not like some of the other ones we've watched that are like, definitely more like gratuitous or kind of more genre typical.

Shanny Luft:

So before we get into scenes, we have a feature we sometimes do 80s watch, where we discuss things in the movie that just really jumped out at us as being just like really clear examples from our memories or our childhoods of like what the 80s were really like, a massive 80s party, one of the things that jumped out at me was something you have talked about before. There's a scene where a kid is misbehaving, the mom is trying to get him in the car, yeah? And she just open hand slaps him.

Ryan Dreimiller:

That's just good parenting back then, right? Yeah. And then, I don't know if you have any examples, but I had one more. Share yours, then I'll share some of my thoughts on that. The other

Shanny Luft:

thing that jumped out at me was there's a scene at the end, and we'll get to like, what happens at the end of the movie, but there's a sequence in the end where a guy on the street pulls out a switch blade. Switch blades seem like a very 1970s 1980s weapon. You don't see a lot of switch blades these days. I felt like in the 70s in movies, maybe, I guess, more than real life, switch blades were like, constantly coming out. You push a little button and a knife pops out. Have you ever had any interactions with actual switch blades in your childhood?

Ryan Dreimiller:

I feel like there in middle school, there was this bully that would carry a switchblade to school, and he was always threatening to, like, stab other kids. I think he threatened to stab me and Kevin Hughes at one point, which, you know, now you just like, back in the day, you complain to your parents there's a kid threatening to stab my child, you know. Now that'll be a real problem, but you know, again, school is a little different back then. Yeah.

Shanny Luft:

So, you know, I didn't have a switchblade. What I did have is something that looked like a switchblade. No, you push the button and a comb

Ryan Dreimiller:

pops out. Yeah, that was Yeah.

Shanny Luft:

So that's how popular switchblades were. They were so popular that they were like ironic toys for kids that just look like switchblades. Yeah. So anyway, when I saw that switchblade, I just thought that's we got to talk about that for a second, because that's the kind of thing you don't see anymore. But anymore, but definitely is of its

Ryan Dreimiller:

time, yeah. So this was a cusp movie, so it came out in 80 which means it was really filmed probably in like 7879 so it's like, definitely more, and that comes across in this movie. It feels a lot more 70s to me. The one thing that was the van he was driving. So I don't know if your family had one of those. We had one of those. It was like, the big Chevy dodge Econoline vans, really, they were rear wheel drive. And there's multiple scenes of him flying around in the snow covered streets in his van. I'm like, Jesus Christ. This is the most dangerous thing I'm seeing in this film. Is like, That guy's got no control. I'm like, he's gonna crash this van, and sure enough, he does get stuck at one point.

Shanny Luft:

That's funny. We never had a van. We did have multiple station wagons. And in the 70s and 80s, my brother and sister and I talk about this all the time. You would just throw all the kids in all the way in the back in the station wagon, those extra weight belts, yeah, right. And then we would all just go flying back and forth, dad would take a sharp turn, and we would all just hit one wall, the station wagon. I feel like kids today wouldn't even believe what was normal back then, like the idea that your parents would smoke in your car and maybe roll down the window, but maybe not

Ryan Dreimiller:

like these people really, no, no, they only rolled down the window to ash, and when you had your window down like the ash would hit you in the face and you get burned. Get burned. Like, yeah, that was happened on a regular occasion.

Shanny Luft:

But I want to emphasize, we kids loved being in the back of the station wagon. Like, What a party it was to be flown, knocked from side to side and rolled like bowling pins in the back of the car, just like being in Santa's sleigh. So yes, nice to hear that that van in the movie took you back. He also paints a sleigh on the side of it, as he, I feel like Harry slowly losing his mind, and thinks he is Santa Claus and that this is his sleigh.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, as you watch the movie, that van shows up a multiple he drives it to every place that he's like, creating chaos and mischief. And I'm like, it's the most like, quickly identifiable vehicle in the world. And he's also, like, murdering people with all these things that he just leaves on the ground that are like, he made it in his house. It's like, got his fingerprints all over. I'm like, This guy's what, sloppy ass criminal. All.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, okay, you say that. But one of the moments in the movie that really cracked me up was after it might be the first murder in the movie, the news reporter comes on and like, reports on the deaths, like the slaughter that just happened, and the police, they know that it's like a guy dressed as Santa Claus, and so the news reporter says something like police say, look, be on the lookout for a guy dressed to Santa Claus. This is December 24 All right, you want to talk about favorite scenes.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, I had a few, and the way they've been building it in slow burn is a good description, because, like, it does take its time, like when I was watching this, it's essentially the front of the church it has been leading up to this. It's taken its time. You're watching Harry, basically, his cheese starts sliding off his cracker. He's getting a little wacky, like the thing that really sets him off is at the holiday party, where they're all celebrating, they're watching a video, and it's basically talking about how they're going to donate all these toys to the local kids hospital.

Shanny Luft:

This is, like, his company's holiday party, right?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, yeah, where all the toys are made. And so he he's watches it, and then he starts asking the main owner, guy, like, questions. And he's like, Oh, you don't think we're gonna really donate all those toys. That's bad for business. And essentially, like, the company's punting it to the employees, and whatever they donate, they're gonna chip in a little bit. And so, well, that was last draw for Harry. He goes off the deep end. And so that's kind of the catalyst that sets him down this path to, like, start taking out other people, exacting revenge or giving gifts.

Shanny Luft:

No, did he go? Does Harry go to the church to kill his the two bosses in the company church?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah. So like, The scene opens with, they're all in the church things are either having mass or whatever. And his, his the boss of the company, is there, along with his wife, and I'm assuming, other employees. And so he pulls up in his van bottom of the steps. It's not like he's inconspicuous. He's in full kind of Santa costume. His sleigh van's there. They all come down and, like, there's a few guys just like giving him crap. They are the first down the steps, like, just razzing him. And you see in his backpack that he's got, like, this little toy that he's made, like he was complaining about the quality of the toys in the factory. Well, he cast this one at home in a scene, and it's got the sharp a pointy stick, like, it's like a little soldier with a knife. Yeah, and you say, kind of looking at that, watching it go down. But I will say what unfolds is quite unexpected in terms of the speed and level where he's, like, I got something for you. And he reaches up, grabs that toy and proceeds to stab out the guy's eye. Next thing you know, there's a scene of him with his Santa hatchet, hacking away at everybody on the steps. And then they cut to just bodies everywhere, like Harry, really what batshit crazy in that scene, I was like, Damn Harry. I want to

Shanny Luft:

emphasize to our listeners who may not have seen this movie, what you were picturing in your head is so much more clear and horrifying than what is pictured in the movie, because the movie, they don't have budgets to show like mallets going into heads, and so it's just arm lifts up guy on ground. Arm lifts up guy on ground, even when he takes the little soldier guy and pokes it into someone's eye. And Ryan, we need to talk about this, because is this the second or third time this has come up? Someone gets their eye poked out? I'm sure there's like a psychological name for this, because you have this phobia about getting your eye poked out. Did this movie trigger your eye poke out?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Phobia? It happened so fast, and the scene was so fast that I was definitely like, and then they were on the rest of the carnage that we just described.

Shanny Luft:

I want to, I want to, like, take issue with you're saying this happens fast. I don't think the speed in which it happens is the issue. I think it's the extremely unclear editing. So it's just this series of images coming out at you, and they're so fast and so disconnected to each other. Phonetic, yeah, yes, that you can barely figure out what the hell is going on. So yeah, that's probably like one of the two or three scenes that is clearly like horror inspired by horror movies, but also like is like shocking, supposedly. And that's like 4550 minutes in, like you keep saying slow burn, it's, I would say this is no burn. Like it feels like nothing is happening for the longest time. He spies on kids. He takes notes about them. Nothing ever happens with any of those kids, right? There's not a single one of those kids that ends up like part of the story, because the story is really about him punishing his bosses for being greedy.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yeah, it also reminded me so I didn't, I did not see some of the more recent Joker films, but sort of that kind of space where it's like, it's sort of like a character study of a guy, like just losing his shit. It's a descent into madness. I thought that was good. And. There was, like, that scene where he brings all the toys to that Children's Hospital and shows up, and then so he's got a bag of toys knocking on the door, and the security guard's like, what, what the fuck are you doing? Like, it's the middle of the night, you're a psychopath. And he's like, he's like, I'm just bringing like, he's like, kind of unsure of himself. The security guard goes back inside, and then he's standing outside, and he's like, he's like, starts saying, oh, Merry Christmas. And he starts saying over and over and over. And then eventually, by the end, he's like, loud and boisterous and kind of what you think Santa Claus would be. And then it starts snowing, and then they all come out. And then there's the there's like, this little moment of, like he's manifesting Santa, and everybody's feeling The Christmas Joy. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. You Yeah, so I thought that was, there's really kind of interesting moments in the film that, like, kept me engaged, but they were quite spread out.

Shanny Luft:

Yes, I am through a band landscape, right? Really, let's just get to it. The last 10 minutes of the movie, I feel like are the movie last week. I said the movie that we watched. You should just skip the first two thirds and just watch the last half hour. With this movie, you could just watch the last 10 minutes. I feel like that is the only part of the movie that is worth seeing.

Ryan Dreimiller:

I see it now. It's gonna be the slash back edit. It'll be our release, pre release, all these films, and you're like, oh, that movie was five minutes long.

Shanny Luft:

Can you imagine the timer saving? I feel like our podcast is doing an important public service by letting people know what scenes they should watch in the movie. So he's walking around, he's got like, a satchel with toys in it. And he does, actually, I think, kill one of the bosses. He sneaks into the boss's house. There's a very extended sequence where he tries to go down the chimney, and he realizes you can't really go down a chimney. So that I like that moment too. I thought that was, what was the point of that? I feel like it was like a moment of the reality hitting him from this fantasy world he stepped into and that you can't go down the friggin chimney like. So essentially, he's trying to do the Santa thing while he gets in there, and he's like, freaking stuck in it. At first, you're like, is he taking a dump in there? I thought, what's happening? You could tell he's stuck. He's trying to get himself out. And, they, you know, by the time he gets out, he's like, Well, okay, I guess I'm not freaking Santa Claus. I don't have the magic. So then he sneaks into the house, and little kids are in the house. They come out and they see Santa. He has left a bunch of presents for the kids from the toy factor he works in. But then he goes to kill their father, who is one of the evil people. And Kim really pointed out, Santa is really sending mixed messages here, because the kids, it is their dad, so they are receiving presents, but aren't they also being affected by the murder of their parents in his bed?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Trauma breeds trauma. Shanny, it's generational trauma, so you know, Harry's passing it on to Frank's kids

Shanny Luft:

here, right? So he kills one of the guys from work. Then he is, like, kind of sneaking around. And this is the sequence I'm talking about the last 10 minutes. He's walking through the back of some like alley, and a couple of there's, like, two sets of parents, and then like, four or five kids, are running up ahead. They see Santa Claus. The kids think it's the real Santa Claus, so they run up to him and kind of like all embrace Him. And before, parents are just standing back, quite confident that he's a killer, but they, they seem to not be sure what to do about it, like they they don't want to act too quickly, because their kids are hugging a murderer psychopath, Santa Claus. That's when the guy pulls out the switch blade, and the kids are all watching this. And this movie should have spawned 20 sequels, like every one of these kids is now going to be in their own Christmas horror movie, because the kids are watching their dad with a switchblade slowly walk towards Santa Claus to gut him like a fish. Then one of the little girls who looks like the little girl in the Grinch that stole Christmas, she runs up to her dad, pigtails, she starts like pounding on him. She's like all of six years old. No, Daddy, don't kill Santa Claus, which makes him drop his switch blade. His wife sees this and tries to intervene. He pushes his wife like, What in the hell is happening in this movie? So she hits the ground. Switch blade falls on the floor. The little girl picks it up. And I thought, oh my god, she's got to kill her own father. Where's this movie going? Angelina.

Unknown:

It, give me that knife. No, no, Daddy, I won't.

Shanny Luft:

I won't. Santa Claus is still watching this. And then the Santa Claus, oh, she brings the switch the little girl brings the switch blade back to the Santa, not her dad. Santa grabs the switch blade, and then he runs off. And then this was amazing, instantaneously, like there's 20 adults, and every one of them lights a torch. They all have torches, and now they're chasing Santa Claus through the streets of Jersey.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Let's talk about this. Let's pause there for a second, because everything you've said is completely accurate. But the fact that this is 1980s and then everyone has their Santa burning torch kit ready to go at a moment's notice, like, and we're talking like old school torches, so that it's like the piece of wood with, like the wrapped cloth at the top with twine, and they've soaked in whatever fuel and alcohol, yeah, yeah, or Diesel, or whatever so. And they're all letting them up. But I'm like, Who is supplying these torches to

Shanny Luft:

well, you know, Ryan, that's an excellent question, because that speaks to our sponsor today, fabulous.

Unknown:

This episode of slash back cinema is brought to you by Tony's torch Emporium. Is a psychotic Santa roaming the streets of your neighborhood. Have you tried being nice? And now it's time for naughty, then you need to come down to Tony's torch Emporium. At Tony's torch Emporium, we've got torches for every occasion, Christmas torches, wedding torches, Bar Mitzvah torches, and baby's first christening torch. If you're caring a torch for someone and you don't know how to say it, say it with torches. Tony's torch Emporium for when you want the fire you feel on the inside to start burning on the outside. Now back to slash back cinema and Christmas evil,

Shanny Luft:

we want to thank Tony's torch Emporium for supporting slash back cinema.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Well, there you go, folks, Tony's torch Emporium. Like, clearly, that's where all these torches came from, and Thanks for clearing that up. Shanny, Tony's is definitely the place to go for all your torch needs.

Shanny Luft:

All right, back to the movie. All right, so this last 10 minutes, it's just like nothing in the rest of the movie. It's so crazy. So torches, they're running and chasing. And he hops in what he thinks this is sled. And Ryan, would you like to explain what happens to this van at this point in the movie?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Well, so he's, he, he's like, running away from the villagers who are trying to burn him, like, definitely, like, felt like it was an homage to Frankenstein, right? Yeah, that. Um, so he gets in the van that's been stuck, and they're chasing, running towards him, and you're watching the wheels spin, and this is, this was my big concern with rear wheel drive in the snow. But he manages to get it out, and then takes off from there. And then there's, like, a whole scene where he goes to visit his brother, and his brother's like, my god, what have you done? And there's this whole, like, That scene was weird, too. So the brother and him are having out. The brother appears to choke him to death, and while, while his wife is watching, she's like, Phil, no. Now Harry's been dragged out by Phil, thrown back in his van because I don't know he feels bad that he choked his brother to death, and it's right, not his body. And by the way,

Shanny Luft:

yes, the kids seeing their dead choke Santa Claus to death. You get another two possible sequels, right there.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Keep going. Yeah. Anyway, so now dead, dead, Harry's behind the steering wheel. Well, then Phil's there beside the van, being said. He's like, Oh God. And then, well, Harry wakes up and proceeds to cold clock his brother drive off like a maniac, head up the street, and then the villagers are coming at him, and he's like, with the torches, and it's this big showdown. And then he cuts right, hits a bridge, the fan launches into the air. And I love this scene.

Shanny Luft:

We need to talk about what we think happened the next moment of this. I love it. I love it. I love the end. Yes, I actually loved it, too. But I'm very curious how you interpret the ending versus how I interpret the ending. All right, so the van drives off the bridge, and what do you see happen?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Ryan? Well, you what you witness and what actually probably happened are different. So I think the whole film has shifted now completely into Harry's mind, and rather than watching the bridge van plummet off the bridge into the icy river where he dies, he launches it into it's at the sky past the moon, and his his van becomes Santa's sleigh, and he's got a smile on his face, and Christmas music is playing. And yeah, then and then the movie cuts, Fade to black.

Shanny Luft:

Yes, they decide to go with the ending of grease, where the VIN just flies off and the sleigh painted on the side. Suddenly, it all makes sense. So you have, you have confirmed what I thought, which was this. The movie did not just become a supernatural horror movie, but rather in his own head. Head. He thinks that he flew away, but what he actually did, you don't, there's no indication that he's actually died, because you just see the van drive off the bridge, just fly off into the night. But you're saying, and this is, I think, how most people are interpreting this movie, that it's just become total fantasy at that point.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Yes, he's he's lost all connection to the real world. He is now Santa Claus.

Shanny Luft:

Now I like a big swing. I like a movie that takes a risk. And I thought this movie that is a hell of a swing, that's a hell of a swing. Yeah, the villagers with the torches chasing Santa Claus through the streets of Newark, New Jersey, and Van flies away. That was wild. So that was really quite

Ryan Dreimiller:

an ending. Yeah, yeah, bravo.

Shanny Luft:

Okay, so are you ready for stabby scores? Let's bring it in. What you got, brother? All right. I want to now. We need to. We need to have a quick meeting. Yes, yeah. I want to propose after our first year of slash back cinema, that we revisit the structure of stabby scores, and it's a pretty big deal, because, oh my god, going forward, our ranking system will not apply to what we've done before, and I want to suggest that we do a stabby score out of four stabbies, Whereas this past year, it's been at a five stabbies. Now this may come as a huge surprise to listeners, because we have forgotten almost every episode for the past 46 episodes to tell people what the ranking is out of

Ryan Dreimiller:

so I feel like this is controversial, though. This is like when the local school went from grade based to proficiency based. So what lay out, what you're proposing for the for the format here, Shanny, so my

Shanny Luft:

argument is, and it comes down to my hatred of if it were doing it out of five. I try to avoid a three at all times, because I feel like what we're trying to tell people is whether this movie is worth seeing. And the problem is a lot of these movies would end up a three, because they're like, I mean, there's a couple of scenes we're seeing, but the movie's not great, and you just get this kind of mediocre score over and over and over again. Yeah. So I just felt like the score out of five things are too they quickly fall to the middle. And so I think, like a four stabby scale will be helpful to listeners, because I'm saying a one or two, you don't see that movie. A three, we are recommending it. And four. This is one of the classics of cinema. What do you think? So?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Are you persuasive? You send me a text. I'm I'm convinced. I like, I like you, forcing us to get sharper and not leave our audience feeling like we're serving them white toast for every episode with our reviews, what you sent over to me was, if we go through the score ranking, one, worthless, harsh. Two, a few scenes worth, recommending. Three, you had pretty good, some flaws, and four is great or F and great, depending on the level of emphasis on that four stab score.

Shanny Luft:

Okay, right? It's, it's this movie should be watched every year and honored if you're getting four stabbies That that is our top rating. Okay, so what do you think so we're so now, what I find interesting about this is that by adjusting this going forward, we should really make an effort to try to remind people what the number of stabbies is out of so that there's some clarity here, which we have not done in our first year of podcasting.

Ryan Dreimiller:

I appreciate you forcing us to do justice to our rate rating system. So that's good

Shanny Luft:

now that we have established all that, yes, this movie sucked. What a piece of dog shit this movie is. It made no sense. The acting sucked, the visual sucked. The script sucked. The directing and editing sucked. I was watching the entire movie thinking, Is it possible to go lower than one, or is one actually the bottom? And I was at one until the last 10 minutes. Because I was like, I would, I would re watch just the last 10 minutes. I would like, tell other people, go to YouTube, Google, Christmas evil, skip to like, 120 and just watch like, torches forward, or like, you know, the scene actually right before the torches with the little girl and the switch blade that I would I'm giving a whole stabby just for that. Therefore this movie ends up as a two, which means couple of scenes we're seeing.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Wow, wow. That's quite a pivot, because I thought you were gonna roll with your one, and I was wondering if your marriage was on the line here. And Kim was like, you're gonna need to give this a one, or that's it. Shanny, no more films.

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, Kim has now watched several movies in a row. I'm gonna get stabbed if she watches another terrible movie.

Ryan Dreimiller:

So we heard it here first. People insurance agents listening. I don't know what their life insurance policy is, but we need to

Shanny Luft:

think carefully about. On our next movie, is what I'm saying.

Ryan Dreimiller:

All right, so I hear everything you're saying. This movie definitely has some problems, but I will say I enjoyed, and I thought it was, it very interesting take on this kind of Christmas, whether you call it a slasher or not, but like the Christmas genre, horror, slasher, psychological thriller, or whatever. Interesting character study. I thought there was some really interesting moments along the way, like showing him cracking up some of his great scenes we talked about. But it does drag. It's there's this, if you cut this down quite a bit, it may be you would have a tighter film, but I'm gonna bring this in a new stabby score system, a rating of two, a few scenes worth watching, yeah?

Shanny Luft:

So you are agreeing then two stabbies, yeah. I really thought you were

Ryan Dreimiller:

gonna go through well before our rating system. I was gonna go three. You've rolled this out. It brings me down to a two, because yeah. So I appreciate the compression there with

Shanny Luft:

Yeah, scores, I feel like it clarify things a little bit. Yeah. So, all right, I'm fascinated that we're in agreement. Because I didn't think that's where we were going

Ryan Dreimiller:

to end up knowing that John Waters is such a fan of this film, I really wanted to like it more than I did, but like it definitely

Shanny Luft:

it's pretty slow. All right, are we ready to bring this plane in for a landing?

Ryan Dreimiller:

Let's land the plane

Shanny Luft:

that wraps up another trip down memory lane. Hopefully you enjoyed Christmas evil from 1980 as much as we did. If you want

Ryan Dreimiller:

to support our show, tell your friends or your enemies about slash back cinema and check out our merch store at flashback cinema.com Every little bit helps, and we do promise not to spend it fixing up our Chevy van and the sleigh painted on the side.

Shanny Luft:

And we want to hear from you. If you've got a favorite memory from the 70s or the 80s or a classic horror movie you'd like us to dissect, drop us a line at slash back cinema.com because your suggestions, they keep the conversation alive.

Ryan Dreimiller:

Indeed, Happy Holidays folks, put down that butcher knife.

Shanny Luft:

Give it's gonna be okay. You've been a good boy or girl this year.

Ryan Dreimiller:

No coal for you, right? Maybe for me, though you.