FESTIVE FRIGHTS # 1 - CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

DIRECTED & WRITTEN By Lewis Jackson 

STARRING - Brandon Maggart as Harry Stadling,  Jeffrey DeMunn as Phillip Stadling,  Dianne Hull as Jackie Stadling

PLOT - On one long ago Christmas Eve, little Harry Stadling waits with his brother Philip for Santa Claus to arrive. Santa does arrive (it's really Harry's dad dressed up) and Harry gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses his father performing a sexual act on his mother whilst dressed as Santa. This warps the young boy's mind...

Many years later - Harry is now a lonely adult. He works as a manager at a toy factory. It's Christmas and Harry is getting into the mood of the season - he's dressing as Santa, watching the local children to see who's naughty and nice and working extra shifts at the toy factory. 

As the line between fantasy and reality blurs, Harry starts to have a breakdown. Donning the famous red and white suit, Harry vows to bring the true spirit of Christmas to his neighbourhood...and woe betide ANYONE who tries to stop him...

PERFORMANCES - Every so often you watch a B-movie and an actor's performance comes along that REALLY stands out as something special. Not in the usual slightly ironic "so bad it's good" sort of way. No. I'm talking about a performance that's so GENUINELY good that it makes you wonder why nobody has sat up and taken notice of this actor ? Why some keen eyed Hollywood talent scout hasn't taken this actor and propelled them into the big league where they clearly belong ? Why isn't this actor a household name earning the big money ?

Brandon Maggart's performance as the tragic, sad and ultimately homicidal Harry Stadling is one such performance. Put simply... it's sheer brilliance.

When we first meet adult Harry he's literally full of the joys of Christmas - he leaps out of bed in his red satin pyjamas and dances to Christmas music whilst shaving himself in the mirror (pretending his shaving foam is a Santa beard), he just seems like a harmless eccentric at this point. Weird but essentially utterly harmless.

Things start to take a slightly more sinister turn when we see him spying on the local children with a pair of binoculars through his bedroom window. Never at any point does there seem to be anything remotely sexualy motivated by him doing this - he's literally playing Santa. He's making a list of who's naughty and nice (and probably checking it twice). He may still be harmless at this point but I think we can all agree that stalking small children is NOT the sort of behaviour that's acceptable in polite society and is liable to get your name put on a register if you're not careful.

We then see a slice of Harry's working life - he's recently been promoted to a managerial position at the toy factory and misses being one of the production line boys, but you get the impression that he never really WAS one of them in any case. All his colleagues sneer about him behind his back, he's NEVER actually belonged there. Harry, we can see, is basically a sad loner and from this point you can just tell that he's a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

We then get an insight into the only relationship Harry has in his life - with his brother Philip (Jeffrey DeMunn). Philip is the total polar opposite to Harry - he's happily married to his beautiful wife - Jackie (Dianne Hull), is a father to two young sons, lives in a nice house in a good neighborhood and has a good job. In other words he's succeeded in all the ways that Harry has failed. Whilst Philip does seem to care about his brother, he's also scornful of him and perceives him to be "weak", this naturally is yet another heavy brick placed upon the wobbly Jenga pile that is Harry's sanity.

Throughout all this Maggart manages to make Harry both extremely sympathetic and yet deeply disturbing - he's definitely a chap that would give you the creeps if you knew him. It's a fine balancing act to pull off and Maggart succeeds in doing it admirably.

The straw that finally breaks the camel's back is when Harry, out of the kindness of his heart, covers a shift for a colleague at the toy factory only to find out that the colleague has gone out drinking and is badmouthing him. Harry goes over the edge in spectacular style. The scene where Harry is breaking down in his flat, humming a Christmas carol whilst trying not to fly into a rage is a superb piece of acting. As is the scene when Harry finally dons the Santa suit and fake beard. He insanely stares into the mirror and sobs uncontrollably "it's me...it's me... IT'S ME !" Fantastic stuff.

From this point onwards Harry pretty much believes himself to be the real Santa Claus. He paints his transit van in festive livery and takes it upon himself to deliver toys (stolen from the factory he works at) to kids living in children's homes. He actually DOES do some good, but along the way his frustrations and temper get the better of him and he starts a killing spree that runs concurrently with his present delivering spree. Those who ridicule him end up dead is usually how it works. Harry has crossed the line and there's no going back now.

I'd say Maggart's performance of Harry in it's depiction of a mentally ill man going over to the dark side is every bit as good as Joachim Phoenix's performance as the Joker. It hits the same notes - a sad loner who's been shat upon all his life finally snapping and showing the world how dangerous he can be. As with Phoenix in Joker, you're simultaneously fascinated, sorrowful for and repulsed by Harry's actions. Yet at the same time you can fully understand why he's doing what he's doing and even finding yourself cheering him on despite yourself. Now that's GOOD acting, scripting and storytelling. Amazing stuff. As the story progresses and Harry becomes increasingly unhinged and desperate Maggart almost seems to undergo a physical transformation - he looks increasingly drained and haggard as the story nears it's conclusion.

The other actors are all pretty good too, though they aren't onscreen for very long. It's basically a one man show - Maggart's show. It's a good job that he's as brilliant as he is otherwise this film could have sunk itself badly.

SFX - Hardly any (apart from some gore here and there) - it's not that type of film.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Young Harry see's Mummy kissing Santa Claus (underneath the Christmas tree), except she's doing a bit a more than "kissing" ("Santa's" basically muffing her out). Wonder what she gets up to with the Easter Bunny ?

There's a few memorable killings during Harry's rampage including a scene where he slaughters a bunch of early 80's Yuppies coming out of a Christmas party.  Harry axes two of them to death, the other he stabs in the eye with a toy soldier's bayonet.

At one point Harry breaks into the house of a co-worker who ridiculed him (by going down the chimney, naturally). He delivers presents to the kids living there and then attempts to kill thier father by suffocating him with his sack full of toys, when this fails he slashes his throat open with a Christmas decoration. What this Santa gives with one hand he takes with the other.

RATING - This is an excellent movie. A descent into festive madness. Just when you think it can't get any better we come to the final scene. Harry is being chased in his van by a crowd of angry citizens. In a fit of desperation he crashes his van off a high bridge...BUT rather than plunge to his doom in the river below...THE VAN FLIES LIKE SANTA'S SLEIGH !!!!!

Up until the last second the film has been grittily realistic and suddenly it turns into the bike chase scene from E.T. !!!!!

However, this doesn't spoil the film, if anything it makes it even better. You can interpret the ending one of two ways - either the flying van is Harry's final delusion, an hallucination as he plunges to his death (which is the interpretation that I personally favour) OR good old saint Nick and the magic of Christmas stepped in to save thier most faithful practitioner at the last moment. It's up to you - a multiple choice ending.

The only issue I have with the film is it's title - Harry isn't evil (even though he does some pretty messed up things) he's just sad and insane, but this is just the most minor of minor quibbles.

Like I say a great film with a remarkable central performance. If you see only one Christmas horror movie this year then you owe it to yourself to make it this one.

5 sad Santa's out of 5.

ART -