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Five kids find
a woman in a santa suit trapped in a
pit deep in the woods. At first they intend to help
her, but they soon find out that she's a dangerous
criminal with lots of cash. Since they want her
money, they decide to let her stay in the pit until
she reveals where she's hidden the money, but what
they didn't expect was for her to get out.
Xmas Tale feels like an ill-humoured slasher mix
of "Stand By Me" and "Home Alone" in both good and
bad ways. Naturally, since the kids are all around ten
years old, there's not a whole lot of slashing to be
found and the evil santa woman is the one who takes
a beating by the horrible brats (you really do hate
the kids more than the killer, I too would have come
after them with an axe). The kids treat the woman
like crap and since they're obsessed with horror
movies they even perform a ritual.
The movie opens with five friends finding a seemingly
dead woman in a pit in the woods. She's wearing a
santa suit and is badly bruised from the fall. After
pouring some soda on her, they discover that she's
still alive so while two of the kids go to the police,
the other three try to get her up. At the police
station however, the two friends find a note saying
that this woman is a dangerous criminal and they get
back just in time to push the woman back into the
pit. So far so good huh? But when these brats find
out that she's got lots of money, they decide to
demand a ransom in exchange for her freedom. Bad idea.
She soon manages to escape which forces the kids to
seek shelter in a closed park. This is where the
slashing part would normally start. I mean, she's in
a santa suit and she's got a big axe which she drags
over the floor. I would tell you what happens next
but I don't want to spoil it for you.
Xmas Tale is by all means a fairly entertaining flick
with a mildly rewarding ending (though I wish they
had shown more), but I just hated the fact that it
reminded me of Home Alone - something which no horror
movie should do. It really felt as if this was meant
for kids to watch rather than adults.
Compared to the other movies in this anthology, Xmas
Tale looks technically superior to all of them. It's
nicely shot with colourful contrasts and great
directing. The child actors are also surprisingly
good, but as I said before, it's easier to relate
to the psychotic woman. In the end this is a decent
horror movie that would probably have been a whole
lot better had it not been made for TV. If you're
going to watch a horror flick with your kids, perhaps
this is the one to watch as they will probably enjoy
it more than you will.
An un-gory impalement, nothing more, nothing less.
The movie takes place in the 80's so it was nice to
get some 80's rock music - even though it's in Spanish,
and I found it kind of amusing that they played "Yes
Sir, I can boogie" since that was made by the Spanish
pop-duo Baccara. Overall, a pretty good score.
Xmas Tale had the potential to be a very entertaining
slasher flick, but since it was made for TV and with
kids in the lead roles, it felt more like an evil
version of "Home Alone". Good to watch with your kids,
if not a little too scary for them, but probably not
a big treat for adults.
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