Film Screening: Santa Claus (aka Santa vs Satan) December 19, 2008

Friday, Dec 19

Santa Claus (aka. Santa Vs Satan)

7PM and 9:30 PM
Admission: $5

Location: 600 4th St, West Sacramento (that's the corner of 4th & F in West Sac - parking lot is right off of F Street between 4th & 5th).

Just to get you into the properly creeped-out holiday mood you should be in this time of year, we'll be presenting this bizarre and relatively unknown movie from 1959, originally filmed and released in Mexico. Included will be the badly and bizarrely dubbed English soundtrack (no subtitles) from its 1960 US release.

The plot is fairly straight-forward - Santa lives on a cloud floating over the North Pole where, rather than elves, children from all over the world help make toys (and they're really more like happy slaves). Is this a happy Santa that will make you want him to come down your chimney? Um, not so much. He's pretty creepy with his overly sweet voice paired with his disturbing laugh (not really jolly either) and insincere and sometimes vacant eyes staring at children through odd Sid and Marty Krofft-like devices - well, it's best just left at that...

But anyway - Satan is determined to bring Santa down, so sends his minion, Pitch (a skinny guy in a cheap weird red suit), to the surface to make the kids of the world hate Santa and engage in vandalism and other mischief. Oh yes - and Santa is pals with Merlin the Magician who supplies St. Nick with, amongst other things, sleeping powder. Oh - did I mention the vampiric mechanized reindeer? No?

All in all, this is one surreal (and yes, it IS surreal) cheaply made (and yes, it IS very low-budget, so don't expect quality) Christmas travesty for all to enjoy, even with it's boring parts (and yes, it DOES have it's boring parts). When this was firstreleased in theaters, it was common to see children leaving in tears from trauma and fright.

You know, it's not really a Christmas movie without dialog like, "There’s a prowler out there -- he’s come to kill your wife. And your children. He’s going to murder you!"

"How can a movie get everything so very, very wrong and yet be so very, very right? If you aren’t the least bit familiar with this surreal trip into an extremely non-traditional view of jolly ol’ St. Nick, perhaps the less known the better, as half the fun of this colossal mess is staring in dumbfounded awe at what is transpiring on the screen. It’s a hoot. A damned scary hoot, granted, but certainly a hoot." - dvdinmypants.com

Yep - this is how we wish folks a Merry Christmas in the land of Movies on a Big Screen!

Official Website: http://www.shiny-object.com/screenings/