‘Season’s eatings’
Werewolf Santa is a 2023 British comedy horror film in which the titular monster wreaks havoc in a small seaside town on Christmas Eve.
Written, directed and co-produced by Airell Anthony Hayle (Satan’s Grotto; Midnight Peepshow; They’re Outside). Also produced by Dovile Kirvelaityte.
The Haunted Cinema production stars Mark Arnold, John Bloom [aka Joe Bob Briggs], Emily Booth, Cory Peterson, Katherine Rodden, Roxanne Gregory, Dave Darko, Charlie Preston, Zoë Louise Parker and Cian Lorcan.
Plot:
Lucy (Katherine Rodden) has a show called ‘Monster Hunters’ on YouTube, but it’s not doing too great with just a few viewers following her. That is, until on Christmas Eve, her camera captures Santa Claus being bitten by a werewolf in the local park, before turning into a werewolf himself.
Lucy and her bickering family then set off on a manic adventure to somehow save Christmas, armed with just a rusty ice skate and a vague understanding of how werewolves operate with her only knowledge gained from the horror comics she pours through daily…
Our review:
Werewolf Santa opens with a collection of pleasant Yuletide family images accompanied by a jovial voiceover in which a man describes seeing Santa delivering presents to his home before everything went wrong and horrific events started occurring. This is certainly a fun and unique way to start the picture, as writer and director Airell Anthony Hayle clearly wanted to ensure that viewers would be in for an experience that they would never forget. Sadly, the rest of the film is not quite as memorable.
We are then introduced to our protagonist, Lucy (Katherine Rodden), a YouTuber who makes videos focusing on Cryptozoology. Lucy is returning home for Christmas with her apparent boyfriend, Dustin (Charlie Preston), who she evidently seems to hate when a chance encounter with a lycanthropic Santa impersonator changes the course of the evening. She decides to hunt the beast down in order to finally make it big on YouTube, and her plan goes about as well as you would expect.
The majority of Werewolf Santa consists of Lucy and her relatives driving around their small village as they search for the titular monster, so if you dislike these characters, you will probably need to try to get used to them, as you will literally be stuck in a car with them throughout most of the runtime. Lucy initially appears to be a heartless jerk who only cares about growing her subscriber base, although she eventually proves to be capable of acts of great courage when her loved ones are in danger, making her a somewhat tolerable person to be stuck with as the film progresses.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for her companions. The way her parents constantly argue and yell at one another will quickly grate on your nerves, as will the way in which their friend Ruper (Cian Lorcan) constantly pursues ludicrous conspiracy theories. That said, a scene in which Rupert examines a mutilated human corpse and reluctantly describes how it makes him hungry will still probably leave you grinning in spite of yourself.
It is also gradually revealed that Dustin and Lucy are very clearly not a suitable match, so the way in which she mocks him and his dreams of becoming a successful rock star comes across as a surprisingly commendable form of insult. As she explains, Justin Timberlake would probably be working in KFC if his first name was Dustin. There are even a few warm moments between Lucy’s parents, who were played by Emily Booth and Teen Wolf star Mark Arnold because, despite their endless arguing, it turns out they still really love each other.
However, memorable moments are few and far between, with the vast majority of dialogue exchanges instead consisting of endless bickering and shouting as the group searched for the werewolf. Most of the supporting cast spent more time at each other’s throats than the actual werewolves spent tearing out actual throats, and viewers will find themselves rejoicing when certain characters are killed off. Thankfully, the mercifully short seventy-one-minute runtime ensures that we did not have to endure the grating arguments for very long.
Due to the found-footage nature of the film, the titular monster is only shown clearly in a handful of shots, and it looks like a Santa impersonator who threw on a pair of gloves and a monster mask over his jolly red suit and beard. However, the practical gore effects are much more convincing, and a scene in which the group cover themselves with lifelike intestines from a corpse in order to fool the beast into thinking they are dead will leave you on the edge of your seat.
The werewolf’s healing abilities also allowed it to survive after sustaining injuries that would be fatal to a regular human, and the sight of a man dressed as Santa walking around with his innards dangling from his chest after it reverts back to its human form is certainly not something you will forget in a hurry. But most of the rest of the scenes, which involve the characters either driving around their village or walking through forested areas in almost pitch darkness, are sadly not unique or impressive.
Although Werewolf Santa tried to make the most of its unique titular concept, the limited budget prevents it from becoming something truly spectacular. There are some fun set pieces and moments of character interactions here and there, but when a film largely consists of mismatched individuals arguing and insulting one another, your patience is bound to wear thin. While it was by no means awful, Werewolf Santa is still a movie that can only truly be recommended to fans of the werewolf and found-footage subgenres.
David Gelmini, MOVIES & MANIA
Other reviews:
” …adopts a found footage approach as befitting Gray’s role and tells its story in decidedly (excuse the slight pun) shaggy dog style, including crap seaside ghost trains, bickering families and a werewolf attack in a known dogging spot. Booth, Rodden, Preston and Lorcan make a reasonably fun group to spend an hour or so with, and Hayles at least tries to conjure up a seasonal atmosphere…” Bloody Flicks
“Attempts at a comic-book theme come and go. Random bits of expositional lore are squeezed into the narrative like stuffing a holiday turkey. And inconsistent tones clash, lessening the comedy as well as the horror […] It never quite works, but those just looking for a conceptually silly werewolf movie may find some delight in this nonsensical, messy, yet somewhat charming film.” ★★ Dread Central
“Sure, there are bigger-budgeted, slicker holiday horror comedies out there, some of them classic, but from personal experience, I can tell you that there are some awful ones making the rounds, too. Although Werewolf Santa does not fall into the former category, it is very, very much above the latter. Fans of well-made indie horror comedies that seek to entertain as much as possible despite their low budgets…” The Good, the Bad and the Verdict
“I’m sad to say that Werewolf Santa isn’t the next great entry in the killer Santa Claus subgenre. The premise is just about genius, and some of the horror in this film is pretty good, but on the whole, the execution here just falls short. The unlikable characters make it tough to care about the story, the horror doesn’t hit as hard as I expected it to, and the humor is pretty ineffective.” Horror Obsessive
” …this is admirably succinct (just over 70 minutes), generally good-humoured […] sometimes wicked, often amusing in its avoid-expenses cheapness and features Emily Booth in a Christmas sweater. It lands a few emotional moments as the heroine connects with people she’s alienated from, but is mostly just a silly runaround.” The Kim Newman Web Site
“Although we do see Santa as a werewolf for quite a lot of the movie, it never looks quite as good as you are probably hoping – this is almost entirely because of budget restraints. But, I enjoyed seeing something new when it comes to horror and Christmas. At a little over an hour, Werewolf Santa never outstays its welcome and it runs along at a good pace.” ★★★ Nerdly
“Werewolf Santais a surreally chaotic, often bawdily vulgar scramble through the backwoods of spurious Sussex lore. There is, in keeping with Santa’s newfound canine nature, a hilarious dogging scene, as well as a sequence in an amusement ride where it is hard to tell fake creatures apart from the genuine article. In fact, the whole film runs like a ghost train – cheap carnivalesque fun dressed up in genre costume.” Projected Figures
YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
More Airell Anthony Hayle movies:
MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW (2022) Reviews of British horror anthology – now with US release news
THEY’RE OUTSIDE (2020) Reviews of British pagan horror – free to watch on YouTube
Release:
Werewolf Santa was screened at the 2023 FrightFest in London on Friday, August 25th.
In the UK, Werewolf Santa will be released digitally by Miracle Media on November 6, 2023, with a DVD release on November 13, 2023.
Original title:
Frost Bite
Related:
IT BE AN EVIL MOON (2023) Reviews of British ‘werewolf’ horror
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