Written by Derek Ford And Alan Birkinshaw
Directed by Edmund Purdom
Announcer: "A homicidal maniac is loose at Christmas. His target is Santa Claus. No one dressed as Santa Claus is safe."
A few weeks ago, I was looking for some Christmas horror and then I came across this British movie from forty years ago. Let's just say I wouldn't recommend this one to be honest.
Depending on how you feel about the Silent Night, Deadly Night series, you may struggle with this one. I definitely did. Anyways, killing Santa anyone? Because that's what you're getting with this one.
Yup, a guy dressed in a translucent mask goes through the streets of London during the festive period killing couples to begin with but when a man dressed as Santa got killed in a public setting, it gave the movie a protagonist of sorts with his daughter, Kate (Belinda Mayne).
Kate's got a shitty boyfriend named Cliff (Gerry Sundquist) and there's a plot involving a porn studio and a rival stripper named Sherry (Wendy Danvers). Sherry ended up being a captive of the killer while Cliff was seen as a suspect in the slew of murders taking place over the movie.
There's also Chief Inspector Harris (Edmund Purdom), desperately trying to solve the case while his younger brother Giles (Alan Lake) turned out to be the killer himself. His hatred for Santa does blatantly pull from that horror movie series I mentioned earlier but the brotherly dynamic between the Chief Inspector and the killer was rather poorly explored.
- Caroline Munro appears as herself while Purdom the director played the male hero of the piece.
- Nicholas Donnelly is credited as Dr Birdie but his scenes were deleted.
- The film took over a year to make with the amount of behind the scene disasters that befell it.
- Chronology: It's set during Christmas in London with flashbacks to the Christmas incident that triggered Giles's bloodlust.
I definitely wouldn't recommend Don't Open Till Christmas. It's pretty awful as a movie and it was certainly time that I could've used better myself. Honestly, don't bother with this one.
Rating: 4 out of 10
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