Santastein

Santastein (2023) is currently available on Tubi. The story follows a young boy who accidentally kills Santa. Obsessed with bringing him back, the boy spends six years researching resurrection rituals. When he finally succeeds, Santa returns-but as an evil, vengeful figure who embarks on a killing spree.

The film is co-directed and co-written by Manuel Camilion and Benjamin Edelman in their feature film debuts. It stars Jared Korotkin, Michael Vitovich (Lady Ballers), Heather Fisch (Unboxed), Fletcher Hammond (Home for Thanksgiving), and Brian D. Long (Saturday Night).

This is the kind of movie you watch out of curiosity about how the concept will play out, only to finish it wondering why they bothered if this was the result. While the settings and atmosphere are decent, the execution falls flat. The transformation scene is serviceable but lacks impact. Santa himself had potential as a menacing figure but ends up feeling like just another generic killer. The storyline is straightforward and predictable, and the kill scenes are uninspired and forgettable.

In conclusion, Santastein is a mediocre entry in the holiday horror genre. I'd score it a 4/10 and recommend skipping it.

NOT a future cult classic by any means, but there were elements that showed promise.

To start with the props department was hit and miss. The scene when the "monster" is created was actually a fair tip of the hat to the 1931 Frankenstein, A hit, and probably the only part of the movie that's worth the price of admission.

The biggest miss was the policeman's uniform. From that point on the film devolves into run-of-the-mill teen horror/comedy, (?)

Burying Santa's body, but keeping the brain in a jar for fifteen years was a good add to the plot, but at least one reviewer must have missed that part.

The cookies could have gone somewhere but failed to be utilized to any of their potential.

...and the ending (if you want to call it that) was weak to the point of almost being non-existent, and ultimately disappointing/.

Santastein is a high school Christmas horror comedy take on the classic Frankenstein tale.

It all begins with Max, who accidentally killed Santa when he was 9 years old.

In an attempt to capture evidence of his existence.

So he has dedicated his life to fixing this mistake...with hopes of restoring the magic of Christmas.

However, all his efforts fail...until he teams up with the smartest girl in school for a science project.

Together they manage to bring a rat back from the dead.

Which leads Max to believe he can do the same thing for Santa.

But he only has Santa's brain.

So he must steal a newly deceased body from the morgue; swap it's brain for Santa's; and harness an electrical charge strong enough to reanimate him.

Not realizing how big of a mistake this actually is, until it's too late.

Because he's not the sort of Santa he thought he'd be.

Rather, one with an insatiable bloodlust he immediately puts into action.

Now Santa's on a killing spree.

So they must concoct a plan to stop him...without totally ruining Christmas in the process.

What starts out as a cheesy, high school, horror comedy...ends up taking quite the vicious turn in the third act.

Which is quite action packed.

And all sorts of gory fun.

It is rather low budget, though.

And suffers from some severe audio-balancing issues.

But, that aside, it's actually pretty great.

In a super culty sort of way.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finding it to be pretty darn fun.

So, must say...it's definitely worth a watch.

Just remember to stick with it, and wait for the payoff.

Because it's totally worth it.

5 out of 10.

Never having heard of the 2023 horror comedy "Santastein", from writers and directors Manuel Camilion and Benjamin Edelman, when I stumbled upon it here in 2024, of course I opted to watch it, given my love of the horror genre. And I do enjoy horror comedies.

While the movie started out great with the scene of Santa accidentally getting killed, and "Santastein" definitely had an interesting synopsis and plot on paper, I must admit that I had some expectations to the movie. But I have to say that writers and directors Manuel Camilion and Benjamin Edelman failed to deliver. The movie's narrative was a swing and a miss. Sure, the movie had potential, but it was not utilized, and the movie just fell flat. Even the whole "Frankenstein" part of the movie just felt irrelevant to the narrative.

Of course I was not familiar with any of the actors or actresses on the cast list. But while the narrative was not particularly great, the acting performances were actually still quite fair. And I do enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen when I sit down to watch a movie. Just a shame that the actor and actresses didn't really have much of anything solid to work with.

This movie will never find its way back onto my screen a second time, as it was a struggle to sit through it the first time already. In fact, I actually also dozed off somewhere along the way. Yeah, the movie was that boring.

My rating of writers and directors Manuel Camilion and Benjamin Edelman's 2023 horror comedy "Santastein" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Glad I stumbled across this and gave it a chance cause it's so goofy and trashy and I mean that in the best way possible. You can tell the cast and crew had a blast making it and that there was a lot of passion behind the project. Yes, there are some technical issues due to its small budget, but nothing that was distracting enough to hinder my viewing experience and honestly, the film's scrappy nature kinda added in some extra charm. It's a fun premise with some surprisingly funny moments and a few entertaining, over the top kills (with one standout death being particularly gnarly.) will happily add this to my annual holiday viewing lineup!