Werewolf Santa

Were to start?

The poster looks good, Emily Booth looks fantastic (as always) and that's where it ends!

I had high expectations for this when I saw this advertised in a Facebook group and really looked forward to seeing it as I thought it would be great to watch. After sitting through 70 minutes of it, I was wrong, so, so wrong!

I am thinking both Emily and Mark (Arnold) have fallen on hard times and are doing any roles to let them pay their bills as this wasn't a movie. This was more like a high school drama project that was created by a student who was either in a rush or had procrastinated for most the year and needed to 'put something out' to be marked!

Dialogue between characters was basic, the humour/jokes weren't funny and hardly landed, in fact the funniest part was in the trailer for the movie (the "I'll get me coat" line) For being a horror movie there was very in the way of horror or jump scares.

The only horrific thing about the movie was the was the look of the werewolf/Santa! I am sure we've seen scarier Halloween masks from the local cheap shop. As for the actor who played Santa/the wolf you could tell they were putting everything into the role however they seemed to be bereft of any acting ability or screen presence, I would maybe consider a new career in woodworking as they are that wooden I thought at times they had just hung the wolf suit up on a coat hanger.

I have a feeling a lot of the positive reviews will be from the cast and crew but do yourselves a favour and give this a miss.

Can I mark this lower than one?

Lucy and Dustin are paranormal investigators with a YouTube channel called "Monster Hunters". They are in their home town of Hastings on the Sussex coast, it's Xmas Eve coupled with a Full Moon. Whilst out in the woods they spot Santa (yes, the real one) taking a leak when he is attacked by a night creature, this turns him into a werewolf. "Santa's turned into a werewolf. Might need your help to save Xmas" Lucy tells somebody. I don't usually watch Xmas movies out of season but last night was a Full Moon and looking for a werewolf movie that I had not seen before I found this British "comedy" on Prime. Hand held movies shot in the style of Found Footage have been done to death but at least in this instance the fact that the events were shot for YouTube gives it some credibility. However, be warned that there are moments of excessive shaky cam. Joining the twosome are Lucy's mum, played by Scream Queen Emily Booth, Lucy's father, a token American (Mark Arnold,) and their very annoying Irish pal Rupert. Booth and Arnold are both wasted appearing in this. There is some fake looking snow but it only falls in certain spots. We don't see much of Werewolf Santa close up, which is probably just as well because it looks like a Halloween mask that can be purchased from the shops. Worst looking werewolf I have ever seen! We hear flies buzzing around very fresh corpses despite it being mid-Winter. The film may only run 71 minutes but there are stretched out periods of boring dialogue that are meant to be funny but aren't. There are three things that I did like however. I did enjoy the character of Lucy and thought that Katherine Rodden put in a good performance. One scene takes place at an amusement park and inside a ghost train, which was cool. And although I have seen her in far better roles Emily Booth is always nice to see. As both Xmas horror movies and werewolves movies go this really is the pits, less Ho Ho Ho, more No No No!

"Santa's turned into a werewolf."

"I'll get my jacket."

Sometimes movies know they're silly. Sometimes a movies grandest ambition is to be silly; that is the case with Werewolf Santa, and I can't claim it doesn't achieve that.

Unsuccessful paranormal blogger Lucy (with lame rocker boyfriend in tow), head to her family town for Christmas. While she expects her biggest problem to be clashes with her divorced parents (Emily Booth and Mark Arnold), the Yuletide spirits flip when a werewolf attacks Santa Clause, sending him on a gloriously goofy, bloody rampage.

The budget is undeniably low, but the core cast of likeable characters keep the film entertaining and enjoyable throughout. By the way, Emily Booth needs to be recognised as the British Elvira, not just for sex symbol status, but also for great comedic timing.

If you like Christmas horrors that don't take themselves too seriously, you could do a lot worse.

This is called 'Werewolf Santa,' it was evidently made on a tiny budget and it's a found footage movie. One would be daft to anticipate a masterpiece. But even with expectations lowered to rock bottom this simply isn't very good. The hilarious possibilities for werewolf Santa mayhem are never realized, the characters are poorly-developed and the direction is fairly incompetent from the perspective of spatial coherence. All of which might be forgivable if the dialogue was funny, which it generally isn't aside from a few dry one-liners. The premise merited a manic, high-energy gorefest but this one stays stuck in second gear through a tepid finale.

YouTube monster hunters Lucy (Katherine Rodden) and Dustin (Charlie Preston) go in search of werewolves in the seaside town of Hastings, but when they find one, it is taking a bite out of Santa. When Santa becomes a werewolf himself, the wannabe social media stars attempt to track down the red-suited monster and shoot him.

With a budget that probably couldn't stretch to a celebratory post-production box of mince pies (certainly not Tesco's Finest), found footage horror Werewolf Santa is unable to do its loopy premise justice, the lack of money evident throughout, from the painted MDF Santa sleigh, to the foam standing in unconvincingly for snow, to the cheap and rather nasty captions and childishly rendered comic-book panels, to Santa's patently fake beard and 'tache. I'm guessing that Joe Bob Briggs recorded his opening narration out of charity.

I really wanted to like this film, as I was kindly given a screener to watch by director Airell Anthony Hayles, but as much as I admire and appreciate the hard work and dedication required to make any film, I cannot see past this film's many shortcomings, of which a lack of cash is just one. Played for giggles rather than scares, Werewolf Santa is supremely silly, but doesn't deliver enough genuine laughs, much of the gags falling flat, while attempts at emotional beats feel strangely out of place amidst the lunacy. Scares are also in short supply, with a chase scene in a ghost train the only part that comes close to delivering any tension (the operative word being 'close'). Successfully combining horror and comedy is a fine art that few master, and Hayles' film fails to bring these two genres together in a satisfying manner.

To their credit, the cast give it their all, doing the best they can with the material (Mark Arnold from Teen Wolf and Brit cult actress Emily Booth being the 'recognisable stars' of the film), but the film is screaming out for a sharper script, someone who can draw, and better special effects (which brings me back to the budget...).

3/10 - Needed to be funnier, bloodier, and have a werewolf that looks more like the one on the poster.