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?

This film seems to have been officially released on Youtube for streaming.

Which is appropriate, because it's a film about a group of cryptozoology hunting youtubers who have set out to find werewolves, during a full moon, on Christmas Eve, in Hastings, UK.

Only to witness Santa being attacked by one of the werewolves, while taking a pee break in a public park.

Turning him into a werewolf (as you might have suspected by the title).

Of course, the whole thing is quite cheesy.

Making it bad in the so-bad-it's-good kind of way.

I was certainly entertained, anyways.

Sure, it's stupid.

With lame costumes.

And mediocre special effects.

But it's stupid, Christmas, fun.

And worlds better than anything put out by Quiver, or Uncorked Entertainment (whose films even I can barely sit through).

It's got a found footage type of vibe, but, more appropriately, falls into the category of social media horror, similar to films like Caviar and Resurrected.

And even features an introduction from the legendary Joe Bob Briggs.

All-in-all, it's a fun little horror-comedy that's definitely worth watching.

Especially if you like What We Do In The Shadows, because, more than anything, it reminds of the Kiwi show Wellington Paranormal (which preceded WWDITS).

5 out of 10.

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.

"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.

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!