Saint

According to popular European folklore, kindly Saint Niklas visits the homes of good children on December 5th, dropping gifts down their chimneys. In Sint, writer/director Dick Maas (Amsterdamned, Down) subverts this legend, his Saint Niklas shown to be a renegade, murderous, 15th century bishop who abducted children, but who was eventually confronted by angry villagers and burnt alive on his ship. Now, whenever a full moon occurs on December 5th, Saint Niklas leaves the netherworld and heads for the Netherlands, killing people and snatching kids in Amsterdam, aided in his work by his helpers, the 'Black Peters'.

When his ex-girlfriend is found dead, killed by the nasty saint, student Frank (Egbert Jan Weeber) is suspected of murder, and must try to prove his innocence, joined in his fight against Niklas by rogue policeman Goert Hoekstra (Bert Luppes), whose own family were slaughtered 32 years earlier.

Sint suffers from pacing issues, with some serious lulls between the action scenes, but when Maas is firing on all cylinders, the film is a lot of demented fun, with the malevolent bishop and his blackened cronies chopping and slicing and impaling their victims in gory fashion (with some excellent FX). The film looks great, boasting lovely cinematography, and there are some impressive set-pieces - a bloody attack on Frank and his friends, Saint Niklas riding his horse over the rooftops of Amsterdam (particularly good given the budget), and the massacre of a group of Special-ops - it's a shame, then, that the madness and momentum doesn't continue throughout the whole film, 'cos if it had this could've easily become a firm festive favourite (Elf has never been my style).

6/10.

Sint (Saint) is a solid little Sinterklaas based Christmas horror-comedy out of the Netherlands...directed by the aptly named, Dick Maas.

According to the myth, on December 5th, once every 23 years- when the full moon falls upon this day- Saint Niklas would sail to the Netherlands, from Spain, in order to murder people and kidnap their children...which he would bring back with him on his ship, to enslave.

One man knows this tale to be true first hand, for he witnessed Saint Niklas murder his entire family 23 years ago. Now he works as an inspector for the police...and has been trying to warn his superiors about what lies in store for them this December 5th- but they think he is just traumatized from his childhood ordeal.

Thinking this is all an old legend, the rest of the population goes about their holiday business; dressing up like Sinterklaas' and Black Piet's; holding frat parties and such.

Only when people start getting slayed by a Catholic dude on horseback and his legion of black axe-wielding demons; do people realize what's going on.

And there is only one way to send him back from whence he came...to stop the murders, and prevent any more children from being kidnapped, once and for all.

This Dutch Christmas treat is well worth a watch. It's a nice blend of horror and comedy, with lots of gore, and some creative kills. But the ending is kind of lame. It really felt rushed, and forced (unnecessarily), by the time it rolled around. But that only mildly detracts from it's overall entertainment value.

Check it out.

6 out of 10.

Storywise "Sint" is kind of a rip-off of the killer Santa classic "Silent Night, Deadly Night", but the comparisons end there. While the latter is only still around because it's laughably bad, this one has actual redeeming features like a dark, moody atmosphere and a little bit of humour at exactly the right times. Writer/Director Dick Maas loves to toy with our expectations and every guess you'll make about the story developments will probably be wrong. For instance, you think tremendous hottie Caro Lenssen will serve as the Laurie Strode of this story and the finale will be her fighting off the unstoppable villain, but in fact she barely comes into play in the rest of the story (unfortunately...). Our final girls are an old drunk and a sex-crazed teenage boy, that's pretty creative to say the least. The production values of this movie are also surprisingly high. For a movie that "only" cost four million to make, the effects look pretty amazing. The killings are just relentlessly gory, Dick Maas definitely burned the candle on both ends to disgust his audience. "Sint" is one of those rare horror comedies that manage to be both scary and funny, most can't even get one of the two right. A thrilling ride.

A horror film that depicts St. Nicholas as a murderous bishop who kidnaps and murders children when there is a full moon on December 5.

I have to say, this may possibly be the first Dutch horror film I have ever seen. Probably even one of the first Dutch films of any genre (the only other coming to mind is "Spoorloos"). I prefer to judge a film on its own merits rather than the merits of the country... but it is interesting to place a film in the context of its own film industry. And, frankly, I did not know the Netherlands really had much of an industry.

Many horror films have focused on Santa Claus, and a few have had the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, or have focused on just about every holiday imaginable. This is the first (and only) film about the Feast of St. Nick, and for that originality they deserve some praise.

I loved the coloration, the camera angles, the "black Petes" as evil minions... I was worried about this one, but it turned out being pretty great. The obsession with the characters' infidelity in the first act (which has no bearing on the plot) is a little odd, as is the fact a teacher would allow sex toys to be given out in class. But this is easy to overlook.

In style and tone, this goes alongside "Dead Snow" and makes for a great party movie. If possible, though, get the subtitled version, as the English dubbing is horrible.

I went to see this yesterday with high expectations. After all, the movie was hyped a lot here. Fortunately most of my expectations were fulfilled.

The story: The story is straight forward and sometimes a bit predictable. The fun part is of course that Dick Maas has turned Sinterklaas from the child loving person he normally is, into a blood-lust zombie. So every 30 to 40 years, when the 5th of December is with full moon, blood thirsty Nickolas and his party of zombies, come to spoil the party. Only, this time, there's someone waiting to stop him.

The good: This is movie is all you can ask for in a horror comedy. The mix between scary moments and laughs is just right.

The bad: Well, some of the actors (especially the non-main characters) could use some acting lessons. Fortunately most of them don't last long enough to be bothered by it too much..... Also some of the explanations for the evil behaviour of Sinterklaas are very thin. Dick Maas should have come up with something better there.

The conclusion: All in all, it's good fun to watch. Some minor bits should be taken care of in the case of a sequel (can't wait), but those can easily be overlooked. That's why my final verdict is 8 out of ten.