CHRISTMAS CRUELTY! (2013)
aka O'Hellige Jul!
Label: Unearthed Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: Norwegian DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Magne Steinsvoll, Per-Ingvar Tomren
Cast: Eline Aasheim, Tormod Lien, Magne Steinsvoll, Raymond Talberg, Per-Ingvar Tomren, Thomas Utgård, Solveig Sahr Bergheim
The Norwegian Yuletide home-invasion slasher Christmas Cruelty! (2013) is a film about Christmas traditions, on one hand you have a group of three prankster friends; Magne (co-director Magne Steinsvoll), the wheelchair-bound Per-Ingvar (co-director Per-Ingvar Tomren), and Eline (Eline Aasheim) who spend their Christmas Eve's dressed-up as Krampus and his minions to scare unsuspecting people on the streets. On the other hand we have government employee and family man Tormod (Tormod Lien) who likes to dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve and rape, torture and dismember victims that he has been cyber stalking all year long.
The nasty little film open with a flashback to the previous year's massacre as the demented Santa-slasher dispatches a group of friends and family who have gathered for the holiday; raping a young woman in front of her family and then dispatching a newborn child with a circular saw while it's strapped into a rocker chair. It's a heinous start to the film that sets up certain tone and expectation, but then proceeds to shoot itself in the foot a bit by bringing the sleaze and gore to a halt by following the silly exploits of Magne, Per-Ingvar and Eline as they hang out at the bar, make their homemade Krampus costumes and prank people on the streets before ending up on Christmas Eve at their house drinking themselves into a proper xmas stupor.
We also follow the Christmas Eve adventures of Tormod who cyber-stalks his victims while at work, licking his computer screen, jerking off and fantasizing about committing murder using a gingerbread cookie. He then spends Christmas Eve with his wife and daughter, coming off as a dedicated family man, before retiring to his shed where he looks over gruesome mementos of his previous kills while he prepares for his annual night of yuletide slaughter. He then shows up at the home of the three friends and embarks on his traditional night of rape, torture and dismemberment.
Made on the cheap by a group of friends Christmas Cruelty! certainly has it's extra-violent moments, which are executed is a messy Troma trauma sort of way, but it's a pretty messily made film that is rough around the edges and edited quite spastically. The post-production editing here is overcooked, with too many quick cuts, missing frames, and extended montages for it's own good, which dulls the edge of what could have been a more fine-tined sicko-Santa home invasion slasher than what we ended up with.
The final half hour is dedicated to Tormond arriving at the home of the three friends dressed as Santa and getting his jollies in a sadistic fashion, raping Eline and "riding the fire truck", bloodily decimating someone's skull with hammer, slicing throats, and we even get a pretty gnarly decapitation - it's strong stuff, but the low-budget nature of the effects, the extended padding, and unnecessarily oddball editing dulls the overall effectiveness of it all. Things I liked about it are the Christmas vibe is pretty decent, the songs featured in the film are pretty cool, plus I enjoyed the little nods to the works of Stephen King, the wink towards National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with the Marty Moose Eggnog glasses, references to Tarantino and Scorsese, and the creepy design of the Santa costume and mask. While I didn't love the film enough to want to make this an annual xmas watch list I am glad to have finally seen it and that the previously difficult to find flick now has a wide U.S. release from Unearthed Films.
Audio/Video: Christmas Cruelty! (2013) arrives on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. Shot on what looks to be consumer grade HD digital the film has a nicotine stained yellowish tinting to it that gives the whole film a sickly pallor that is fitting if not particularly attractive. Audio comes by way of Norwegian DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles, it's clean and well-balanced, and the score from Magne Steinsvoll and song selections from Last Rebels and others featured in the film sound good.
The Unearthed release is well-stocked with extras, starting off with an Audio Commentary with Per-Ingvar Tomren and Raymond Volle, plus a Watch-a-long with Flesh Wound Horror fan commentary. There's also a 3-part How Cruelty Changed Our Lives featurette that runs over three hours longs, containing interviews with Tomren, Volle, Steinsvoll, and Severin Eskeland, Nina-Shanett Arntsen. This gets deep intot the genesis of the film, how it came together, how it was shot and plenty of talk about it's reception from fans.
We also get a 7-min Interview with Morten Haagensen, 4-min ‘Endless Highway’ music video by The Last Rebels, 23-min Press Conference, 9-min of Bloopers, the 7-min Tradition (Short Film), 39-sec Teaser Trailer, and a 10-min Photo Gallery with some great advertising for the film. More so than the actual film I love the advertising campaign for this flick. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the terrific key art for the film.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Per-Ingvar Tomren and Raymond Volle
- ‘How Cruelty Changed Our Lives’ Featurette: Part 1 (170 min); Part 2 (19 min); Part 3 (9 min)
- Interview with Morten Haagensen (7 min)
- ‘Endless Highway’ music video by The Last Rebels (4 min)
- Press Conference (23 min)
- Bloopers (9 min)
- Audio Watch-a-long with Flesh Wound Horror
- ‘Tradition’ short film (7 min)
- Teaser Trailer (39 sec)
- Photo Gallery (10 min)
No a Christmas terror classic by any mean, but a decent enough Troma-esque gory bit of Holiday horror that should appeal to fans of extreme horror and the Unearthed Films crowd, marred by some sloppy, spastic editing and a very soft middle-section, but still delivering some gruesome yuletide goods.
Screenshots from the Unearthed Films Blu-ray:
