Good Tidings

I would have loved to have been more generous But I really could not give this more than three stars. In spite of apparently being made with a budget of only £15,000 and with a fine allegorical undertone of Christmas being cruel to the poor, I have to be honest and cannot rate it higher.

This whole homage to exploitation and slasher movies of decades gone by simply does not work. The acting and special effects were decidedly dodgy and at times I felt like I was watching a Home movie.

Of course I can feel a little bit guilty by not offering a little bit more praise but I also feel I must be honest. After all, what can one expect for £15,000?

This was a film that I had heard about from podcasts I listen to. I couldn't remember a lot about what they had said, but since I was out to watch Christmas themed horror films during December, I thought I'd give this one a chance. The official synopsis is a homeless war-veteran with a checkered past must rely on a side of himself once thought buried when he and his companions are targeted by three vicious psychopaths wearing Santa suits on Christmas Day.

We kick off with a man in a Santa Claus suit leaving a house. The yard surrounding the house looks rough and the man might be coming off of a bender. That's when three men attack him, all wearing what looks to be hospital attire. They are all wearing masks. They end up killing the man. We then see that they are all dressed up as Santa, all wearing masks as well. We never see their faces, but they are given the names of the Three Stooges: Curly (Stu Jopia), Larry (Giovanni Gentile) and Moe (Liam W. Ashcroft). Oddly enough, Curly and Larry are two of the co-writers for the film

The film then shifts to a man ask he is digging through the garbage. He is Frank Roland (Colin Murtagh). We learn that he is the former war veteran who is running away from something in his film. There's another homeless man who is watching, Jon Latham (Jonny Hirst). Jon asks if he can come with him.

Frank takes him to where he has been staying. It is an abandoned courthouse where bunch of other homeless people is staying to get out of the cold. They have procured enough supplies to put on their own Christmas party. It is during this that Frank talks with a younger woman, Roxy Muller (Claire Crossland). She is a former junkie, but with Frank's help she has gotten clean.

Things take quite the turn when the three Santas show up, chain the door shut and then they start to toy with those stuck inside. Some are killed and some are rounded up. Why are they doing this and can they find a way out before it is too late?

I have to lead off stating this film hit a lot of positives for me. I love the concept of these three Santas coming in and wrecking havoc. I'm a big fan of taking something as innocent as this character and perverting it like the film does. It is even scarier knowing that the mental patients and that can explain some of things they are doing. Some of it doesn't make sense, but that is explained that they are crazy. Not everything they do is rational.

This film also has some social commentary I'm a big fan of. If you know me, then you know that I'm not a big fan of Christmas. It should be a time that we are thankful for what we have and for those around us, but it is such a commercial holiday now. This film has a bunch of poor people who are the victims here. It seemed like a good allegory of how the holiday beats down those that don't have much and that's what this film seems to do. Going with this though, I actually thought this film is a solid slasher, because I felt bad for these people. Not everyone is given a story why they are there, but we do get some and it helped me connect with them. My favorite slashers make me feel for the character so I care if they are killed and this film did that for me.

Something I would have like fleshed out a bit is why did the killers choose this place. My initial thought was that they are going back to where they were sentenced. This is the way that I read it and the only thing that makes sense.

Going from there, I will touch on the pacing next. I thought the film was paced very well. We are introduced to the characters in a natural way and it doesn't take long for the three killers to show up. It then becomes a cat and mouse game, but I thought that was well done. It was reminiscent of the slashers of the past where we got some stalking with the slashing. I thought the ending was fine and fitting for the genre.

I will say though that the acting was only decent. Murtagh I thought was fine in his role. He didn't do anything to hurt the film, but he really didn't stand out either. Crossland I also thought was fine in her role, but for similar things like for Frank, I just wasn't blown away. This is a slasher film so I don't need to be blown away by the acting. The rest of the people inside the courthouse were fine as well. I did like how Jopia, Gentile and Ashcroft acted. It was definitely believable as crazy people and they all had distinct characterization to help tell them apart.

The effects did have some issues as well. The bigger problem for me was that there were too many off-screen deaths. I'm fine with doing this a bit, but for a film like this, I think we really need to see them. The deaths we did get were creative and some looked to be practical. The other issue though was they decided to go with CGI blood. It didn't look real and that aspect disappointed. I will say that the film was shot well outside of that.

Something I really wanted to talk about was the score of the film. They decided to use a lot of Christmas songs, but play them with creepy bells for most of it. I absolutely loved that aspect. It really creeped me out and helped to enhance the film. The score overall was very well done and is actually one I would like to purchase if I can find it. It definitely would be fun to use at a Christmas party to get a little of my horror side in there.

Now with that said, I actually really enjoyed this film. It was one that I didn't remember much about what others said and came in pretty blind. I thought this was an interesting Christmas slasher that had some solid social commentary with it. The film did have some issues with effects and the acting wasn't great. It was paced well and it had a great soundtrack for me. I think some minor changes could have really made this film really good. Due to some minor issues, I have to say this one is above average.

What's the only thing better than one killer Santa? Three of them! I must say, this film exceeded my expectations big time. Despite being a bit on the low budget side, the acting was good, the story was unique and the soundtrack was awesome. Stu Jopia (who played one of the killer Santas) would also serve as one of the film's writers and producers, while Stuart W. Bedford served as writer, producer and director. And seriously, the film's soundtrack by Liam W. Ashcroft is truly outstanding.

Independent Horror film-maker Stewart W. Bedford is sinfully spreading some good blood smear, his three psycho Santa's slay merrily, bringing gore-ious gut-spill, and good kill to all men! Amen!!!! This grisly 'Good Tidings' is a gruesome gift to Yule-snide slasher fans, while undeniably cheap and deliciously nasty, with Gorgonzola-garlanded goof-ball amateur acting calamity, this frightfully festive fright flick, while far from a silent night is certainly a night to dismember! 'They're cutting people's phooking heads off!'

Arriving at a homeless shelter, a man joins his fellow homeless members in a closed-down bank for the shelter when they notice a trio of escaped mental patients dressed as Santa Claus is going around killing everyone and forces his friend to rely on his old Army Veteran skills to save them.

This here was a decent enough though flawed genre effort. One of the strongest elements to be had here is the heartwarming nature of the setup at the shelter. The beginning here brings us into their hardship of the season and what they're doing to make the best of it in the grandest Christmas traditions despite being unable to enjoy the finer things in life and to notice that everyone here is getting into the holiday spirit before the rampage starts is rather nice. The scenes of the group coming in and taking over the bank killing them off one-by-one carries a nice sense of shock at the audacity to go through the plan the way they do like the scenes of them chasing through the building generate some pretty tense moments. There's a nice sense of action and brutality between these continuous confrontations taking place throughout the bank as the group tries to outwit and survive the group which leads to some great deaths and some nice gore. These are really all that work here. There are a few flaws to be had here. The main issue with this one is the decidedly underwhelming killers who provide this one with some troublesome moments throughout here. That they're clearly unhinged mental patients that aren't capable of doing anything in a manner that should make people scared of them is a major stumbling block as a gang of them who take a stand against the intruders will overcome them rather easily considering their slow speed and incapacitated mental facilities who can't fight fair. Anyone who would've taken a fight to them would've been able to overcome them easily the way they're addicted to childish toys and games and becomes far more obvious how they're able to stand up to them later on. The other issue with this one is the continual reliance on characters getting tied up and dragged away by the killers instead of outright killing them. While this plays into their simplistic nature and toying with them is what they would be comfortable with, that they're clearly smart enough to come up with the plan and execute it to the point of success as well as they have which shows there's a level of planning and viciousness to their methods. Yet rather than do something chilling with the killers' interactions with the captured victims it favors demented gift-giving rituals or just simply standing there chuckling at them. This isn't scary at all and is repeated far too often to make any kind of impression. Coupled with the off-screen kills whenever something should be happening and this one does come down quite a bit.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.