Werewolf Santa

I recently watched Werewolf Santa (2023) on Tubi. The storyline follows Santa as he's out delivering presents on Christmas Eve when he's attacked and turned into a werewolf. Meanwhile, a local blogger with a struggling YouTube channel finds her hometown plagued by werewolves-an unexpected turn that might just be the big break she's been looking for.

Written and directed by Airell Anthony Hayles (Spider Inside Hernandez), the film stars Katherine Rodden (Blood Clots), Mark Arnold (Blade Runner 2049), Emily Booth (Inbred), and John Bloom (a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs).

The film opens with a fun animated sequence narrated by Joe Bob Briggs, which, along with the Santa Claus orgy in the woods, ends up being one of the most memorable parts of the movie. The ladies in that scene are certainly eye-catching, but beyond that, the film falters. The jokes fall flat, the werewolf costumes look like something from Party City, the corpses are unimpressive, and there aren't any notable kills. But hey, at least there's a Santa orgy...

In conclusion, Werewolf Santa is exactly as bad as you'd expect. I'd score this a 3/10-unless you're in the mood for something intentionally terrible, in which case this might be just what you're looking for.

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!

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.

I honestly believe that I could make a better movie and I cant act and I haven't exactly got a big budget to deal with either. But for the 70 minutes I spent watching this film with my family we all had a laugh watching the bad acting, the absolute no sense writting. I can be forgiven for a film with a low budget and a unique name but this was awful. They did at least try and comparing this to some big budget Hollywood films this one at least had some character to it. At the end of the day I laughed my way through this movie and had a good time watching it, maybe I'm laughing at how bad it is rather then the film itself. But like I said I could do better.

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.