Werewolf Santa

"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.

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!

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.

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?