Secret Santa

Living in a small town, a group of college students are trying to prepare for the holidays with a special party and gift-exchange at their house which brings out a slew of secrets, hidden personalities, and a savage killer who starts to target the group one by one forcing them to fight back.

Overall, this was a decent enough slasher throwback. Among the better features here is the simplistic setup that works well enough at being this particular style by detailing the lives of the people involved in the community. By bringing a series of clues about who they are and what the individual points of their various relationships with not just having to deal with their normal college duties but also trying to work through discreet online personalities, clandestine hookups, and general burden of their lives, it creates a fairly intriguing setup that starts the film off quite nicely. When this is all matched alongside the series of clues about the strange killer in their midst who uses a great tactic of introducing a Secret Santa gift exchange to cause division in the group while these stories play out, it's a generally solid setup that's worthwhile enough in this type of feature. That leads into the other enjoyable aspect of this one that works quite well here is the rather fun finale where the killing finally gets going. While featuring the opening attack on the students in their house, the only thing that happens until a massacre at the end is a singular ambush sequence that shows off a hint of what's to come in the big finish with cheesy effects in a brutal concept to bring about their death. The rampage in the house is handled quite well with the idea of the previous build-up of the characters helping to provide some hint of the type of activity to come with the style of impressive shock ambushes that take place involving a slew of cheesy features to help tide this one over as the slew of encounters here provide a rapid fire pace in this section of the film. Combined with the solid ending twist that's effective if not entirely necessary, these are all enough to enjoy here as there are a few issues with this one that hold it down. One of the main aspects with this one is the generally glacial pacing that never provides much of anything until the finale. By focusing heavily on the different members of the group and going through each of the various stories involved here with the rocky relationship involving the one being a webcam model, a jealous ex trying to get with her boyfriend, a stoner trying to get the drugs out of his system to party, and the teacher trying to perv on everyone at the party, the set pieces here are given much more room in the running time that happens at the expense of the killer's presence knocking people off. It's all generally lackluster and doesn't make the film that enjoyable, much like the incredibly underwhelming reasoning for the killer to go for the rampage which is immensely stupid and lame, has no connection to anyone, and makes for a highly non-threatening time here. These all manage to hold the film down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Rear Nudity, and drug use.

A throwback to the 80's slashers complete with dirty, gritty prints to give it that grindhouse feel but set in today's time. A sadistic Santa is sending people gifts that will eventually kill them. If you get a cleaver that will be your fate. He stays true to his word. We see this with a girl who had just opened her gift and receives a hair dryer. Moments later she is in the tub so when the killer goes to throw the hair dryer in the water the plug doesn't reach. He just proceeds to beat her to death with the thing.

It stays true to the fell of the low budget slasher but it does take over 50 minutes to get going. Not too gory but you get the 80's effects with the dismemberments etc. They even throw in a few twists along the way.

Secret Santa (2015) is currently available on Tubi. The story follows a group of friends who come together for the holidays. During their Secret Santa gift exchange, tensions rise as they discover someone has a sinister agenda. The festivities soon turn deadly as one of the friends is revealed to be a ruthless killer-but who?

Written and directed by Mike McMurran (The Final Ride), the film stars Annette Wozniak (The Final Ride), Keegan Chambers (Age of the Living Dead), Niki Kerro (Escape the Field), and Tony Nash (Blood & Treasure).

This is one of those films that's clunky and awkwardly executed, yet still keeps you curious enough to see where it's going. The humor often misses the mark, creating several awkward moments, and there's an overuse of unnecessary vomit scenes that add little to the story. On the other hand, the horror elements are well done, with a fantastic throat-slashing sequence and some enjoyable blood splatter and stabbing scenes that stand out.

In conclusion, Secret Santa is far from a great movie, but its solid horror effects may appeal to fans of the Christmas-horror genre. I'd score this a 5/10 and only recommend it with tempered expectations.

Shot on video with a godawful grainy 'grindhouse' filter effect (Quentin Tarantino has a lot to answer for), comedy slasher Secret Santa delivers some fairly decent gore effects, the majority of which occur in the final twenty minutes, meaning that there's the best part of an hour of 'character development' to get through first - not great when most of the characters in question are so tedious, the script lamentably dumb, and the acting unbearable.

The worst offender is, without a doubt, Geoff Almond as hopped-up loser Dwayne, who is as irritating as he is bald, but there are plenty of other obnoxious types guaranteed to rankle, including smarmy professor Ramsey (Tony Nash) who is diddling his student Olivia (Nicole Kawalez), promiscuous blonde Carissa (Keegan Chambers), and two-timing Bryan (Brent Baird), who cheated on his girlfriend Nicole (Annette Wozniak), the only likeable character in the whole film (even if she is a web cam model).

Nicole is, not surprisingly, the film's 'final girl', all of her friends bumped off before the end of the film by a masked killer who has been sending them Secret Santa gifts that reveal how they will be killed: a meat cleaver, an electric knife, gardening shears (for a spot of graphic penis pruning!), and a hairdryer (which leads to the funniest moment in the film, when the cable proves too short for the killer to throw it into the victim's bath). The bloody and well executed gore (head smashed in, decapitations, chainsawed legs) in the final act, and the occasional spot of gratuitous female nudity (although, rather strangely, no boobage), make it just about worth persevering until the end.

4.5/10, rounded down to 4 for the aged/distressed look, which is completely unconvincing and totally unnecessary.

This was titled Christmassacre on Prime, and it should not be confused with the 2018 Adam Marcus-directed comedy/horror Secret Santa on the same platform. Regardless this one is an amateur slasher comedy. And considering that this film's budget was apparently expired foodstamps, some of the dialogue is actually pretty funny and the quasi-professional actors deliver relatively decent performances. Unfortunately the story is trite, the practical effects look silly and the budgetary constraints detract from virtually every scene. There's a sense that the people involved in the production have real talent, but there wasn't the time or money available to develop their ideas into something entertaining or even fully coherent.