Norwegian film ‘Christmas Blood’ Brings on the Body Count for the Holidays

You better watch out, Santa Claus is coming to town and you're on the naughty list!
by December 15, 2018
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Santa himself is on the naughty list in the snowbound Norwegian slasher Christmas Blood. (Juleblod) Writer/director Reinert Kiil brings us a new Christmas horror film perfect for slasher fans, who will love the sacks full of gore, and some deliciously epic kills. This is a grim and moody holiday addition to any horror fan’s Christmas collection. Brutal, bloody and full of slow-burn tension, we are introduced to a killer who is described as “the manifestation of pure evil.” This is a dude who can’t be killed, even by a bullet to the head. It is impossible to know if Santa will ever be stopped until his personal naughty list has been checked off.

With an ominous retro feel, much like John Carpenter’s classic film Halloween, we meet a new murderous Santa, one with a list of folks he has deemed as naughty who need to be taken care of. This guy is nowhere, and everywhere all at once and cannot be killed! His ax, like in other Santa movies, is his murder weapon of choice and can go up in the horror hall of fame after this film! Christmas Blood certainly boasts a huge body count!

Official Synopsis: A murderer gets caught after terrorizing and killing people on Christmas Eve for the past 13 years in Norway. After being in solitary for almost 6 years, the psychopath escapes a couple of days before Christmas night. Police track down the next target of the killing machine in a small village in the northernmost part of Norway. A group of friends are having a reunion in the same village and unexpectedly end up being in part of Santa’s plan.

When a sweet little girl sneaks down to see what presents Santa brought her, it’s not the Grinch she runs into. What a crazy opening scene! From that moment forward we know who we are dealing with and he doesn’t have gifts in his bag. Santa has an ax and he knows how to use it. He leaves a list behind, inside a split open corpse, with hundreds of names on it, letting us know what his future plans are. Before the yule time killer can do any more on that Christmas Eve, Santa is shot by angry detective Thomas Rasch (Stig Henrik Hoff) who has been chasing him for years. Surprise though, it turns out he isn’t dead, and off to prison our psycho Santa goes. I love that his mug shot shows how he was shot, with a huge bullet wound scar on his forehead. He is not a Santa that you can slay!

After spending a quite a few years staring at the wall at the asylum and eating nothing but porridge, we find out (with news clips and subtitles) that our Santa escapes and is out continuing his quest to kill everyone on his list.

Unfortunately for a group of college friends having a reunion, Santa is heading their way and he doesn’t want to dance at their party. One of the young ladies’ mother was next up on his murder agenda, but no one told him she committed suicide. The girls are just simply having a get together to commiserate with the daughter. It’s lucky that they are a seriously unlikeable bunch of humans, so my hopes for each one of them to be taken out was very likely to come true! Good riddance to a bitchy bunch of mean girls and couple of rape-on-their-mind guys from Tinder.

The police continue to be incompetent. With a new cop, Detective Hansen (Sondre Krogtoft Larsen) at the helm, they are still having trouble putting the facts together, even with the help of the original detective, now a drunk, Thomas Rasch. It also doesn’t help that there is practically a whiteout snowstorm to deal with. That slows them down, but not our supernaturally strong and sadistic Santa. He has no problem taking out anything that breathes in the quiet little Norwegian town.

I really enjoyed the dark, dreary and bleak cinematography. It really set the mood for all the killing. The snow looked real and the victims looked so cold it made me shiver. The outdoor chase scenes were chilling. The acting was top notch too, even if we don’t care for most of the people. They all still did a great job with the acting. The better to ax you with, my dears!

Part of what I appreciated too, was the incredible practical effects. I believed every ax chop, sickly splatter or disgusting wound, and the visceral flow of the tremendous amounts of blood used. It was very realistic. Each kill had its own style, even personality. This Santa has a pretty sick sense of humor. Wait till you see the snowman he finds time to build!

My only real complaint is that as a slow-burn film, this is one of the slowest moving I’ve ever seen. There are payoffs, but much could have been cut and it would have been a quicker paced and much better film.

I wish I could say it was as good as Rare Exports– which is one of my all-time favorite Christmas horror films, also from Norway, but sadly it is not. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoyed this cold and bloody Christmas Eve slaughter fest. Christmas Blood holds its own, even if just for the gratuitous gore alone. And since we can’t help but hate almost every character in the film, it’s not hard to watch them die, one, by one. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blood (or in Norwegian ‘Juleblod‘) Is available now on Amazon Prime from Artsploitation Films.

 

 

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  • The BloodShed Enjoys the Ominous Retro Feel and Body Count in CHRISTMAS BLOOD |
    16 December 2018 at 7:39 am - Reply

    […] “With an ominous retro feel, much like John Carpenter’s classic film Halloween, we meet a new murderous Santa, one with a list of folks he has deemed as naughty who need to be taken care of. This guy is nowhere, and everywhere all at once and cannot be killed! His ax, like in other Santa movies, is his murder weapon of choice and can go up in the horror hall of fame after this film! Christmas Blood certainly boasts a huge body count! I really enjoyed the dark, dreary and bleak cinematography. It really set the mood for all the killing. The snow looked real and the victims looked so cold it made me shiver. The outdoor chase scenes were chilling. The acting was top notch too, even if we don’t care for most of the people. They all still did a great job with the acting. The better to ax you with, my dears! Part of what I appreciated too, was the incredible practical effects. I believed every ax chop, sickly splatter or disgusting wound, and the visceral flow of the tremendous amounts of blood used. It was very realistic. Each kill had its own style, even personality. This Santa has a pretty sick sense of humor. Wait till you see the snowman he finds time to build! – TheBloodShed […]

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