Everything really is shut down on Christmas, making it the perfect atmosphere for an eerie, desolate horror movie. The abandoned streets and shuttered businesses in “Christmas Bloody Christmas” serve as a constant reminder that no one is coming to save you tonight. Strangely, the bars are always open, so Tori (Riley Dandy), a local record store owner, and her flirty coworker Robbie (Sam Delich) go and get trashed together with the neighborhood bartender. At a nearby toy store, an animatronic Santa Claus malfunctions and reverts back to its military defense A.I. causing it to go on a rampaging massacre. Dandy’s performance as Tori is a clear standout, and her ability to survive the not-so-merry onslaught is even more impressive considering that she’s completely wasted.
The first reel of “Christmas Bloody Christmas” is really a hangout movie and Begos was determined to take a “for us, by us” approach to the filmmaking, telling Digital Trends:
“I wanted to make a movie that’s from a point of view of dirtbag metalheads who don’t have any family because I’ve been in that position for a decade. I bring my own kind of sense into [the genre]. And also, we haven’t had a killer robot Santa movie in decades unless you count the ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ sequel.”
Along with his longtime collaborator and editor, Josh Ethier, Begos has been making genre films for the past decade or more. His entire filmography has that same “dirtbag metalhead” mentality, and I think he’s pretty proud of the fact that the characters in his movies aren’t afraid to give you the finger every once in a while.