Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)

Director: Edmund Purdom

Writers: Alan Birkinshaw, Derek Ford

Composer: Des Dolan

Starring: Edmund Purdom, Alan Lake, Belinda Mayne, Mark Jones, Gerry Sundquist, Kelly Baker, Kevin Lloyd, Wendy Danvers, Nicholas Donnelly, Pat Astley, Laurence Harrington, Caroline Munro

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Gift of Terror That Just Won't Wait

Plot: Somebody with very little Christmas spirit is killing anyone in a Santa suit one London holiday season, and Scotland Yard has to stop him before he makes his exploits an annual tradition.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Christmas horror flicks usually have a theme of a killer Santa Claus on the loose but this one gives you a killer whose victims are dressed like Santa.  But what's great about it is the high body count with lots of great kills and nudity, everything you'd expect from an 80s slasher movie.

I really enjoyed it.  The kills are sprinkled throughout and the film makers throw in some extras to keep you guessing who the killer is.  The ending is balls-out fantastic.  Besides seeing Santas getting stabbed, burned, severed, etc, there are characters that you don't expect to get killed so when it happens, it's pretty shocking.  I love that kind of left field shit.  I can only say the ending is awesome.  I didn't see that coming.  I really don't understand the reason why this has such a low IMDb rating.  It's a nicely paced, gory slasher film that's got some good acting.  It's British, of course the acting is good. Besides, the UK didn't turn out that many slasher pictures back then.  This is a real treat no matter how you slice it.  Ahahahahahahahaha.