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Film: Santa Isn’t Real
Year: 2023
Director: Zac Locke
Writer: Zac Locke
Starring: Kaya Coleman, Scarlett Sperduto and Trey Anderson
Review:
This movie kicked off the night portion of Friday for Nightmares Film Festival. I got to see this for its World premiere, which was exciting. The writer/director was also in attendance, which was a treat since we got to learn a bit more about the behind-the-scenes. Looking at the title, I was hoping this would be a Christmas horror movie of sorts. It is that for sure.
Synopsis: after suffering a brutal attack on Christmas eve, a young woman struggles to convince her friends that the assailant was none other than ole’ Kris Kringle. When Santa returns to terrorize the group in their remote cabin the next Christmas, Nikki (Kaya Coleman) and her friends must overcome disbelief as they fight to stay alive.
We start this off on what I believe is Christmas eve. Nikki is getting things ready as she has a friend coming over. We see text messages from her boyfriend, Nathan (Trey Anderson), that is both cute as well as a bit inappropriate. I also believe that she is waiting on her friend, Jess (Scarlett Sperduto) to show up. Things take a turn though. We see feet appear in the fireplace. Santa Claus is here and he attacks Nikki.
She then wakes up in the hospital. What she doesn’t realize though is that she’s been in a coma for a year. They weren’t sure that she was going to wake up. The doctor, Dana Millican, wants her to stay a couple of days due to everything that she went through before her coma. She declines and wants to get out.
Things are off and she can’t fully put her finger on why. Part of the reason is that everyone thinks she tried to kill herself. She denies that, but she’s afraid to tell what happened, for fear that they’ll think she is crazy. She reaches out to Jess and Nathan to see if they want to celebrate Christmas with her. She learns that they’re going to a cabin of their friend, MJ (Cissy Ly). Nikki convinces them to allow her to come.
This isn’t the ideal time that she was expecting. Jess and Nathan are hiding a secret. Nikki also reveals to the group what happened to her. MJ seems to humor her where the others can’t believe it. They point out the fact that Santa isn’t real. Nikki brings up different lore from around the world including how dark Nordic countries look at this lore or the fact that Santa works with Krampus. The truth might be closer to what Nikki said than they realize when strange things start happening as a snowstorm rolls in.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that the premise is an interesting one. Seeing the title, I chuckled. There is a bit of humor here, but this is played straight. What works here is the set up where Nikki is attacked. I found it intriguing to then put her into a coma and have her wake up a year later. That is a creative way to get us to the next holiday season. It also allows certain things in her friend group to happen as well.
Now that I’ve set that up, let me delve more into the character of Nikki. Something that I think is a bit of a misstep is that we don’t get more of a baseline of her before the coma. We get to see her in that first sequence, but I’m not sure that was enough to set up her. I do think that Coleman plays this role well after she wakes up. It would be tough. The last things she remembers are from the previous Christmas season. It would hard to handle the changes that went down because of this. She is also convinced that Santa is after her, because again, everything that happened was just like yesterday for her. I do like playing with her sanity here with the crash course of events.
Where I’ll shift then next would be the character of Santa. I won’t give away if this is stating he is real or if this is someone stalking them. The reveal was something that I guessed, but it worked for me. I thought that it fit the story that was being presented. It also has a solid stinger ending that I enjoyed. The different lore that gets referenced is also good. What I find interesting here is that this almost is looking at religion vs. pagan beliefs. This is something I’m a fan of since I’m an atheist and love looking at mythology, whether it is ancient or current Christian mythos. I don’t know if this amounts to much though in the grand scheme of the story. What it does though is give Nikki more of an argument when trying to convince her friends.
That should be enough for the story as this isn’t the deepest there. This is a slasher film at the heart of what we’re doing here. What comes with that is that I didn’t love the pacing. I do think this is deliberate like most in the subgenre are. That’s not to say it is boring though. It just takes time to get into it after the opening sequence. I do think that the cinematography was good. I learned that this was filmed when it was snowing at times and it felt cold. That captures the Christmas vibe. I thought the effects we got for the kills was solid. I’m always a fan there. You may also know that this is one of the things I need for a good slasher. This one is more subdued in this department. Not a bad thing necessarily, but I also can’t give it high marks there. I also thought the soundtrack fit for what was needed.
All that is left then would be the acting. I thought the cast worked for a low budget slasher. I’ve already said that I wished they did more with setting the baseline for Coleman. She was solid still as her world was turned upside down. I thought that Sperduto and Anderson were also fine. They aren’t subtle in the secret they’re hiding. Both worked for their characters. Ly as also interesting. She seems like she might flip-flop on her stances. She helped to make the time at the isolated cabin more interesting. Other than that, the rest of the cast was fine for what was needed. Credit to whomever was in the Santa costume as well. What I like here is that whoever is behind everything was in so props there.
In conclusion, if you know me then you know that I’m not the biggest slasher fan. I do think that this is a solid Christmas slasher. We have the mystery of whether Santa is real or not, which adds a wrinkle here. We also have Nikki might be going crazy which makes her a suspect, but it also could be someone playing on that. I do appreciate that element, even though it is one we’ve seen before. This is made well enough. I think the cinematography is the bright spot there, but the effects were also solid. If you like slasher films, especially the holiday-based ones, give this a watch. I don’t think this is the strongest there, but worth a viewing, nonetheless.
My Rating: 6 out of 10