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      Santa Claws

      R Released Oct 22, 1996 1h 25m Horror List
      Reviews 25% 100+ Ratings Audience Score A woman's marriage is falling apart and her next door neighbor is not the guy he appears to be. He is obsessed with her and will do anything to make her happy. He starts going crazy and eventually begins dressing up like Santa Claus and killing people with a claw. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (6) audience reviews
      Audience Member What the hell? Did I just watch a snuff film! Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Santa Claws is only 14 years old, but the way the film has aged has made it seem like it's about 10 years older than that. Maybe if it contained interesting death scenes it might have been slightly tolerable. But, Santa Claws is just a total mess. It is kind of fun to watch it, in that way that many terrible movies are. In the end though, Santa Claws' b-grade nature isn't enough to make this one a classically bad movie. Full review at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank"href="http://hotdogsinthedark.com/?p=1076">Hot Dogs in the Dark</a> Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Another one of those horror movies that are so bad they're good. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Review by Daniel Jolly (originally published at www.FromDuskTillCon.com) Ah, Christmas, and psychopathic, murderous, obsessed movie star fans – you can hardly think of one without the other. It’s the holidays, but no one is having a holly, jolly Christmas. B movie scream queen Raven Quinn (Debbie Rochon )- zoologist, scream queen, wife, and mother has just had a fight with her husband, and he is threatening to divorce her once he gets back home from an out-of-town photo shoot. Her in-laws despise her because of her body-baring film career (although they have no problem with her husband photographing naked women in his own line of work). The only person she can turn to is her ingratiatingly nice neighbor, Wayne (Grant Kramer). What she does not know is that Wayne is completely obsessed with her, maintaining a Raven shrine inside his house. With her marriage on the rocks, he thinks the time is right to make his move. Now, Wayne has some problems; just ask his mother and uncle – oh, wait, you can’t ask them because he shot them to death as a young teenager. He wants Raven all to himself, and this raging desire compels him to murder everyone who might get in his way. By the time the end game rolls around, Wayne has transformed himself into the dastardly Santa Claws, and he decides who has been naughty and who has been nice. Obviously, this is a low-budget B-movie production, written and directed by Night of the Living Dead scribe, John Russo. While some effort went into making the film, there’s no mistaking its meager origins. The acting is quite bad at times, although I think Debbie Rochon puts in a better than average performance as Raven; the sets are sadly unimpressive, especially the furnishings in Debbie’s home (she and her husband could certainly have afforded better furniture); and the accompanying music is often times just a step above elevator muzak, although I do give the filmmakers credit for attempting to insert relevant songs to accompany the story as it progresses – the intent was there, but apparently the money was not. Grant Kramer gives an inconsistent performance as the serial killer Wayne, and this limits the effectiveness of this movie to some degree. It can be rather painful to watch him sitting before his shrine confessing his love for Raven, but he comes across pretty well in those scenes requiring him to be psychotically angry and frustrated. I must also mention the murder weapon of choice here is a little plastic set of claws that wouldn’t scare a child in the middle of a graveyard on Halloween night. This little toy is quite deadly in Wayne’s hands, though. What I found really funny was the appearance of the murder victims after the fact; someone basically just took fake blood and daubed a few spots here and there on the bodies. Certainly, there are problems with this movie. I for one am still confused about one particular sequence wherein several scenes seemed to be presented in the wrong order. I have to admit, though, that I really did enjoy watching Santa Claws. I would have enjoyed it even more if, instead of having to watch the shadow of the claws rise and fall against the wall, I had been allowed to actually witness the brutal murders as they took place – there is really no blood and gore to speak of here and horror fans looking for a bit of grue may be greatly let down. However, if accepted for what it is (and not much more), Santa Claws could make for an enjoyable time as part of a micro-budget entry in a holiday horror movie marathon. For more of the best no-nonsense horror and genre film reviews, visit http://www.FromDuskTillCon.com Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Tons of hot chicks couldn't make this movie better. The acting was non-existent. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member A cheesy and boring at times horror film that's stupid and yet hilarious at the same time. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Critics Reviews

      View All (3) Critics Reviews
      Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy Shot-on-video softcore hybridised with just enough of a psycho nutjob subplot that you can get away with filing it outside of your porno collection. Rated: 2/10 Dec 10, 2011 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 19, 2005 Full Review Mike DeWolfe Apollo Guide Rated: 34/100 Jul 24, 2001 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A woman's marriage is falling apart and her next door neighbor is not the guy he appears to be. He is obsessed with her and will do anything to make her happy. He starts going crazy and eventually begins dressing up like Santa Claus and killing people with a claw.
      Director
      John A. Russo
      Screenwriter
      John A. Russo
      Distributor
      E.I. Independent Cinema, American Home Entertainment
      Production Co
      Market Square Productions
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Oct 22, 1996, Original
      Runtime
      1h 25m