Alex Hassell and Alexis Louder star as Jason and Linda, an estranged couple who agree to attend his mother’s Christmas party for the sake of their young daughter, Trudy . The family gathering, presided over by matriarch Gertrude , feels like a slimmed-down, B-list version of the original. Edi Patterson plays sycophantic daughter Alva, with a dim-bulb husband and an impossibly entitled kid. Far more naughty than nice, though Jason, Linda and Trudy seem decent enough.
The script, by Pat Casey and Josh Miller , provides just enough Santa backstory to convince us he’s the real deal. Imagine if you will a Viking at the end of the first millennium discovering that he was immortal, and over the subsequent centuries evolving from a blunt instrument of solstitial vengeance into the jolly gift-giver we know today. Centuries have smoothed off the rough edges and made him more carrot and less stick, but he still has fond recollections of iron-age weaponry.
Director Tommy Wirkola has made these kind of overlapping horror-comedy stories before, including 2009’s, with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. It put the grim in Grimm.nails the mix nicely – I could have done with the gore turned down a notch or two, but there are moviergoers who long for creative puncture wounds and bodies cut in half, and they will not be disappointed.
And give credit to the film for not trying to over-explain itself. When someone wants to know how Santa’s sack manages to contain an infinite number of presents, he says merely: “Christmas magic,” before adding: “I don’t really understand how it works.” In other words, enjoy the eggnog, and don’t trouble yourself too much with how it was made.
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