“Santa’s Slay” is a mildly impressive little slasher-comedy set during the cheerful holiday season. The film opens with a hilarious Christmas dinner gone wrong, and we are then introduced to Nicholas Yulesone, a normal teenager with a seemingly-senile grandfather. It’s Christmas eve, and his love interest, Mary, visits their house after work. Nicholas’ grandfather seems a little crazy, with a bomb shelter in his basement, theorizing that Santa Claus is actually the son of Satan and is a maniacal killer – but there may be some truth to his theory. Because on Christmas day, Santa begins a psychotic rampage in their town, killing off everyone, naughty and nice. Now, Nicholas and Mary are the only ones who know about the demonic Santa Claus, and it’s their job to stop him before he takes complete control – they just have to survive all the way through Christmas day.

I’ll forewarn you, if you rent this film and are expecting a serious horror movie, you will be seriously disappointed. But if you go into it without any high expectations, you should find this film highly enjoyable. The story is completely ridiculous, utter nonsense. The script is underdeveloped. The special effects weren’t great. Then why do I enjoy this film, you say? Well, it’s funny. It’s a black comedy, with plenty of comic elements thrown into it, even though it’s a quite violent movie. The film boasts a fairly familiar cast (especially during the short but hilarious opening scene, featuring some fairly big-name celebrities including Fran Drescher, James Caan, Rebecca Gayheart, and Chris Kattan). Bill Goldberg, a wrestler, plays the demonic Santa, and Emilie De Ravin (of “The Hills Have Eyes” remake) plays the character of Mary. All of the performances were decent enough, some of them were unbelievable, but this whole movie was unbelievable.

The entire film is really laughable – not necessarily in a bad way, but just because of the completely unrealistic, campy premise of it all. Nonethelesss, “Santa’s Slay” provides plenty of entertainment and some good laughs for a holiday-themed movie. It’s not scary at all, just on the gory side. I’d say it’s much more funny than it is scary, but technically it can be seen as a horror film – a really corny one at that, but a horror film nonetheless. Among all of the other Christmas-themed horror films out there that are much more serious (the masterpiece “Black Christmas”, and “Silent Night, Deadly Night”), this one sticks out just because of it’s inventive story and fun atmosphere. Just don’t expect to be scared for ninety minutes.

Overall, “Santa’s Slay” is a campy, funny, gory, all-around fun little movie. It’s unrealistic and it’s completely cheesy, but it’s surely fun entertainment that anyone who enjoys black comedies will want to check out. If you’re expecting a serious horror flick, avoid this, but if you enjoy lighthearted, stupid (but in a fun way) slasher movies, then this movie is perfect