You Better Watch Out

Plot synopsis:
Suburban New Jersey, Christmas Eve, 1947. Harry catches his mother being sexually groped by his father, who is dressed up as Santa. Heartbroken, the child then rushes up to the attic and cuts his hand with a shard of glass from a shattered snow globe.33 years later in the year 1980, the adult Harry (Brandon Maggart) now works in "a lousy position" as the manager of the Jolly Dreams toy factory. At home, he has taken it upon himself to become the next true Santa; he sleeps in a Santa costume, and his apartment is resplendent all year round with Christmas toys and décor. From the roof of his building, he uses binoculars to spy on neighborhood children to see if they have been 'bad or good' (two children are doing household chores and playing with their doll, the third child, Moss Garcia, is shown rifling through a Penthouse magazine and cutting out a nude photograph). Harry runs back home and writes Moss' name in his "Bad Boys & Girls" book.On his way home from work, Harry peeps into the window of a local bar and sees co-worker Frank Stoller, whom earlier that day had phoned-in sick and Harry had relieved on the assembly line. Harry becomes angry that Frank lied to him about being sick just to avoid not going to work. Harry rushes home, hums a Christmas tune, and breaks one of his male dollhouse figures.The following morning Harry phones his younger brother Phil (Jeffrey DeMunn) and cancels his plans to come over for Thanksgiving dinner with Phil and his family.One month later on Christmas Eve, the Company Christmas party for Jolly Dreams is in full swing. Harry watches the owner of Jolly Dreams making a televised announcement that, if production increases sufficiently, the company will be able to donate toys to the disadvantaged children at Willowy Springs State Hospital. Just then, Harry is greeted by one of his co-workers, named Ben, who thanks him for taking Frank's place at the warehouse on the assembly line. Frank then introduces Harry to newcomer employee George.At home, Harry realizes that people generally consider him a "schmuck" and is constantly exploited by others. He then has a nervous breakdown, and he is now convinced that he truly is Santa Claus. Down in his basement workshop, he begins smelting toy soldiers (with swords at attention) and small axes.Alone after-hours, Harry gets a brilliant idea. He steals company toys, wraps them, loads them into his van, and later drops them off at the hospital. He then leaves a bagful of dirt at bad-boy Moss Garcia's doorstep. Sometime later, Harry passes by a local community center where a party is being held. Two men outside see Harry in his Santa costume and mistake him for the Santa that was supposed to show up for the children. They pull him inside where Harry has fun mingling with the other attendees and giving toy soldiers to the children also there. He soon leaves, but announces to the children to be good or they will not get any presents for next year.At around midnight, Harry passes by a local church where he murders three teenage parishioners who happen to taunt him at the bottom steps of the church. Coincidentally, Frank and George are also attending the midnight mass, and witness "Santa's" bloody crime, the hatchet murders of the young bullying preppies.Later that same evening, Harry manages to invade two family's homes for different reasons. After sneaking into Phil's home, he destroys his nephews' Jolly Dreams gifts, and delivers the newly minted soldiers, as well as toys from his own workshop. At the Stoller home, he sneaks in through their basement, delivers the kids' toys, murders Frank in bed by stabbing him to death, and escapes in his van.Meanwhile, an all points bulletin is posted for the town as police begin to search the area for the murderous Santa Claus. Several street-corner Santas are brought in for questioning as well as police line-up for the witnesses to the three murders outside the church.On Christmas morning, Phil begins to suspect something is seriously wrong with his brother and argues with his wife Jackie. Their children are preoccupied with watching a television program and do not seem to mind playing with their damaged and sub-par toys.At the closed warehouse, Harry gains entrance and activates the assembly lines, breaking even-more toys in the process.That night he drives off, and his van becomes stuck in the snow on a beautifully decorated street with plenty of lights, sending him further into a delusional state. By now his costume is dirty and dishevelled. He eventually finds himself on the wrong side of his brother's neighborhood. When he offers to give a toy soldier to a group of needy children, the children's parents happen by and threaten Harry. One father attacks him with a switchblade knife, before the children come to Harry's defense and allow him to get away. Now, a large torch-bearing mob pursues him. Nevertheless, he manages to drive his van out of the sludge and arrives at his brother's house.Phil quickly realizes that his brother is the homicidal Santa he has heard announced on the news. Harry tries to justify his actions to his brother, but Phil proceeds to choke him unconscious. Phil loads Harry into the front seat of the van, whereupon Harry comes-to, cold-cocks him, and again drives off. During his escape, the oncoming mob appears on the road and forces him and his van off a bridge. The van then is shown to magically fly off towards the moon as Harry's voice over reads the end of "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
Jackson takes aim at the crass commercialization of the holiday, a common theme in Christmas fare, and comes up with some very striking images, notably the police line up of Santas, and the homage to the Fritz Lang classic "M" with angry torch bearing citizens hellbent on getting their hands on Harry.Talented star Maggart came in cold for his audition and delivered the exact performance seen in the movie; it's truly something to see.
oddball seasonal slasher that has more characterisation and less gore than many of its contemparies.After witnessing his mother getting it on with his father in a santa suit as a boy,a now deeply disturbed and grown up harry standling (Brandon Maggart) decides to celebrate Christmas his own way by metering out punishment to those who have besmirched the season of good will.'Christmas evil' succeeds due to the film's emphasis on showing harry as a three dimensional character and for conjuring up a generally oppressive and Eerie atmosphere throughout,the fact that the death scence's are sporadic and often off kilter add too this 1980 slasher's unsettling nature.'Christmas evil' will be far too off-beat for your average stalk and slash fan,but for those open minded and adventurous enough,'Christmas evil'is a one of a kind,genuinely original treat..
A young boy sees mommy having sex with Santa Claus (this seems to turn a lot of people crazy in these movies) and grows up Christmas-obsessed.
You Better Watch Out otherwise known as Christmas Evil is essentially a Christmas version of Falling Down (1993) just not as clever, interesting, thought provoking or even remotely good.It tells the story of a man tormented by the memory of discovering that Santa Claus isn't real.
Overworked and underappreciated, taken advantage by work colleagues and witnessing the selfishness of his company he finally snaps and goes on a killing spree dressed as santa (As you do).It's one of those films where though you can't fully empathise with the antagonist you can understand his plight to an extent and even feel a little bit sorry for him.
Something more like De Niro in the later picture "The Fan" to give a closer idea.Harry has an obsession with everything related to the greeting card version of Christmas, from counting the days, decorating his apartment, watching parades and even dressing up as the jolly, white-bearded man himself.
As the unlucky ones that learned the hard way from Dirty Harry about being judge, jury and executioner: You don't mess with a man on his own turf.Instead of being just a straightforward plot about someone ready to commit violence if anything comes between their fixation like some typical slasher, this is a character study that goes through motivations in a quirky, off-beat way and reveals a method to the madness, as unorthodox as that may be.
(Some Spoilers) Off the wall slasher film involving this not so stable toy factory manager who got the shock of his life when, as a little boy, her saw Santa and his mom getting off on Christmas Eve. The fact that Santa was young Harry Stadling's father didn't seem to be noticed by Harry who became obsessed with Ol' Saint Nicholas his entire life.
Harry went so far as living a secret life as the man in the red and white suit using his disguise as Santa as his personal and secret identity.Harry keeping tabs on all the kids in his neighborhood, by spying on them, had a list of who was naughty and who was nice among them and as Christmas approached he was to make sure that they all got, good or bad, everything that they so rightfully deserved.
Besides Harry taking all the toys, from the factory, to give away as Christmas presents to the children in the city he also plans to give his Scrooge-like bosses a Christmas that they'll never forget!Harry's rampage in the movie was motivated by those who looked at Christmas, and Santa, as nothing but a money making, not giving, time of the year.
Harry was so believable as the lovable Santa Clause that even the children of the people that he murdered looked up to him, with Harry giving them expensive presents, as if he were the real McCoy, Santa, himself!During the entire film Harry was always on the outs with his younger brother Philip who, since they were little boys, never believed in Santa and let Harry know it in no uncertain terms.
A killer disguised as santa claus is haunted by A 1947 christmas after seeing his mom being fondled by his father(who by the way is dressed in A santa claus suit)and finding out there is no santa claus.Now as an adult,he keeps records of boys and girls who are good and bad and kills the people who are mean to him and those who uses christmas as profit making.Although this movie is low budget,it still has great acting and A surprising (and funny)ending.It's A must for horror buffs..
You Better Watch Out (aka Christmas Evil) is much more of a black comic character study than a slasher film.
If you mess with Santa, you get taken out.You Better Watch Out is the perfect cinematic experience if you have seen to many bad Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel.
There's not much horror in this film, beside a couple of killings (mainly folks who don't like Santa), plus a fair amount of pathos and touching moments as Harry really does play the Santa bit to the full for the kids.
Part horror, part drama and all round weird tale with quite a bit of emotion, Christmas Evil stands out as a film that's hard to categorise, but that's what makes it so good in the first place.
He has already been acting like Santa Claus before by watching the neighborhood children and listing off their activities.The thing about this movie is it wanted to be this in depth examination of this sick mind.
One Christmas Eve he snaps and sets out to kill the naughty people--dressed as Santa of course.Boring and just plain bad killer Santa movie.
Christmas EvilSanta Claus tells burglars that home invasion is okay so long as you bring a gift.Regrettably, the only gift the malefactor in this horror movie bares is a swinging axe.Toymaker Harry (Brandon Maggart) takes his job so seriously he believes he's destined to be Kris Kringle.
Wearing the red and white costume and compiling a nice/naughty list of his neighbours, Harry dispenses his brand of Christmas justice upon them.While some get gifts from him, others - like his shiftless coworker (Joe Jamrog) or mouthy hipsters – get a taste of Harry's hatchet.Originally titled: You Better Watch Out, this B-Movie from 1980 set the standard for the seasonal slashers that started appearing shortly after its release.
The movie focuses on Harry, a middle-aged worker at a Christmas-themed toy factory who has an unhealthy obsession over the Christmas holiday and Santa Claus, stemming from a traumatic childhood event.
His good deed, however, is disrupted, and an ensuing psychotic break has him slashing instead of spreading holiday cheer.One of the better (and earlier) holiday horror excursions, "Christmas Evil" is an interesting film and probably isn't what you'd expect.
Many people seem to get the film confused with the 1984 slasher film, "Silent Night, Deadly Night", but in fact, these two movies are actually quite different aside from the "murderer in the Santa Claus attire" plot device.
"Christmas Evil" is less a slasher, and more a character study, where the reverse is arguably true of the former.Although the root of the main character's (effectively played by Brandon Maggart) mental disruption is addressed early on in the film, it does require some suspension of disbelief, as Harry's unhealthy obsession with Christmas leads him to assuming the identity of Santa Claus.
His innocent intentions to deliver toys to the good boys and girls is actually rather heartwarming, but the narrative takes a sinister turn that has the film shift from what could have been a weird Hallmark movie to a demented slasher.
Keeping tabs on all the local children (via voyeurism); documenting their good and bad behaviour.One Christmas, after witnessing the greed of management at the toy factory where he works, he snaps, and fully embraces his Santa alter-ego, on the one day of the year that the rest of the world might accept it.Everything goes well for him at first.
Overall, Christmas Evil is a decent "horror" film but I personally don't think it's all that a lot of people are making it out to be.
And once again the jolliest time of the year is approaching and Harry (Brandon Maggart) is starting to feel the pressure of the Yuletide.Christmas Evil stands apart from its slasher horror brethren by the virtue of its quality.
A young boy witnesses his mom getting it off with Santa which warped his mind and he grows up to become obsessed with Christmas.He keeps a record of all of the children who had been good and all of those who had been naughty and he hates those people who use Christmas for their own needs.Eventually he snaps and goes around the town,looking for "naughty" people who trash the good name of Christmas.The series of bloody murders begins..."Christmas Evil" is a joy to watch.Brandon Maggert is perfect as a psychotic Santa Claus and there are some moments of sheer lunacy including a Santa Claus police lineup,a murder with a tree topper star and New Yorkers chasing bad Santa through the streets with torches."Christmas Evil" is slow in parts;it plays more like a character study than a straight ahead slasher flick.Still despite its low body count I enjoyed this twisted little flick..
On and on these things drag on; scenes of our schlub of a anti-hero wandering around, or climbing ladders or driving in his van, all of which I suppose were intended to establish mood and emotion, but end up making you want to hit fast forward a whole lot.I did like the scene in which the evil Santa-type guy stabs someone in the eye with a toy soldier, and also a scene in which a guy walks away from someone talking to him, and after a cutaway, the two are right back together again.
But this is no Plan Nine, and moments like these are few and far between.This movie would probably be fun to show to people only if you told them you were putting on a "real" Christmas movie and then saw their faces when Santa and Mommy start getting it on in an early prologue scene.
"Christmas Evil", or "You Better Watch Out" is about worker in a toy factory who happens to be Santa with a purpose.
On one day he just looses it and becomes "Santa", drives and his van delivering presents to children, but also kills some specific people he doesn't like.The movie is quite memorable and full of Holiday cheer and atmosphere, despite the story.
A toy factory worker (Fiona Apple's father), mentally scarred as a child upon learning Santa Claus is not real, suffers a nervous breakdown after being belittled at work, and embarks on a Yuletide killing spree.I had a copy of this movie on my desk for over a year (thanks, Vinegar Syndrome) but somehow never found the time.
And, sadly, despite a few good scenes and the possibility of this being the first killer Santa movie, it runs a bit too slow and too long to be a really strong slasher.On the bright side, it has Jeffrey DeMunn before he really became a horror icon through his work with Frank Darabont..
"Hailed" by wondrously camp film maker, John Waters, as the best Christmas film ever, Christmas Evil begins in 1947 where the young Harry Standling (played in adult form by Brandon Maggart) witnesses what he believes to be Santa Claus getting off with his mum!
Really boring this strange horror movie, not particularly gore either: a boy who saw his parents make love under the Christmas tree - with the father in a Santa suit - become a man who, as Santa Claus, dispense justice, punishing evil children and rewarding good ones.Slow, preposterous, insane..
However, one fateful Christmas Eve Harry has a severe mental meltdown and goes dangerously off the deep end with his Santa obsession.Those expecting a typical and conventional slice'n'dice body count opus will be seriously disappointed; instead writer/director Lewis Jackson offers something much better and more ambitious: A quirky, vivid, and often darkly humorous psychological character study of a deeply tragic and troubled soul who elicits from the viewer a complex blend of fear and pity.
Moreover, this film delivers a wonderful wealth of inspired oddball moments: A raucous Christmas office party that degenerates into a drunken fracas, Harry marking a bratty kid's house with muddy hand prints, Harry happily dancing at another Christmas party (Harry's speech to a bunch of little children at this particular party is an absolute loopy hoot!), Harry getting stuck in a chimney, Harry being chased by an angry torch-wielding mob, a police station line-up of sidewalk Santas, and a truly bonkers magical ending that's probably all in Harry's unbalanced head.While Maggart clearly dominates the movie with his top-notch portrayal of a fascinatingly sincere and well-meaning, yet still lethal and unhinged individual, he nonetheless receives sturdy support from Jeffrey DeMunn as Harry's fed-up long-suffering younger brother Philip, Dianne Hall as Philip's more sweet and tolerant wife Jackie, Joe Jamrog as lazy and irresponsible coworker Frank, and Peter Friedman as callous executive Mr. Grosch.
It's less trashy than Silent Night Deadly Night, less influential than Black Christmas, and less sleazy than Don't Open 'Til Christmas, but You Better Watch Out (AKA Christmas Evil) is certainly no less worthy of your time if you dig seasonal horrors.In fact, it fully deserves to have something of a cult following thanks to its quirky sense of humour, and a wonderful turn by Brandon Maggart as crazy Harry Stadling, who as a child, spotted his mommy doing more than just kissing Santa Clause, and who now takes Christmas a little too seriously, deciding for himself who has been naughty and nice, and dealing with them accordingly.With such fun scenes as Harry (in full Father Christmas costume) dancing his heart out at a Christmas party, getting stuck in a chimney, and imagining his van is being pulled by reindeer, plus a police identity line-up consisting of a motley looking collection of Santas, You Better Watch Out might be more amusing than horrific, but it is still very twisted at times; certainly what little graphic violence is shown is surprisingly nasty, such as when Harry attacks a group of church-goers, poking an eye out with a toy soldier and then axing a couple of guys in the head.As Harry's murderous rampage continues, and local people begin to eye anyone in a Santa costume with suspicion, it's not long before our jolly psycho is confronted by an angry mob, who chase him down the streets with flaming torches (in an homage to Universal's Frankenstein, perhaps).
Anyway, I was generally impressed with the film: its deliberate pace, coupled with a remarkable leading performance from Brandon Maggart and the weird score, creates a genuinely unsettling aura throughout; despite the unfamiliar personnel involved and the obvious low-budget, the end result is certainly compelling.Still, while it's touted as a slasher film (one of a few with a Yuletide backdrop - I've watched the even superior BLACK Christmas [1974] but haven't yet checked out any entries from the SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT [1984-92] series), the killing spree here is limited to just two violent outbursts: the first - leaving numerous victims - occurs outside a church in full view of the public, utilizing shock cuts and crude gore effects for its impact; the second, a personal vendetta taking place inside the house of one of Maggart's colleagues, relies mainly on creating suspense and is then carried out in one swift and vicious stroke.
In fact, the film is better approached as a character study in the vein of TAXI DRIVER (1976) - with Maggart, having something of an obsession with Christmas after a traumatic childhood experience, slipping slowly but surely into madness: he keeps a couple of diaries in which the vices and virtues of the neighborhood kids are periodically listed - so that, at Christmastime, he's able to reward the good whilst punishing the bad (actually, his interaction with the children might well be construed as borderline paedophelia by today's standards)!
After a series of events which sends Harry over the edge, including run-ins with his mean scrooge like boss Mr. Fletcher (Scott McKay) and various work colleagues, Harry dresses up on Christmas Eve as Santa and travels around New York giving out presents to good boys and girls and killing the bad ones, until he ends up at his brothers house for a final confrontation.
Going into a movie like I this, I was expecting absolutely nothing entertaining except for a whorde of kills.....what I got was even less.Christmas eve 1947 a kid witnesses his parents doing it while daddy is in a santa suit.
Don't go messing around trying to get all deep and thoughtful; you're only gonna wind up looking foolish.Christmas Evil is the story of Harry Stadling, who saw a little bit too much of Mommy kissing (Daddy-dressed-as-)Santa Claus back when he was a kid.
So, of course, Harry grows up obsessed with Christmas, and finally, when his disillusionment becomes too great, he flips out, dresses as Santa, and wanders the city giving out toys to good little children, and viciously killing anyone he deems naughty.Simple enough, and not a bad place to start.
I'd make them watch it every year and if they didn't like it, they'd be punished."Christmas Eve 1947: Harry Stadling (played later in the film Brandon Maggart, who is the father of Fiona Apple) watches his father - dressed as Santa - get sexy with his mother.