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Santa’s Slay (2005)
From Black Christmas (1974) to Violent Night (2022), there’s 50 years of evidence that Christmas slashers and psycho Santas feed a particular holiday movie niche. Rarely, though, does such counterprogramming shoot down the chimney and earn its place on the Naughty list as gleefully as Santa’s Slay.
This straight-to-DVD comedy slasher stars ‘90s wrestling icon Bill Goldberg as a Kris Kringle whose previous millennium of good deeds turned out to be a fluke. This Christmas, he can finally do as he likes, which means a murder spree through an all-American town called Hell.
The specific 2005-ness of the movie does encapsulate a certain hell. Through its juvenile humor and over-the-top kills, Santa’s Slay picks up on Gremlins’ holiday skewering of white-picket-fence hypocrisy and greed. But here, ‘roided-up Santa gets his kicks wreaking havoc on the mid-Bush years’ particular strain of bad vibes—sleazy pastors, gun nuts, and the first wave of reactionaries to be offended by the phrase “happy holidays.”
Goldberg—beloved in wrestling circles for his guttural, eye-bulging intensity—goes for broke as Heel Santa, even executing his famous “spear” move on a kindly deli owner played by Saul Rubinek, who takes it like a champ. Hollywood, Dec. 1.
ALSO PLAYING:
5th Avenue: The Gleaners and I (2000), Dec. 1-3. Cinemagic: Home Alone (1990), Nov. 30. Santa With Muscles (1996), Dec. 1. Clinton: The Golden Fern (1963), Dec. 6. Hollywood: Niagara (1953), Dec. 2-3. Peeping Tom (1960), Dec. 3. Carol (2015), Dec. 4. Living Room: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Dec. 3 and 6. Tomorrow Theater: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Dec. 2. Black Christmas (1974), Dec. 2. Die Hard (1988), Dec. 3.