Written and Directed by Dick Maas.
Starring Huub Stapel, Egbert Jan Weeber, Caro Lenssen, Bert Luppes, Madelief Blanken, Escha Tanihatu, Kees Boot and Ben Ramakers.
SYNOPSIS:
A vengeful Saint Nicholas descends on Amsterdam, unleashing a bloody wave of terror that forces an obsessive ex-cop to take the law into his own hands to save the city.
There’s nothing better than sitting down over the festive season with a few nibbles, some drinks and good Yuletide-themed horror to send shivers down your spine on those dark nights. Unfortunately, good Yuletide-themed horrors are hard to come by, with the majority resorting to the tried-and-tested ‘killer dresses up as Santa and stalks unsuspecting teens’ formula (see Christmas Evil, Silent Night, Deadly Night and so on). Sadly, when filmmakers decide to take a risk and have the real Santa Claus doing the killing, we usually end up with something awful like Santa’s Slay, an atrocious effort from 2005 that sees former wrestler Bill Goldberg as Father Christmas, reimagined as the son of the Devil.
The problem with killer Santa movies is how do you go about making the jolly old fat guy into a convincing monster? Well, if you’re veteran Dutch filmmaker Dick Maas (De lift, Amsterdamned), then you swap the commercial interpretation of Santa Claus for one of his inspirations, Sinterklaas – the traditional holiday figure of the Netherlands who arrives each year on a boat from Spain bearing gifts in celebration of The Feast of Saint Nicholas on December 5th. Sinterklaas is essentially very similar to Santa, except that he rides a white horse rather than a sleigh and is assisted by mischievous ‘Black Peters’ as opposed to elves. Oh, and he dresses in a bishop’s outfit. I mean, if that’s not a warning sign to kids everywhere, then I don’t know what is.
Saint opens with two prologues, the first of which takes place in 1492 as Sinterklaas (Maas regular Huub Stapel) and his Black Peters arrive to wreak terror on the Netherlands, only for the local villagers to strike back and set fire to his ship, burning the bloodthirsty bishop alive. From here we skip to 1968, where a young boy witnesses the murder of his family at the hands of Sinterklaas, before arriving in the present day where said boy has grown up to become an obsessive, burnt-out policeman, Goert (Bert Luppes), who is determined to protect the unsuspecting public from the demonic ‘Sint’ and his minions. Trouble is, everyone naturally thinks he’s crazy and when the bodies start piling up, it’s down to Goert and Frank (Egbert Jan Weeber) – a young student wrongly accused of the crimes – to put an end to Sinterklaas’ reign of terror once and for all.
With such a ridiculous storyline – not to mention a U.K. tagline of “Santa’s coming to slay” – I’m sure a many people will dismiss Saint as a cheap and cheesey Christmas-themed horror of the Jack Frost variety. However, that’s simply not the case and Saint really has much more to offer than that, with Maas channelling early John Carpenter (especially The Fog) to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable horror comedy that features plenty of inventive deaths, impressive gore effects, solid performances and some genuinely funny dialogue that manages to avoid being lost in translation. In fact, Gremlins aside, I’m struggling to think of a festive-themed horror that I’ve enjoyed more than Saint and while there’s not much of a field in terms of competition, there’s every chance it will join the likes of Bad Santa, Christmas Vacation, Die Hard and Gremlins as part of my regular Christmas movie schedule. Give it a shot and it may just join yours too.
Gary Collinson (follow me on Twitter)
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