Horror Movie Review: Psycho Santa 2 (2021)

Way back in 2018, we reviewed an obscure festive horror that was released straight to video in 2003. It was called Psycho Santa, and it was absolutely awful.

An obscure film written and directed by Peter Keir; Psycho Santa was an anthology of sorts. Featuring a couple on a long drive, so to pass the time, the man decides to tell stories of a psychopathic Santa killer that stalks the local region. Three separate stories, three urban legends about this maniac who sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.

Three tedious stories featuring a ton of padding, pointless moments, and unsatisfying payoffs. It wasn’t just a bad festive horror movie, but a bad horror movie in general.

So, of course, a movie this bad would end up with a sequel. One that seems to have been made way back in 2011 but has only seen the light of day in 2021 when SRS Vault released it on limited Blu-ray alongside the first film.

The signs all point to something as crap as the first Psycho Santa, but that’s such a low-bar, surely Psycho Santa 2 could be better by default.

Spoilers, it is, marginally, and just like the first film, it’s padded to hell. In fact, remove all the padding and it’s a 30-minute film at best. Although using the word ‘best’ in any context around Psycho Santa 2 doesn’t feel right. It’s such a god-awful experience.

Yet, in a surprise, it is marginally better than the first film and that is simply because it’s not an anthology. In fact, the legend from the first – the killer Santa – is what this film focuses on. Or at least that is what it seems to focus on. It could just be an entirely different story about a killer Santa, neither this nor the first film does a good job of explaining itself.

The story of Psycho Santa surrounds a young man accused of murder and finding out that his father is out and about killing people while dressed in a Santa outfit. The man had come home to find that his roommate had murdered and raped a woman (it’s that kind of film) and after threatening to turn him in, had been attacked by said roommate. While unconscious, a killer Santa had come along and saved him, resulting in the dead roommate and a confused police force.

They want to get to the bottom of it and suspect the young man’s father may be involved. Especially as he’s currently on a killing spree. Although if you’re expecting much in the way of action, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. It all just feels par for the course with a movie that just sputters to a stop and then just… ends. An ending, but not an ending in the conventional sense of movie endings.

Is it fun? No, Is it exciting? No. Does it have lots of killing, blood, and guts? No. Is it mind-numbingly boring? Absolutely. Does it have awful acting, awful dialogue, and hilariously bad effects? Of course it bloody does.

So, what makes it better than the first Psycho Santa? The storyline, while inept and puerile, does exist and there is an attempt to try and tell a coherent tale. Even if it fails miserably at that, it’s something the ‘thrown together’ anthology that was the first movie didn’t. So, marginally better, but still an awful movie in every way.