Christmas Horror Short Review: Santa for Hire (2020)

From writer and director Blake Riddler comes the festive horror short, Santa for Hire. It stars Sarah Alexandra Marks, Louis James, Jeffery Louis Salkilld, and Teddy Wynne.

A couple, Jenny and Ethan, are looking to surprise their young son Timmy by booking a Santa impersonator to come to their home on Christmas Eve with gifts. Not fully understanding what it involves, Ethan has booked a pre-interview and leaves Jenny alone to deal with it.

It’s all pretty innocent though, right? Well, this Santa Claus impersonator is both creepy and inappropriate.

Santa for Hire is delightfully festive, quite horrifying, and has dark elements of humour laced within. Thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end, it’s professionally shot, well-acted, and well-paced. The building expectation for something to go wrong, in a scenario that already screams trouble, is palpable. Yet, there’s a really sinister sense of fun behind things. It’s discomforting, but in a really watchable way.

The closing moments are wonderful, especially as it starts to take a really dark turn. It’s well worth a watch, and you can check it out below.

Although, did anyone else catch Sarah Alexandra Marks’s Jenny accidentally calling her son Timmy, Teddy? Which just so happens to be actor’s name. An unfortunate mistake it seems, but nothing that dents the overall quality of a fun festive horror short.