Christmas Horror Movie Review: Cannibal Claus (2016)

Sleazy, low-budget Christmas-themed trash, Cannibal Claus is the festive treat the whole family can enjoy! Or should that be something the whole family should avoid?

Written and directed by Sean Donohue and starring Bob Glazier, Alberto Giovannelli and Mady Giovannelli. Cannibal Claus is packed with all manner of jolly delicacies such as full-frontal male and female nudity, sexual violence, offensive language, drug use, gory murders and of course… cannibalism.

Glazier is the titular Santa Claus who is fired from his job playing the jolly fat man a few days before Christmas. Furious about the way he has been treated, he decides he has had enough of being nice and sets about being the naughtiest Santa he can possibly be.

That involves him going around town and killing anyone he comes across while being as sleazy and perverted as possible. What does he get up too? Some of it innocent enough like partaking in a strip show. The rest? Not so innocent. He breaks into a house, hides behind a tree and puts his penis out so a babble can be hung on it. He forces a decapitated head to give him *ahem* head. He murders two women and then forces a candy cane into one of the woman’s vagina, before sucking on it. This Santa is a nasty piece of work and that’s before we get to the fact that he likes to cut his victims up and eat them on his barbeque.

It’s a movie of incredible bad taste but it’s also pretty entertaining provided you can see it for exactly what it is. It’s trash and it’s proud of that fact. The thing is, it’s competently made, both amusing and horrifying in equal measures. It’s designed to offend but hilariously, it impressively feels Christmassy.

A combination of bright colours, dark themes, festive music and Santa puns makes 62 minutes fly by. The story might seem basic, which it is mostly, but it also has some depth. Featuring a storyline that goes back to the Cannibal Claus’ childhood in an attempt to explain just why he is a cannibal.

So this Christmas we say you should give sleaze and trash a chance. Cannibal Claus is way more enjoyable then you would expect.