Horror Short Review: Here Comes Santa (2016)

Opening with a warm shot of a brightly light, heavily Christmassy-decorated living room while Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas plays. A small cat drinks milk from a glass and the stockings over the fireplace are full. It looks like the perfect place to be this holiday season. That is until we see a camera has been set up to face the tree. It’s giving a live feed to a young boy who settles down to watch it. Presumably hoping to get a glimpse of Father Christmas.

He’s a little obsessive as we see him writing times in a journal with the words ‘nothing happened’ over and over again.

Well, tonight is finally the night as the camera feed goes fuzzy. This prompts the boy to go check on the camera. As he walks through the house, he hears the sound of something on the roof. Is it Santa’s reindeer? Convinced that he’s going to get a glimpse of the jolly fat man, he returns to the feed which has now normalised and with a big smile continues to watch.

His joy is apparent when he sees the red suit of Santa putting presents down at the tree. As he watches, Santa (with his back to the camera throughout) starts to eat something but it’s not cookies. No, it is not. The crunch of bones and soft mews make that perfectly clear.

The boy is shocked, even more so when Santa turns to reveal himself. Seemingly aware of the boy’s presence we get a good look at him. This isn’t jolly old saint Nick and as the creature moves closer to the camera, it becomes clear that it knows when you’re awake.

Here Comes Santa comes in at just over five minutes (including credits) and is expertly done. The bright lights of the house give it a real ‘Christmas’ feel, an absolute must if you’re a Christmas horror. We know it isn’t the real Santa Claus but the reveal is still fantastic and leads to a really tense and creepy finale.

There is no dialogue so everything is told through the facial reactions of the boy (Oscar Malcolm) and he does very well. His excitement followed by shock and fear is very convincing and director/producer Chris Thomas really shot it well.

A definite Christmas horror short that should be on everyone’s watch list.

Check it out below.