On Christmas Eve, a resourceful young boy has to defend
himself and his grandfather from a killer dressed as Santa Claus. HORROR
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36•15 Code Peré Noël (1989)Written and Directed by René Manzor
Starring Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, Patrick Florsheim, Alain Lalanne |
Also known as Deadly Games, Dial Code Santa Claus, Game Over, and (my personal favorite) Hide and Freak, this French film is a dark version on the same idea as Home Alone. It was released a year before the John Hughes classic. Manzor even threatened legal action because of how alike the two films are. And that's where the similarities end. To me, they only share a basic premise. Each is unique like a snowflake. This one is definitely influenced more by American action movies than family friendly comedies.
Thomas (Lalanne) is a technology-savvy, mullet having, rich kid who loves playing war games. He has his own command center, secret passageways, and wired cameras to observe his surroundings at all times. He shares the mansion with his widowed mother (Fossey) and his ailing, partially blind grandfather. Even with that, Thomas is still a little kid who believes in Santa but will probably change his mind after this holiday evening. He tries to use a Minitel (a dinosaur version of the internet) to contact Saint Nick but instead makes a connection with a deranged man who figures out where Thomas's mother works. He gets a job as a Santa there and is confronted by a young boy who pulls his fake beard off, in return the child is slapped. This action leads to the gut getting fired which whips him into a rage. After staging stealing a costume and spray painting his hair and beard white, he is filled with crazy rage and sets out to get to Thomas's house. Crazy Santa (Florsheim) is really brutal as he is not picky about who he kills. This movie is like a French movie trying to be an American movie. If you're looking for something to add to your list of Christmas horror/thrillers, this is one needs to be on there. |