Kazuo Umezu is a Japanese manga artist, musician and actor. Starting his career in the 1950s, he is among the most famous artists of horror manga and has broken the industry's conventions by introducing the gore of Japanese folktales. His most famous stories are The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan, Reptilia and My Name Is Shingo. In 1995, he had to retire from regular publishing due to tendinitis after finishing Fourteen. Movies based on his work - as well as movies he's writtem and at times directed - include The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Tamami: The Baby's Curse and Drifting Classroom.
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater was a six-part TV series that featured stories by Kazuo Umezu. This story is directed by Yudai Yamaguchi (Meatball Machine, Jigoku Koshien).
Yuko (Kiyo Ôshiro) wakes up on Christmas Eve frightened of Santa Claus. Her parents tell her that everything will be fine. We fast forward to Yuko nearly grown and attending a Christmas party in a hotel that looks just like the snow globe she had on her dresser. All of the rooms look like they're decorated with things from her room and the man at the front desk is dressed like Santa.
She gives herself as a gift to Ryosuke (Takamasa Suga) as her friends go to party, but they soon hear a loud noise. As they get to the hallway, one of their friends is dying, barely able to say "We've been desecrating Holy Christmas. So this is Santa's revenge. He said that he'll retrieve... the presents he gave us in the past.*"
Santa has a wild weapon that is on the end of his chain. He uses it repeatedly to rip legs and arms off. Also: This movie has people puking in almost every scene, which I think would be the natural reaction to all of the nonstop gore these party kids are seeing throughout the movie. And man, Santa is using all these bodies - he crushes one in his magical bag of toys at one point - to feed to his reindeer.
By the end, it's all a dream. Or is it? And whose dream is it if it is a dream? There aren't many holiday movies that end with a young girl reaching into someone's skull to pull out their maggot-strewn brain, are there? Because I've never seen that before.
There are a lot of killer Santa movies. There are none willing to go as hard as this except perhaps the original Silent Night, Deadly Night and Sint. Heads are chopped off, Donner and Blitzen eat brains and someone is even murdered with a Christmas light through the mouth. Merii Kurisumasu!
*Thanks Outlaw Vern!
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater was a six-part TV series that featured stories by Kazuo Umezu. This story is directed by Yudai Yamaguchi (Meatball Machine, Jigoku Koshien).
Yuko (Kiyo Ôshiro) wakes up on Christmas Eve frightened of Santa Claus. Her parents tell her that everything will be fine. We fast forward to Yuko nearly grown and attending a Christmas party in a hotel that looks just like the snow globe she had on her dresser. All of the rooms look like they're decorated with things from her room and the man at the front desk is dressed like Santa.
She gives herself as a gift to Ryosuke (Takamasa Suga) as her friends go to party, but they soon hear a loud noise. As they get to the hallway, one of their friends is dying, barely able to say "We've been desecrating Holy Christmas. So this is Santa's revenge. He said that he'll retrieve... the presents he gave us in the past.*"
Santa has a wild weapon that is on the end of his chain. He uses it repeatedly to rip legs and arms off. Also: This movie has people puking in almost every scene, which I think would be the natural reaction to all of the nonstop gore these party kids are seeing throughout the movie. And man, Santa is using all these bodies - he crushes one in his magical bag of toys at one point - to feed to his reindeer.
By the end, it's all a dream. Or is it? And whose dream is it if it is a dream? There aren't many holiday movies that end with a young girl reaching into someone's skull to pull out their maggot-strewn brain, are there? Because I've never seen that before.
There are a lot of killer Santa movies. There are none willing to go as hard as this except perhaps the original Silent Night, Deadly Night and Sint. Heads are chopped off, Donner and Blitzen eat brains and someone is even murdered with a Christmas light through the mouth. Merii Kurisumasu!
*Thanks Outlaw Vern!
