Movie Info
Movie Name: Don’t Open Till Christmas
Studio: Spectacular Trading International
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie/Seasonal
Release Date(s): December 19, 1984 (UK)/December 21, 1984 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Someone doesn’t like Santa
The Christmas season is in full swing, but in London, someone is murdering Santas. Inspector Ian Harris (Edmund Purdom) has been assigned the case and the public is scared. The father of Kate Brioski (Belinda Mayne) is a victim, and Harris suspects Brioski’s boyfriend Cliff Boyd (Gerry Sundquist) who seems to be around all the murders. The killer is getting bolder and the deaths are getting grizzlier…Christmas is getting closer and the killer shows no sign of stopping.
Directed by Edmund Purdom (who also starred in the film), Don’t Open Till Christmas is a horror slasher film. The film faced multiple production issues during the filming and was poorly received by critics.
Don’t Open Till Christmas was part of a 50 movie pack I got years ago for cheap. The Mill Creek Entertainment production had poor transfers and looked like it had been taped off the TV…which could actually help the film. Despite coming out in the mid-’80s, Don’t Open Till Christmas looks more comfortable in 1974 instead of 1984.
Do you like my razor blade?
The plot to the movie is unnecessarily complicated. It starts out with the “Christmas killings” already occurring, and it feels like the first half of the movie is missing. The movie struggles to find a lead (is it the detective? The jerky photographer? His girlfriend? The girl from the strip joint?), and it doesn’t have any likeable characters. The movie then goes into a weird crazy brother storyline that feels like it should have been worked in better (or eliminated).
The movie’s cast is also poor. Edmund Purdom comes off as kind of skeevy as the detective who is hitting on a murder victim’s daughter (in front of her boyfriend). Gerry Sundquist as the boyfriend comes off as unsympathetic due to his treatment of his girlfriend…and the mystery killer is rather pointless and over-the-top. Horror star Caroline Munro appears briefly as herself.
I think he might be dead
The film has been cleaned up for some releases but often is found in a poor-looking, grimly quality. The non-clean Don’t Open Till Christmas at least gives the film a grindhouse feel that gives it some atmosphere…but it doesn’t make it good. I will say the murder of the Santa at the urinal is pretty gross.
Don’t Open Till Christmas is a bad film. There aren’t a ton of holiday horror movies (the list has been growing recently) so it is always good to see one. The movie is fortunately short and that is about all it has going for it. I could see a reworked version of the movie actually working so in the world of remakes and reboots, I could see someone giving us a better version of the same movie. Until then Don’t Open Till Christmas…or don’t open at all.
