Red Christmas features a memorable character in the form of Cletus: rescued as a fetus from an abortion bin and raised to adulthood by a pro-life priest, he hides his deformed appearance under bandages and a big cloak, and goes in search of his mother, Diane (Dee Wallace), looking for some maternal love. But when mom rejects him (again), he picks up an axe and takes revenge by hacking his way through her dysfunctional family.
Like the elephant man, only uglier, Cletus is a sympathetic character driven to kill when all he wants is a motherly hug and some loving words; this makes him a rather unique movie maniac, but one deserving of a much better film. Writer/director Craig Anderson might have created an impressive killer, but he doesn't do the slobbering freak justice, his film suffering from a weak script and dreadful dialogue, crappy acting, horrible lighting (unnatural green, red and blue colours) and duff direction. Dee Wallace used to be a Hollywood A-lister, and it's a real shame to see her appearing in such rubbish, but she's only got herself to blame: she is the producer of the film, after all.
As for the whole Christmas setting, it is purely incidental, having no real bearing on the plot: Cletus could have turned up on Shrove Tuesday and it wouldn't have made much difference (except that the title wouldn't work so well and Anderson's garish lighting scheme would feel even more out of place).
3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the scene where a guy has his head pushed onto some kind of spinning device (it was hard to make out exactly what it was) and his eyeballs turn to mush and burst out of the sockets.
Like the elephant man, only uglier, Cletus is a sympathetic character driven to kill when all he wants is a motherly hug and some loving words; this makes him a rather unique movie maniac, but one deserving of a much better film. Writer/director Craig Anderson might have created an impressive killer, but he doesn't do the slobbering freak justice, his film suffering from a weak script and dreadful dialogue, crappy acting, horrible lighting (unnatural green, red and blue colours) and duff direction. Dee Wallace used to be a Hollywood A-lister, and it's a real shame to see her appearing in such rubbish, but she's only got herself to blame: she is the producer of the film, after all.
As for the whole Christmas setting, it is purely incidental, having no real bearing on the plot: Cletus could have turned up on Shrove Tuesday and it wouldn't have made much difference (except that the title wouldn't work so well and Anderson's garish lighting scheme would feel even more out of place).
3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the scene where a guy has his head pushed onto some kind of spinning device (it was hard to make out exactly what it was) and his eyeballs turn to mush and burst out of the sockets.