(Some Spoilers) Off the wall slasher film involving this not so stable toy factory manager who got the shock of his life when, as a little boy, her saw Santa and his mom getting off on Christmas Eve. The fact that Santa was young Harry Stadling's father didn't seem to be noticed by Harry who became obsessed with Ol' Saint Nicholas his entire life. Going on a one man crusade Harry was intent to prove the existence of Santa if it was the last thing that he did. Harry went so far as living a secret life as the man in the red and white suit using his disguise as Santa as his personal and secret identity.
Harry keeping tabs on all the kids in his neighborhood, by spying on them, had a list of who was naughty and who was nice among them and as Christmas approached he was to make sure that they all got, good or bad, everything that they so rightfully deserved. It was really the adults who didn't believe in Santa and the giving spirit of the Chistmas holidays that Harry really had it in for. And it was them who in the end had to pay, in Harry's mind, for their unforgivable sins! It was when Harry flipped out, on Christmas Eve, that he turned the joy of Christmas into a night of horrors.
Touched by the horrible conditions at the local Willowy Springs-a take of on the notorious Willowbrook state school in Staten Island NY- State Hospital Harry tried to get his fellow workers at the Jolly Dream Toy Factory to chip in and give the unwanted and discarded, by their families, kids there some toys for Christmas. It's When he was laughed at and made to feel like a fool,in his wanting to give away loads of toys for free, by his bosses at the factory that something snapped in Harry's head having him go ballistic! Besides Harry taking all the toys, from the factory, to give away as Christmas presents to the children in the city he also plans to give his Scrooge-like bosses a Christmas that they'll never forget!
Harry's rampage in the movie was motivated by those who looked at Christmas, and Santa, as nothing but a money making, not giving, time of the year. Even though he didn't like kids who didn't listen to their parents and elders and looked at dirty pictures, like Penthouse Centerfolds, Harry felt that they can be made to see he evil in their ways and be straightened in time. It was the adults who made a mockery of Christmas, and Santa Clause, that Harry really had it in for in that they should know better but don't. which in Harry's mind was unforgivable and needed to be, by him, taken care of with the utmost urgency!
Hard to take serious slasher/horror movie in that the villain, Harry Stadling, was so lovable that even when he did in his victims you just couldn't dislike him. Harry was so believable as the lovable Santa Clause that even the children of the people that he murdered looked up to him, with Harry giving them expensive presents, as if he were the real McCoy, Santa, himself!
During the entire film Harry was always on the outs with his younger brother Philip who, since they were little boys, never believed in Santa and let Harry know it in no uncertain terms. It took a while but in the end even Philip became a believer. Not that Harry proved to Philip that the legendary Santa does in fact exists but, in the final moments of the movie, that Santa is actually his own brother, Harry Stadling, in the flesh!
