Christmas Cruelty

Face Book is a very handy tool in the search for amazing new films that are worthy to share here at Extreme Horror Cinema. Just look and look and its amazing to see what shows up! Christmas Cruelty popped up on the feed of well-known movie collector Joseph Novak; the same guy we all helped out last year when he had his workplace accident with a chainsaw and his arm. He shared a picture of his DVD of this Christmas themed Slasher. It’s cover spoke to me and I needed to find out more!

 

Researching for more information brought me to both their Face Book page and teasers on Youtube then naturally the Christmas Cruelty IMDb page. Watching all of the teasers available plus looking at stills from the film I decided it was way more than worthy for a thread in OTHER FOREIGN FILMS forum.

 

Naturally after the completion of what I personally think is an awesome thread I did what I always do and shared it with them, and while doing that I went why the hell not ask for an online screener while I was at it. As stated I loved what I had seen and wanted more and to share this experience in Santa Slasher debauchery!

 

Per-Ingvar Tomren, one of the directors and actor in Christmas Cruelty got back to me. He loved what I had done but stated at that time there was no online screener; being in Australia I can never expect people such as Per-Ingvar to post out screeners. Was I in for a surprise, he offered to post out an official copy, and signed to boot!

 

Nine days later it arrived, amazing considering it was regular post and from so far away. Even better it was signed and personalised by the guy dressed up in the Santa suit and does the most kill scenes Jan Rune Ødegård, director of photography Raymond Volle and naturally Per-Ingvar himself along with personalised messages. A cool story comes along with this DVD as well; o the way home Per-Ingvar was caught in a blizzard and water from melted snow got on the case. So you could say I have a real piece of Norway in my library, making my copy even more unique!

 

But anyway, you all are reading this to see if Christmas Cruelty is a worthy film to check out…

 

This Christmas Santa is going postal….

 

Parallel preparations are happening for this year’s Christmas Day.

 

First of all Krampus Day, and it’s making of masks and scaring the crap out of people, comes and goes. Then drunken debauchery and Christmas.

 

Meanwhile another is preparing for his own very special Christmas! A serial killer with a penchant for dressing as Santa and using the tools he finds at his victim’s homes to create bloody insanity!

 

This Christmas who will survive this Holiday Slasher mayhem from Norway?

 

Don’t worry its Santa Clause!

 

Christmas Cruelty is the debut from Norwegian filmmakers Par-Ingvar Tomren and his co-director Magne Steinsvoll. It was seen as a sort of education for the filmmakers. To make this film with amateur actors, working on the script parallel to making the film, and, thankfully, using all practical effects with zero CGI! Along with this is the use of the brutal and the mundane along with interesting use of flashbacks and so on.

 

 

Eline (Eline Aasheim) is the killers ‘love interest’. While researching his future victims on the internet he fanticises and jerks off about her. Eline seems knowledgeable on the whole traditions behind Christmas and gets the guys to make masks so they can partake in the tradition associated with Krampus Day; of getting dressed up in masks and what have you to scare the crap out of people. Here we learn to use plenty of petroleum jelly when casting the masks or else loss of facial hair is the cost! It’s this normalcy that pulls me in and as well as that sets the viewer up for the eventual conclusion and why we watch this film in the first place…Christmas Cruelty!

 

Per-Ingvar (Per-Ingvar Tomren) is the disabled friend who cops constant torment and insults from Magne. He takes it all in his stride though and gives it back from time to time, such as with the mask making. Per-Ingvar is wheelchair mobile due to having Brittle Bone Disease. I reality Per-Ingvar does have Osteogenesis Imperfecta and is considered one of the first stuntman with said condition. At first with some of the stuff he does when drunk I just thought ok but then when I read about his real condition I was like fuck! He has some real flash dance moves when he gets drunk! Per-Ingvar realy got messed up in the making of Christmas Cruelty including a skull fracture, which led to internal bleeding and permanent brain damage. Real resolve in keeping true to his art!

 

Magne (Magne Steinsvoll) is for the lack of a better word is the metalhead of the group of friends. He gets off on tormenting Per-Ingvar and being sexist in front of Eline. Also he really likes his booze and you find this out when he helps Per-Ingvar make Fortified wine…with added whisky, tequila, brandy and everything else probably including the kitchen sink! But in reality it is just his way of being and is a close friend to the two.

 

Obviously Per-Ingvar and Magne are close friends in real life; while Eline, was suggested to the guys; by Raymond Talberg, who plays ‘Boyband Shrimp’.

 

I mention all of this because of the chemistry between the three was believable and works well for the whole experience. This was where the mundane comes in; this buildup of the interaction between the friends, the social gatherings along with showing the killer in his social environment plus doing his research on his future victims of his special kind of insanity!

 

Our killer the Serial-Santa (Tormod Lien) is an interesting character in his own right. In the vein of Bill Oberst Jr here was a religious guy who works as a churchwarden playing this serial killer who is quite sick, twisted and perverse. Tormod’s earlier life plays quite interesting in its own right with its polarities and I feel this worked in the favor of his portrayal of the Serial Santa! We get this guy who is fractured inside and the way he perceives reality. This is shown by the way certain scenes are shot. On re-watching the second time I started doing the research for this here review and read exactly what I was feeling from the experience. Researching for the film the filmmakers came across the information for serial killer Tommy Lee Sells. He describes his head as being filled with broken glass and the guys try with success to attain this feeling! Editing the film so bits jump to the past, fantasies and what have you.

 

Christmas Cruelty opens brutally then ends with more. A baby meets the wrong end of a circular saw, a woman is raped with a knife to make her bleed so the killer can rape her again, a guy gets his head cut off and another gets a leg broken then assaulted with a chainsaw! All of this is brilliantly done and looks awesome! I feel to a point people who love German Splatter would really appreciate the gory mayhem here, though no innards or what have you everything looks awesome!

 

Christmas Cruelty deserves a lot of love; along with Per-Ingvar being amazing to me by sending me a copy but because it is a great film that does what it promises! A Christmas Slasher that mixes the brutal with the mundane, of how the killer views reality and naturally the practical effects. A lot of effort went into Per-Ingvar and Magne’s film and it shows. In the end they aimed for an original take on the Christmas Slasher subgenre and succeed! Get a chance go grab yourself a copy…how, by checking out the thread in OTHER FOREIGN FILMS and clicking on the link.

 

This Christmas Santa does go postal!