Cheap Santa Claws (DVD) (John A. Russo) Price

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Customer Reviews of Santa Claws

A FUN FLICK
This is a fun slasher flick which doesn't take itself to seriously. It has a wicked sense of humor and not only features the skewering of murder victims but it skewers the film industry too. It's not for everybody and those who dislike slashers should stay away, but for the rest of us there's a lot to like about this movie. The cast and writing are both on target and if you "get" these types of films you should definitely get Santa Claws.

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You'd better watch out--Santa Claws is coming to town
Ah, Christmas and psychopathic, murderous, obsessed movie star fans-you can hardly think of one without the other. It's the holidays, but no one is having a holly, jolly Christmas. B movie scream queen Raven Quinn (Debbie Rochon)-zoologist, scream queen, wife, and mother-has just had a fight with her husband, and he is threatening to divorce her once he gets back home from an out-of-town photo shoot. Her in-laws despise her because of her body-baring film career (although they have no problem with her husband photographing naked women in his job). The only person she can turn to is her ingratiatingly nice neighbor Wayne (Grant Kramer). What she does not know is that Wayne is completely obsessed with her, maintaining a Raven shrine inside his house. With her marriage on the rocks, he thinks the time is right to make his move. Now, Wayne has some problems; just ask his mother and uncle-oh, wait, you can't ask them because he shot them to death as a young teenager. He wants Raven all to himself, and this raging desire compels him to murder everyone who might get in his way. By the time the end game rolls around, Wayne has transformed himself into the dastardly Santa Claws, and he decides who has been naughty and who has been nice.

Obviously, this is a low-budget B-movie production. Some effort went into making the film, but there's no mistaking its origins. The acting is quite bad at times, although I think Debbie Rochon puts in a better than average performance as Raven; the sets are sadly unimpressive, especially the furnishings in Debbie's home (she and her husband could certainly have afforded better furniture); and the accompanying music is oftentimes just a step above elevator muzak, although I do give the filmmakers credit for attempting to insert relevant songs to accompany the story as it progresses-the intent was there, but apparently the money was not. Grant Kramer gives an inconsistent performance as the serial killer and Raven fanatic Wayne, and this limits the effectiveness of this movie to some degree. It can be rather painful to watch him sitting before his shrine confessing his love for Raven, but he comes across pretty well in those scenes requiring him to be psychotically angry and frustrated. I must also mention the murder weapon of choice here-it is a little plastic set of claws that wouldn't scare a child in the middle of a graveyard on Halloween night. This little toy is quite deadly in Wayne's hands, though. What I found really funny was the appearance of the murder victims after the fact; someone basically just took fake blood and daubed a few spots here and there on the bodies.

Certainly, there are problems with this movie. I for one am still confused about one particular sequence wherein several scenes seemed to be presented in the wrong order. I have to admit, though, that I really did enjoy watching Santa Claws. I would have enjoyed it even more if, instead of having to watch the shadow of the claws rise and fall against the wall, I had been allowed to actually witness the brutal murders as they took place-there is really no blood and gore to speak of here.

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An Interesting Story.
I thought this film had a great premise and I enjoyed the two lead performances; Raven and Wayne. It focuses a little too long on the nudity, but an interesting commentary piece on the B movie industry.