[Yuletide Terrors] Day 13: DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS

Throughout the month of December, we will be highlighting a film a day that has some tie into the holiday somehow. Some titles will be obvious, others won’t be. Some films will be good and, again, others won’t be. However, we think all titles are worth your time whether to give you chills inside your home or to make you drink more eggnog until you puke laughing.

London at Christmas time. A rash of murders have grabbed headlines. Each victim has one thing in common, they were all dressed as Santa Claus. Inspector Harris (Edmund Purdom) of Scotland Yard is on the case. He contacts one of the victim’s daughters (Belinda Mayne) who he thinks could be next. A mysterious reporter (Alan Lake) may know what’s really happening.

Don’t Open Till Christmas brings a new spin to killer Santa movies by well, killing Santa. This Scrooge is quite the inventive slayer. Stabbing, burning, throat slitting, impalement, electrocution and even a castration. Produced by exploitation legend Dick Randall, who brought the world such classics like For Your Height Only, The Clones of Bruce Lee, Slaughter High, and Pieces, the sleaze is no surprise. The rest of the film is a mess. And that’s because this movie went through three directors and took almost two years to complete. Edmund Purdom (who played the Dean in Pieces) only agreed to star in the movie if he was allowed to direct it. And Mr Pudom was not up to task. After he quit, a second director was brought in and fired after two days. Finally Ray Selfe was hired and he completed the film. Tons of reshoots, character are brought up in the movie but never seen. With all this working against the movie it’s not that difficult to follow.

Released in England over a month after the Silent Night, Deadly Night controversy, has plenty of fun set pieces. Put out by Vestron Video in the States, I’m surprised how good my copy still looks. The only problem is the amount of tape hiss. It’s almost constant. Thankfully in 2011 Mondo Macabro put out Don’t Open… on DVD. Somewhat surprising it wasn’t under the company’s Dick Randall Collection moniker.  Show this one at a party. Not heavy on plot and enough weirdness to grab people’s attention.