Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) has modeled his entire life around Santa Claus. He works in a toy factory, spies on the neighborhood kids, and keeps a book of who's naughty and who's nice. His brother (Jeffrey DeMunn) thinks he's crazy but Harry just wants to spread a little joy and mete out a little punishment.
Mostly, this movie is boring and sad. It very much paints Harry as deluded but sympathetic, kind of the Arthur Fleck of his day. He is constantly disrespected by his subordinates at work, dismissed by his superiors, and treated like a burden by his brother. When he finally gets around to killing people, it's the cynics and the liars that he targets. But even the killing is lackluster. He mainly just wants to deliver toys and be Santa. It's all wrapped up in this weird repressed sex thing because he saw his mom getting freaky with his dad dressed as Santa. That one instance of awkward role-play ruined any chance he had of living a normal, heterosexual, consumer-driven, 1980s life.
It's lazy and reductive, wanting to bemoan "kids these days" and their perceived lack of innocence and purity. Give it a miss when you're scrolling through Shudder.
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