toddsgraham Review of Letters to Satan Claus

Letters to Satan Claus (2020 TV Movie)

A horror spoof of Hallmark/Lifetime Xmas movies with a Krampus twist...

[5/10 · 24 December 2020]

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a horror spoof of the (Hallmark, Lifetime, UPtv, ION Television, and others) Christmas (romance) genre. It also draws heavily from the Krampus folklore (and the dozen or so Krampus-based movies), a horned animal-like figure that scares children who have misbehaved at Christmas (the opposite of Saint Nicholas). At the center of the movie is Holly Frost (played by Karen Knox), a well-known TV news reporter who has a very cynical view of life, especially of Christmas. She returns to her hometown, after many years, where she falls in love while facing off Satan, who she accidentally wrote to as a child by misspelling her letter to Santa. Going into this one, I had low expectations, as the spoof genre, in general, doesn't produce many good films, unless you are a teenage boy, which seems to be the demographic this genre of film appeals to. This movie is no different. As a comedy, I thought it wasn't very good, as I did not laugh once during the movie, not even a chuckle. The closes I came to laughing was during the angel cookie scene, which I did enjoy watching. It is a pity they did not develop it a bit more (I also liked the Snowman's eyes). There was some potential in this movie around the horror angle. That said, the acting, though silly (as another reviewer put it), was pretty good, overall. I thought Knox had a very strong performance. She had a 'Bad Santa' vibe to her portrayal of Holly, which worked well on screen, I thought. The supporting cast too had a solid performance. It was a bit ironic having Michael Xavier (as Sheriff Noel) in the movie, as he has starred in two Christmas movies this season: Hallmark's Christmas Comes Twice and Lifetime's Christmas on Wheels. They should have used this in the film, as it is a spoof of these types of movies, of course. However, given viewer demographics (verses, e.g., those of Hallmark movies), I suspect not many people watching this movie would have picked up on it (as they would not have seen the above-mentioned movies). Although there is some good acting (and the critique behind the satire makes sense), all in all, this parody is not very funny (silly yes, but funny no).