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You'd better take care...Santa is coming to town!
Suburban New Jersey, Christmas Eve - 1947: A Christmas Eve experience
traumatizes Harry. He catches his mother being sexually groped by Santa Claus
(actually Harry’s dad). The child then goes up to the attic and cuts his hand
with a shard of glass from a shattered snow globe.
Thirty-three years later, an adult Harry now works in "a lousy position" at
the Jolly Dreams toy factory. At home, he has taken it upon himself to become
the next true Santa; he sleeps in costume, and his apartment is resplendent with
Christmas toys and décor. From the roof of his building, he uses binoculars to
spy on neighborhood children to see if they have been 'bad or good' (two
children are doing household chores and playing with their doll, the third
child, Moss Garcia, is shown rifling through a Penthouse magazine and cutting
out a nude photograph). Harry runs back home and writes Moss' name in his “Bad
Boys & Girls” book.
On his way home, Harry peeps into the window of a local bar and sees coworker
Frank Stoller, whom earlier that day had phoned-in sick and Harry had relieved
on the assembly line. Harry becomes angry and rushes home, hums a Christmas
tune, and breaks one of his male dollhouse figures. The following morning Harry phones his younger brother Phil (Jeffrey DeMunn) and
cancels Thanksgiving dinner. The Company Christmas party is in full swing. Harry watches the owner of
Jolly Dreams making a televised announcement that, if production increases
sufficiently, the company will be able to donate toys to the disadvantaged
children at Willowy Springs State Hospital. Just then, Harry is greeted by
coworkers Ben, who thanks him for taking Frank's place at the warehouse, and
Frank, who introduces him to newcomer-employee George.
At home, Harry realizes that people generally consider him a "schmuck" and is
constantly exploited by others. He then has a nervous breakdown, and he is now
convinced that he truly is the proverbial jolly old elf. Down in his
basement workshop, he begins smelting toy soldiers (with swords at attention)
and small axes. Alone after-hours, Harry gets a brilliant idea. He steals Company toys, wraps
them, loads them into his van, and later drops them off at the Hospital. He then
leaves a bagful of dirt at bad-boy Moss Garcia’s doorstep, and thereafter
murders three parishioners who happen to taunt him at the bottom steps of a
nearby church. Coincidentally, Frank and George are also attending the midnight
mass, and witness Santa's bloody crime.
Later that evening Harry manages to invade two family's homes for different
reasons. After sneaking into Phil's home, he destroys his nephews' Jolly
Dreams gifts, and delivers the newly-minted soldiers, as well as toys from
his own workshop. At the Stoller home, he sneaks in through their basement,
delivers the kids' toys, murders Frank in bed, and escapes in his van. Christmas morning, Phil begins to suspect something is seriously wrong with
his brother and argues with his wife Jackie. Their children are preoccupied with
watching a television program and do not seem to mind playing with their damaged
and sub-par toys.
At the closed warehouse, Harry gains entrance and activates the assembly
lines, breaking even-more toys in the process. That night he drives off, and his
van becomes stuck in a beautifully decorated street with plenty of lights,
sending him further into a delusional state. By now his costume is dirty and
dishevelled. He eventually finds himself on the wrong side of his brother's
neighborhood, and a torch-bearing mob pursues him. Nevertheless, he manages to
drive his van out of the sludge and arrives at his brother's house.
Phil quickly realizes that his brother is the homicidal Santa he has heard
announced on the news and proceeds to choke him unconscious. He loads him into
the front seat of the van, whereupon Harry comes-to, cold-cocks him, and again
drives off. During his escape, the oncoming mob forces him and his van off a
bridge. At that very moment Harry becomes even-more delusional, thinking his
vehicle is actually Santa's flying sleigh (before the accident finally kills
him).
 Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved.
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