Santa Claus (also known as Santa Claus VS. The Devil) is a little-known movie from Mexico, made in 1959. It’s a Christmas movie geared toward kids and families. It won the Golden Gate Award for Best Family Film. I don’t understand how. This is an all-around weird, and mildly terrifying holiday film.
Santa Claus opens to Santa maniacally laughing while building a manger on his weird Santa space station. Why is he in space, I don’t know. Instead of elves, Santa has a room full of world based stereotypes and the children that sadly represent each continent or country. For example, kids from the Caribbean and Central America hold shotguns to represent their perspective areas. Mexico has child brides representing them. Sweet Matty theorizes that they don’t have elves because child labor must be cheaper, and there are no child labor laws in space. Well played, Matty. Well played.
Once we get past a most politically incorrect United Nations, we meet a little devil doll that turns into Pitch, a devil trying to convince kids to “do evil” for his lord Satan! The kids know he’s a bad guy because he’s a lactose intolerant red devil that hates good, fun and ice cream. Oh, and he also wants to straight up murder Santa.
We then meet little Lupita. She looks like a very anxious but adorable 4-year-old. Her family is poor, and she really wants a doll of her own. Pitch the Devil shows up and tries to convince Lupita to steal the doll. She does it and her Mom catches her out. Little Lupita immediately gets guilt anxiety and puts the doll back. Pitch decides he likes Lupita and begins to appear to her and constantly stalks and terrorizes her. Again, she’s like 4.
Santa goes through the old Naughty and Nice list and can spy on kids with a weird flat and oval baked out dome he scrys with. Much like Freddy Kruger, creepy Santa can also see and enter your dreams. He watches Lupita dream of boxes upon boxes of dolls all for her. The life-size dolls then come to life and do a creepy dance around Lupita while bullying her into being a bad girl. This kid better start saving for therapy now.
In Santa’s baked out dome he also sees a little boy who wishes for attentive parents and another who wishes for a sibling. Santa outsources all baby requests to the Stork and sent that down the pipeline. Santa also has some child assistants that help him track the good and bad kids and do all around general assisting. Pedro, the traditionally garbed Mexican boy, is like his head assistant.
Santa then asks for help from…. Merlin! He needs some sort of magic powder, this one will come in handy later. It seems as though Merlin also lives on Santa’s space station and is like his indentured wizard bitch. Merlin seems kinda weird and hella lonely. But indebted to Santa.
After setting Merlin to work, Santa does some delivery training to prep for Christmas. This also includes a visit with Santa’s reindeer! Except they’re all robots with demon red eyes and are horrific. Santa fills his sleigh while matching their creepiness with a sneer from Hell. What is happening! The reindeer start laughing and snorting with bright red glowing eyes. Sweet Matt says they must be demonic reindeer, it’s like an exercise in terror.
Meanwhile Pitch the devil is motivating awful children around the world to help him kill Santa. (Award winning kids movie.) One set of boys wait on a rooftop to catch and sleigh-jack Santa for his presents and whatever else they can get. But haha! Santa has a teleporting Rose (what?) that he sniffs and he teleports away. Meanwhile, Pitch sets up his own trap for Santa murder in a home he is occupying. This starts to feel like a reverse Home Alone situation. Pitch is Kevin McAlister and Santa is both of the Wet Bandits. Santa makes it out, with his teleporting rose, but he’s certainly not the same.
We revisit the Ginger kid who wished for parents who like, loved him. Or acknowledge him. Grunted in his general direction - SOMETHING. They’re much too busy being popular and going to parties. The lonely ginger kid looks like a little ginger werewolf. He is super thirsty for attention now. Santa sprinkles special dust over him and allows the child to see him and they have a little heart to heart. It takes a sharp turn to downsville as the lonely kid literally begs for love. Santa is really feeling sorry for this poor kid. And the lonely kid gets his parents attention for Christmas. I can’t believe this is the plot of the movie.
Pitch continues to try and set up Santa. Things continue to take weird dark turns. Lupita’s mom also seems to start crying a LOT and has serious emotional problems. Lupita is plagued by Pitch the Devil in and out of her dreams. He is doing everything to make her go crazy and do evil. Shit spins out of control when Pitch convinces the townspeople to gather their weapons - and KILL SANTA. Again, this is an AWARD WINNING KIDS MOVIE! What is even happening!?!
Santa does not die. He gets stuck in a tree with a nasty Pitbull below him. He is saved by the magical aid of Merlin and his steadfast child assistant/maid, Pedro. This blew us all away. Like hello - Santa still had that teleportation Rose. He was able to get himself out of situations just fine before with it. But suddenly now it’s like Oh no. I don’t have a weird teleporting device. Which also broaches the question, is Santa an alien? Is he a Time Lord? Is he a Doctor? Doctor Santa?
Lupita wins the day by refusing to do evil and yada yada, the movie ends with Lupita getting hooked up with a dope doll for Christmas, and her mom finally stops crying. Go girl!
This movie really drives home this weird preachy morality. I’m sure some of it could have even been confusing to kids. Interesting, but tragic side note. The child who played Pedro later went on to a life of crime. First with robbery in 1971, later to much worse. Including child sexual abuse of his own stepchild. Eerie.
This movie is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Click here to watch!
Santa Claus opens to Santa maniacally laughing while building a manger on his weird Santa space station. Why is he in space, I don’t know. Instead of elves, Santa has a room full of world based stereotypes and the children that sadly represent each continent or country. For example, kids from the Caribbean and Central America hold shotguns to represent their perspective areas. Mexico has child brides representing them. Sweet Matty theorizes that they don’t have elves because child labor must be cheaper, and there are no child labor laws in space. Well played, Matty. Well played.
Once we get past a most politically incorrect United Nations, we meet a little devil doll that turns into Pitch, a devil trying to convince kids to “do evil” for his lord Satan! The kids know he’s a bad guy because he’s a lactose intolerant red devil that hates good, fun and ice cream. Oh, and he also wants to straight up murder Santa.
We then meet little Lupita. She looks like a very anxious but adorable 4-year-old. Her family is poor, and she really wants a doll of her own. Pitch the Devil shows up and tries to convince Lupita to steal the doll. She does it and her Mom catches her out. Little Lupita immediately gets guilt anxiety and puts the doll back. Pitch decides he likes Lupita and begins to appear to her and constantly stalks and terrorizes her. Again, she’s like 4.
Santa goes through the old Naughty and Nice list and can spy on kids with a weird flat and oval baked out dome he scrys with. Much like Freddy Kruger, creepy Santa can also see and enter your dreams. He watches Lupita dream of boxes upon boxes of dolls all for her. The life-size dolls then come to life and do a creepy dance around Lupita while bullying her into being a bad girl. This kid better start saving for therapy now.
In Santa’s baked out dome he also sees a little boy who wishes for attentive parents and another who wishes for a sibling. Santa outsources all baby requests to the Stork and sent that down the pipeline. Santa also has some child assistants that help him track the good and bad kids and do all around general assisting. Pedro, the traditionally garbed Mexican boy, is like his head assistant.
Santa then asks for help from…. Merlin! He needs some sort of magic powder, this one will come in handy later. It seems as though Merlin also lives on Santa’s space station and is like his indentured wizard bitch. Merlin seems kinda weird and hella lonely. But indebted to Santa.
After setting Merlin to work, Santa does some delivery training to prep for Christmas. This also includes a visit with Santa’s reindeer! Except they’re all robots with demon red eyes and are horrific. Santa fills his sleigh while matching their creepiness with a sneer from Hell. What is happening! The reindeer start laughing and snorting with bright red glowing eyes. Sweet Matt says they must be demonic reindeer, it’s like an exercise in terror.
Meanwhile Pitch the devil is motivating awful children around the world to help him kill Santa. (Award winning kids movie.) One set of boys wait on a rooftop to catch and sleigh-jack Santa for his presents and whatever else they can get. But haha! Santa has a teleporting Rose (what?) that he sniffs and he teleports away. Meanwhile, Pitch sets up his own trap for Santa murder in a home he is occupying. This starts to feel like a reverse Home Alone situation. Pitch is Kevin McAlister and Santa is both of the Wet Bandits. Santa makes it out, with his teleporting rose, but he’s certainly not the same.
We revisit the Ginger kid who wished for parents who like, loved him. Or acknowledge him. Grunted in his general direction - SOMETHING. They’re much too busy being popular and going to parties. The lonely ginger kid looks like a little ginger werewolf. He is super thirsty for attention now. Santa sprinkles special dust over him and allows the child to see him and they have a little heart to heart. It takes a sharp turn to downsville as the lonely kid literally begs for love. Santa is really feeling sorry for this poor kid. And the lonely kid gets his parents attention for Christmas. I can’t believe this is the plot of the movie.
Pitch continues to try and set up Santa. Things continue to take weird dark turns. Lupita’s mom also seems to start crying a LOT and has serious emotional problems. Lupita is plagued by Pitch the Devil in and out of her dreams. He is doing everything to make her go crazy and do evil. Shit spins out of control when Pitch convinces the townspeople to gather their weapons - and KILL SANTA. Again, this is an AWARD WINNING KIDS MOVIE! What is even happening!?!
Santa does not die. He gets stuck in a tree with a nasty Pitbull below him. He is saved by the magical aid of Merlin and his steadfast child assistant/maid, Pedro. This blew us all away. Like hello - Santa still had that teleportation Rose. He was able to get himself out of situations just fine before with it. But suddenly now it’s like Oh no. I don’t have a weird teleporting device. Which also broaches the question, is Santa an alien? Is he a Time Lord? Is he a Doctor? Doctor Santa?
Lupita wins the day by refusing to do evil and yada yada, the movie ends with Lupita getting hooked up with a dope doll for Christmas, and her mom finally stops crying. Go girl!
This movie really drives home this weird preachy morality. I’m sure some of it could have even been confusing to kids. Interesting, but tragic side note. The child who played Pedro later went on to a life of crime. First with robbery in 1971, later to much worse. Including child sexual abuse of his own stepchild. Eerie.
This movie is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Click here to watch!
Here’s the breakdown:
Best Parts - Pitch the Devil
A most amazingly bad plot and script.
Very campy
Worst Parts - Santa’s creepy face
Rascist
Child Labor
It won awards?!?
Jill - 2 ½ Plisskens Ty - 2 Plisskens Matt - 2 Plisskens
2
Plisskens
2
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