American Santa

Starring - Damien Bishop, Chief, and Kayla Syd

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Horror/Comedy

Tagline - "The most fucked up Christmas experience you'll ever have"

Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Several months back I was browsing through hashtags on Instagram when I came across the page for Dungeon Entertainment.  The page had just released their first short, Valley of Carnage, and I missed the physical release.  I was able to check it out on YouTube but not owning it was a huge disappointment.  Sometime later they announced a follow up short, Death Hike, and I was able to score a copy of it.  Both were extremely fun S.O.V. horror shorts with plenty of humor.  When Christmas was approaching they once again released another short, American Santa, before announcing the sell of all their films on DVD.  I waited to watch American Santa until I get get a physical copy.  Once it arrived I couldn't wait to give it a spin.  

     The film follows a group of hopeful Santa's who are fighting for the right to be Santa.  The real Santa has to be replaced every 200 years and this is the year where they fight for the right to don the red suit.

     Dungeon Entertainment has quickly became one of my favorite genre content creators.  Their no budget horror comedies are extremely fun to watch and their lack of budget didn't stop their creativity.  I was over the fucking moon when I saw that they had released a Christmas themed short and I have to say that it's just as fun as their other films.  The acting in this one is fun.  The cast has a lot of fun in their roles and that fun translates well on the screen.  Their goofy approach to the characters makes the performances more memorable and reminds me a lot of the films of Chris Seaver.  The story for this one is a Christmas themed Battle Royal meets anti-capitalism.  I really liked the idea but the fact that it is a short with no real ending makes this one fall a little short.  There is so much potential here for an even more entertaining horror comedy.  An interesting idea with just enough humor and horror to sell it but the short run time and lack of any sort of conclusion is a bit of a downer.  Finally, this one has plenty of blood and cheap effects but those looking for classic S.O.V. style gore will be very disappointed.  As I stated earlier, this is a no budget short so the crew does the best with what they have but some of the kills do fall a little short.  Overall, American Santa is a fun short that has a very clever story that implements a battle royal style story to the Christmas season.  I highly recommend checking this one out especially if you are a fan of the other Dungeon Entertainment shorts.