William Samuel No, this is not Tim Allen's The Santa Claus, but rather a Mexican film that tells the timeless tale of the battle between Santa and Satan. Yes, Santa must contend with the Devil, or rather his not so sinister minion Pitch, who plans to corrupt the world's children into being naughty. Did I say the world's children? Well actually he focuses his efforts mainly a poor little girl named Lupita, who resists his efforts, and a trio of brothers who fall all too easily, and hatch their own plan to kidnap Santa and steal all his toys.Sound weird right? Well it only gets weirder. You see, in this story Santa doesn't live at the North Pole, he lives in a space-castle directly above the North Pole. And there are no elves. Rather he's aided by stereotypical children from around the world, who are introduced in an endless scene with no clear purpose. Come to think of it, where do they live the rest of the year? Oh and his ability to "see you when you're sleeping" and "know when you're awake," well that's because he has an array of surveillance equipment that would make Langley drool. He's got a massive telescope with an eyestalk that can see anything, anywhere, even through walls. Plus there's the ear scope, a plastic dish with an ear that can hear anything, plus a machine that looks into children's dreams. Creepy might not be strong enough of a word.You might reasonably ask where he gets all this stuff. Simple, he has Merlin running his own personal Q branch. Besides all this spy gear, Merlin also provides Santa with dream dust, which makes children fall asleep, the "flower to disappear" which makes him invisible, and his reindeer. Yes, the reindeer are oddly creepy mechanical constructs- wind-ups in fact. And if they're exposed to sunlight, they'll disintegrate, leaving him stranded on earth, where he'll die of starvation because he and his people eat food made from clouds because he can't digest our food, and… I swear I'm not making this up. I'm not that creative- or crazy.Once all this is set up -and believe me it takes a while- most of the movie consists of Santa and Pitch playing childish pranks on each other; using a blowtorch on a doorknob to make it red hot, firing toy cannons into each other's backsides, that kind of thing. The biggest moment of suspense comes when a dog trees Santa and the neighbors think he's a burglar. I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that Santa gets home safely, or that poor little Lupita gets the doll she's been wanting for Christmas, or that the bad little boys get what they deserve.So there's no real storyline, not much in the way of excitement or laughs, and you have to wonder just how powerful the denizens of Hell are if all they can accomplish is to make a trio of brats throw rocks through a department store window. This movie also gives us the most distorted view of Christmas since the even worse Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. And yet Santa Claus is apparently considered a holiday classic in Mexico, with showings on network television every year in December. I guess there's no accounting for taste, although this is more the kind of thing I would have expected from Japan.

Syl After watching Santa Claus conquer the Martians, this film is a classic. By today's standards, this film looks cheesy but good cheese. The story of Santa Claus who must the devil who really isn't that evil but a nuisance. This Mexican film is quite a treat to watch with its colorful art direction and costumes. The beginning shows children of all cultures in celebrating the Christmas holiday. My film version was dubbed in English with an English narrator. It's the story of good versus bad. The devil here is known as pitch who must answer to Lucifer in hell. Pitch isn't necessarily an evil but funny looking in appearance and mostly causes trouble for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This film shouldn't scare children too. This film was included in a Christmas DVD collection.

Brittney McDonald (starredco) I watched this movie with the commentary from MST3K and even through that this movie was boring and at times kind of scary. My friends and I have a bad movie night every Sunday to crown what is the worst bad movie, and this one is on the list, it isn't the worst due to you can easily make fun of scenes of some ways the children are portrayed in a raciest fashion, and how Santa not living on earth makes no sense either. I would say if nothing else to watch, (watching a brick wall is better) then at least watch the MST3K version. This movie alone is boring, at times frighting, and just plain weird...and not the good kind of weird at all.

TheLittleSongbird Santa Claus is not as bad a film as its reputation suggests, in fact I quite enjoyed it despite the obvious flaws. Is it a good movie? Not really. Is it entertaining? I think so. And I think it is better than Santa Claus Conquers the Martians which was hysterically bad but somewhat a must-see just to revel in its awfulness.To say that Santa Claus is strange is an understatement. The story is pretty much a shambles, with incoherent and disconnected scenes, and the writing is awful but makes me laugh, one of the few times when writing as bad as it is brings a smile to my face. The Devil himself looks very, very fake, while they do bastardise Santa Claus a bit. There are also some very night-marish images, as a child I got night-mares from the reindeer alone, as an adult I am not so scared any more but I do get the shivers even looking at them.That said, it is better paced than Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, it has better effects I think(they're not great but they aren't appalling either) and sets and colours wise it is quite lavish. The film is a good length, it starts off quite well with some interesting songs, the climax is thrilling and while they are not great by any stretch of the imagination the actors look as though they are having a ball.All in all, this is a very creepy and strange movie, but I was entertained. 5/10 Bethany Cox