Deadly Games (also known as Dial Code Santa Claus) is a 1989 French horror gem written and directed by Rene Manzor.
A Chilling Introduction to a Creepy Mall Santa
The film opens with a creepy-looking, raggedy guy (Patrick Floersheim) trying to casually join in on some kids’ snowball fight. Luckily, the children realize what’s happening and abandon the now noticeably upset creep. After this, we meet the young boy genius Thomas (Alain Lalanne), his mother Julie (Brigitte Fossey), and Thomas’s Papy (Louis Decreaux).
They live in an enormous house reminiscent of a medieval castle filled with secret passageways, tunnels, trap doors, and all kinds of other cool medieval stuff, including a suit of armor. Julie works at a busy department store and leaves Thomas with his nearly blind Papy on Christmas Eve. Thomas uses an awesome, retro, terminal-type computer to chat with a random stranger over the internet and divulges his mother’s place of work.
From Mall Santa to Home Invader
We then see the bum from the beginning of the film working as a mall Santa where he straight up smacks a child in the face upon being found out as a phony Santa. Naturally, this gets him fired, and he winds up at the house of his boss Julie where he slithers down the chimney, kills the dog, and enters in a ghoulish game of cat and mouse with young Thomas and his Papy.
After no small amount of struggle, Thomas eventually purchases a one-way ticket to pain town aboard the Hand Grenade Express for the invader, thus defeating him and saving Christmas and his Papy in the form of retrieving his much-needed insulin.
Why Dial Code Santa Claus Is a Must Watch Holiday Slasher
This is a fun, festive movie that should be added to anybody’s holiday slasher playlist. Visually everything was great. The acting was great, especially from Alain Lalanne at such a young age.
Bum Santa is the best Santa. Was Santa plagued with a dark and evil past, or was Santa just another boy trapped in a man’s body like Michael Jackson or Peter Pan? Peter Pan and Michael Jackson are both weirdos, so I’m beginning to think young Thomas did quite a public service to young children all over France by grenading him into the funny pages.
The Most Terrifying Santa Claus
My favorite part of this slasher was the portrayal of the antagonist as a misunderstood and down-on-his-luck man who just wanted a quick, nostalgic sniff at the pure joy and magic of the holidays through the unsmudged lens of a child. This is a feeling most adults can relate to, at least to some extent or another. A realistic and mortal portrayal of an antagonist adds to their believability and thus, in this instance, adds to the fear that maybe “this could happen to me too.” This relatability drove me to almost pity the antagonist despite his sinister deeds, a feeling which Floersheim conveyed quite well, in my opinion.
Flaws in the Plot: Where the Film Falls Short
But sure, it wasn’t perfect: the mother’s character was almost entirely useless and absent. Who needs to work that badly on Christmas Eve? What kind of adult, let alone parent, doesn’t know about a vast array of tunnels and underground rooms inside the very house in which they live? What kind of parent leaves a real ass hand grenade lying around? Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Holidays are stressful, and Dial Code Santa Claus offers a great opportunity to escape the vast hellscape of twisted and often ingenuine holiday cheer with some light-hearted, Christmas-themed, hand grenade murdering.
The Disappointing Soundtrack: A Major Misstep
The main criticism of this otherwise great flick should, in my opinion, be the score and music. It left a lot to be desired. They clearly stole Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” and transposed it to a different key. Unfortunately, we had to hear it twice. I have no idea why anyone would ever think the awkward and obviously-stolen contemporary rock would be a great style to accompany a Christmas-themed slasher flick. Still, it happens, and you should be prepared for it. It’s super distracting and super poorly mixed and composed. Christmas music comes in many shapes and sizes, but the mid-tempo contemporary rock was definitely not the fit.
Final Thoughts: A Christmas Slasher with Heart
All in all, Manzor wants Christmas to be taken seriously. He wants the spirit of Christmas to thrive in people everywhere. It left me with just two thoughts: one being that I really would like to live in a giant castle and the other that I should beware of when bringing my future children to see a mall Santa because he may well be the Christmas boogie man that plagues nightmares worldwide.
You can stream ‘Dial Code Santa Claus’ on Shudder.