Movie Review: Mrs. Claus (2018)

Mrs. Claus is a Christmas time horror film written and directed by Troy Escamilla. It’s about a sorority that has a past history of murder and 10 years later, Mrs. Claus decides to show up to the sorority house to do some hazing of her own. The film has some great moments, but also a few shortcomings, which could have been avoided.

What we liked:
– There was a lot of good practical-effect gore in this film. It wasn’t done as well as some films, but definitely not as bad as a lot of indie films. It was a bit above average in this, and much appreciated. There were also some interesting kills done with Christmas-themed objects which were pretty awesome.
– The acting was pretty solid. Almost all of the people who were cast were experienced, and even the ones with little experience did a great job. They even tapped Helene Judy (My Bloody Valentine, Stephen King’s The Dead Zone) and scream queen Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre, Haunting Fear, Tales From the Darkside) which was very cool.
– The production quality was pretty good for the most part. Most of the sound and cinematography were decent, and when paired with good acting, makes an indie film that much better.
– The ending had a decent unexpected twist.

What we thought could have been better:
The writing. This can be a curse when the writer is also the director of a lot of these indie films. The dialogue at times just seemed awkward, and the events that were happening didn’t seem fluid. There were also a couple of dialogue scenes that just felt like they didn’t need to be there, and were added as filler or something. Extra eyes on the script should always be a thing, and sometimes it seems like when the director also writes, they have a very specific vision in their mind how things should look, but the script should be given to people to read over to make sure that vision makes sense to the viewer. Also, the plot having to do with a killer at a sorority house during Christmas is not very original. Black Christmas (1974) was already about a sorority house and even re-made into a very similar plot of this film (Mrs. Claus) in 2006. We need more originality in horror these days. Re-re-hashing old classics with half the quality does not make for a solid horror film.

Overall:
Mrs. Claus had some elements of a good horror film but missed the mark on one of the most important parts, which is the backbone of every film. More focus should have been spent on the script here to make it feel more like an original concept. It had a good cast, good special effects, some refreshing kill scenes, and even a decent ending. But the bottom line is that this is too similar to something that has already been done, and the dialogue was not great. It definitely isn’t the worst of the Christmas horror films out there, and brings some quality to the table, but also isn’t anything we would consider above-average. To writer/director Troy Escamilla’s credit, this is only the second feature he has done, and we think that this was pretty solid for a second effort. We hope to see what he has to offer in the future.