When I heard this movie was about a murderous robotic mall Santa, my mind immediately went to a killbot from Chopping Mall with a Santy hat and beard. I mean, why wouldn’t it? But no, this robot Santa just looks like a regular Santa only with gear noises (at least at first).

So the flick is, indeed, what happens when military grade robots are sold as reprogrammed mall Santas. And, like any good military robot repurposed for civilian use, it goes on a rampage. Someone call Johnny-5, amiright?!

This movie is a super low budget flick that tries. Every shot is grainy and gritty and the practical effects are hard-scramble decent but hardly state-of-the-art. The Robosanta is mostly just a guy in a Santa suit and, even when its wiring gets exposed, it’s still kind of cheap looking.

But to hell with all that because a no-budget killer Santa film can actually be quite a bit of fun. Just don’t sit too close to the tv or the film grain’ll get get ya.

This’ll probably be an unpopular take, but I liked the main character (played by Riley Dandy) and the thirty solid minutes in the first act. Nothing much is happening vis-a-vis a Killer Santa Robot, but she’s having a conversation about music and movies that I was really vibing with. I was almost disappointed when Santa showed up and started murderin’ folk. This was a cool hang-out flick.

But Santa Bot does show up and does murder folk… and his first appearance is pretty terrible first person garbage. But before I could roll my eyes and settle in, the next major set piece is a cross-cut between a fairly sexy sequence and a murder all set to a very cool soundtrack. In fact, the electro/synth soundtrack to this movie is really good and probably the first hint that we’re going full Terminator on this one.

Since, yup, we can call it an homage if we want, but when the robot Santa takes on the police, any suggestion these filmmakers weren’t referencing The Terminator go out the window. And, yeah, they can’t beat Cameron’s style and skill and the finale loses some momentum that it desperately needs, but the damn movie is trying.

I was very surprised by how much I liked this little Shudder original. It surprised me (and possibly only me) with some good characters and dialog and then it surprised me by actually having a halfway decent Terminator Santa. This is a pretty nifty little flick.

Score: 81