Don't Open Till Christmas

"The gift of terror just won't wait!"

Director: Edmund Purdom Year: 1984 Runtime: 87 min IMDb: ⭐ 4.8
Movie Poster

Synopsis

It's just days before Christmas in London, but not everyone is full of good cheer - as a maniac with a pathological hatred of Santa Claus stalks the streets, butchering any man that’s unlucky enough to be wandering around dressed as Old Saint Nick.

A man in a Santa suit and a woman meet in an alleyway to have sex in a car, and are stabbed to death by a man wearing a grinning translucent mask. During a party, another man dressed like Santa Claus has a spear thrown through his head, and dies in front of his daughter, Kate Brioski. At Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Ian Harris and Detective Sergeant Powell discuss the murders, and interview Kate, and her boyfriend Cliff. That night, another Santa is killed, having his face shoved onto the grill on which he was roasting chestnuts on an open fire. The next day, a present (which reads "Don't Open Till Christmas") is delivered to Harris, Powell receives a strange call from a man claiming to be a reporter named Giles, and a Santa is shot in the mouth. Cliff tricks Kate into visiting a porn studio owned by an old friend, and after Kate storms off, Cliff and the model (who is adorned in a Santa cloak) prepare for outdoor photographs, but Cliff runs off when a pair of police officers spot them, and the model encounters the killer, who lets her go. At a peep show, a Santa is knifed, which is witnessed by one of the strippers, Sherry Graham. Harris visits Kate and Cliff, and makes it clear that Cliff is a suspect in the attacks, due to being present for two of them. Powell finds Giles digging through his office, and tells him that the newspaper Giles stated he worked for claimed not to know him. Giles retorts by suggesting that Harris is hiding something, and that Powell should keep an eye on him. A Santa is assaulted by a group of teenagers, and runs into the London Dungeon, where he and an employee are killed. In an effort to catch the murderer, several officers go undercover as Santas, and two of them are butchered at a carnival. The killer then abducts Sherry, intending for her to be "the supreme sacrifice to all the evil that Christmas is". Meanwhile, Harris is taken off the case, and when Kate calls him, she is informed by his housekeeper that he is visiting Parklands, a mental institution. A Santa is chased into a theatre where Caroline Munro is performing, and his body is brought to the stage by a trapdoor after he is stabbed in the face with a machete. Kate tells Powell of her suspicions about Harris (who has no birth certificate) but he dismisses her theories, so she goes to visit Parklands alone, while the killer castrates a Santa in a department store restroom. Kate is confronted in her home by Giles, who she had learned was just released from Parklands, and is the younger brother of Harris (who changed his surname from Harrison after Giles was committed). Powell telephones Kate, and she tries to answer, but Giles strangles and stabs her. Powell hears Kate's death over the phone, rushes to Kate's apartment, and pursues Giles into a junkyard, where Giles electrocutes him. Giles returns to his hideout, which he chases Sherry through when she escapes her chains. Sherry knocks Giles over a railing, and when she goes to inspect the body, Giles springs back to life, and begins throttling her. A flashback is then shown, and reveals that decades earlier Giles walked in on his father (who was dressed as Santa for a Christmas party) cheating on his mother with another woman. When Giles's mother discovered this, she and her husband got into an argument, which ended with Mrs. Harrison being knocked down a flight of stairs. Harris wakes up from a nightmare, goes into his living room, and unwraps the gift he had gotten earlier, which has a previously unseen card that reads "Christmas present from your loving Brother". The present is a music box, which explodes after playing its song.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

a child is abandoned by a parent or guardian
Yes
there's child abuse
Yes
a woman is brutalized for spectacle
Yes
there's domestic violence
Yes
there's abusive parents
Yes
the abused becomes the abuser
Yes
someone is stalked
Yes
there's addiction
Yes
alcohol abuse
Yes
someone uses drugs
Yes
someone is drugged
Yes
someone is restrained
Yes
someone is held under water
Yes
a woman gets slapped
Yes
someone's mouth is covered
Yes
there's excessive gore
Yes
there's torture
Yes
there's genital trauma/mutilation
Yes
someone is burned alive
Yes
someone's throat is mutilated
Yes
there's shaving/cutting
Yes
there's amputation
Yes
someone struggles to breathe
Yes
someone asphyxiates
Yes
hands are damaged
Yes
somebody is choked
Yes
someone is stabbed
Yes
someone falls down stairs
Yes
someone falls to their death
Yes
Someone becomes unconscious
Yes
a major character dies
Yes
someone dies
Yes
someone disabled played by able-bodied
Yes
a family member dies
Yes
a parent dies
Yes
someone is kidnapped
Yes
there are jump scares
Yes
there are razors
Yes
there are clowns
Yes
someone vomits
Yes
someone wets/soils themselves
Yes
there's incarceration
Yes
there's a mental institution scene
Yes
there's a hospital scene
Yes
a mentally ill person is violent
Yes
someone suffers from PTSD
Yes
there's a claustrophobic scene
Yes
someone has a mental illness
Yes
someone has a meltdown
Yes
there are sudden loud noises
Yes
there's screaming
Yes
there is obscene language/gestures
Yes
someone is watched without knowing
Yes
there's a large age gap
Yes
there is sexual content
Yes
there are nude scenes
Yes
someone is sexually objectified
Yes
someone is homeless
Yes
the ending is sad
Yes
Santa (et al) is spoiled
Yes
a car honks or tires screech
Yes
there's blood/gore
Yes

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