Saint Nick (2010)
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So we need a little bit of a lesson in world diversity before we start this one. In the Netherlands December 5th is Saint Nicholas Eve. On that day St. Nick travels around and has his minions, called Black Peters, hop down chimneys and deliver presents to the good children and punishment in the form of kidnapping for the bad. Now you know and since we’re all educated let’s get on with the review.
The movie opens up with the historical St. Nick ransacking a town and his crew of Black Peters climbing down chimneys to deliver violence and pain. He nails up a list of demands for the town to deliver to him every full moon or the ransackings will be repeated. The townspeople have obviously had enough of this nonsense and torch his ship with St. Nick and his crew to be left burning alive.
Back to modern day, every 32 years, St. Nick and his undead crew return to Amsterdam for more of the same. This is where we meet our main characters of teenagers in their mid 20s. They go to school and give each other dildos in class. A surly cop that knows the reality of St. Nick as his family was attacked when he was little is the other main character. Pretty much everyone does a great job in the acting department, though I watched it in Dutch with subtitles, so if anyone that speaks Dutch wants to correct me and point out who sucks, I’m open for it.
There are some fantastic practical effects in this. St. Nick himself is awesome, the Black Peters look amazing (the undead ones...not the Dutch teens in black-face) and dismemberment is pretty sweet as well. There’s once scene that involves the Sinterklass riding his undead horse drops through the roof into a flat and then drops out the side of the building. The whole sequence is awesome.
The movie isn’t all positives as it slows down after the intro sequence and sort of lingers a little too long. Also, the hospital sequence is drawn out a little too long so the biggest negative is probably the pacing. Though, if it was cut down it would be too short and without some of the breaks the movie would be moving too fast. I think there’s a middleground to be found but this one is surely worth a watch.
The murderous renegade bishop takes care of business as he tears through Amsterdam and delivers a solid holiday horror. I really liked this one, it should be a staple on December 5th for everyone.