Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Present (2005)

directed by Yûdai Yamaguchi
Japan
49 minutes
3 stars out of 5
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Grab a bucket of KFC and get ready! There's probably other Christmas movies from Japan, but I'm not sure if there's any other Christmas-themed horror movies, or any other Christmas-themed horror movies based off of famous manga. I can't judge this on how faithful it is to Kazuo Umezu's original work, because I've never read it, but it's not too bad on its own provided that you stick with it for a while- the beginning isn't too enticing. It helps to know beforehand that this director deals in the type of splattery, gooey, nasty horror flicks the parents in Present warn their little girl not to watch.

The acting isn't that great and the plot is incomprehensible, but honestly, this was better than I expected. It starts off when the main character is a little girl, being told as many parents inexplicably tell their children that Santa isn't just there to reward her for being good, but also to punish her for being bad. Then we jump ahead to her as a young adult, being a little bit bad at a (love?) hotel with her more extroverted friends and the guy she likes. I don't want to give too much away, but the two different versions of the protagonist aren't as separate as the movie wants us to think. All that we see or seem is but a dream within a Japanese Christmas TV special.

The set design in this is vaguely surreal; I'm not sure if that was a byproduct of slapdash construction or something deliberate, but the interior of the hotel (which most of the movie takes place in) is expansive and dreamlike. Hallways and stairwells are too wide, with not enough furniture in them. It looks like it wasn't designed with actual people in mind. And there's a lot of mixed religious imagery, predictably, including Santa Claus getting very mad at people for "desecrating the Holy Christmas"- even though it doesn't make sense for Santa to be the one up in arms about not being celebrated, seeing as it's not exactly called Santamas.

There's some complexity in the concept behind the villain, and more layers to the plot than appear on the surface, but I think those things only struck me as interesting because they were unexpected. I'm not even that big a fan of splatter movies so the extensive scenes with icky body parts weren't quite enough to keep me intrigued. I can't recommend something this gross for Christmas viewing. It's better watched in the middle of July or some other time. I just wanted to bring something new to the table for everybody else who's tired of the usual Christmas traditions.