Unconventional Christmas films are
always a success by me, whether it's a film about a murderous snowman
or an unhappy gingerbread man, I'm usually on board for spicing up
the dullness of Santa and snow. While “The Christmas Tale” does
feature a Santa, it takes place in a warm palm tree laden town in
Spain. But the focus here is not on Christmas, its on how to approach
someone who has put themselves on the naughty list.
In the opening scene, two of the kids,
whose names we learn later through brightly colored letters that
flash up on the screen, are watching a shlocky zombie film featuring
an unlikely zombie slayer resembling Joe Strummer with a sleeveless
black vest, sunglasses, and a slick black pompadour. The film they
are watching, called 'Zombie Invasion,' features cobwebbed sets, a
girl dressed in a silver spandex outfit, and great lines such as,
“Calm down, cupcake. The zombie invasion is over.” If you are on
board this far, the film only gets more appealing.
Director Paco Plaza, who worked with
fellow “6 Films to Keep You Awake” director Jaume
Balagueró on “Rec” and “Rec2” has put
together what I think is one of the best short horror films of the
bunch. It's a delicately assembled homage to films like Goonies,
exploring the loss of innocence and the boundaries of friendship.
“The Christmas Tale” explores youth and the freedom/trouble that
comes with making decisions before you are old enough to understand
the consequences.
Five friends, four boys and a girl
Moni, discover a passed out bank robber dressed as Santa Claus at the
bottom of a hole in the woods. Two of the friends ride their bikes to
the police station to tell the police what they have found, but have
to wait because the cop is busy giving recipe directions. While the
cop is distracted, the friends see a fax that has come in showing the
bank robber. They take the sheet of paper and ride back to their
friends in the woods just in time to stop them from helping her
escape from the hole.
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| You ugly. |
The kids decide that they should wait
to free her, in case there is a reward for her arrest. They unload as
much candy on her as possible for food before covering her hole with
branches and leaves and leaving. While the kids are at home, they
find out that not only is the bank robber wanted for being dangerous,
but she has stolen 2 million in Spanish currency. The kids decide to
leave her down at the bottom of the hole until she tells them where
she hid the money, and they'll leave her there until she dies if they
have to.
The set design for “The Christmas
Tale” is immaculate, each pan across a room will display all kinds
of objects from the 80's hidden in the background, Ghostbuster and
Star Wars figurines to that weird color light up game called Simon.
One of the character's, Tito, is also obsessed with The Karate Kid
and wears a headband throughout the film. Altogether Plaza chooses
playfully bright primary colors to illustrate his shots, to offset
the kids from the brown and green of the woods that most of the film
takes place in. One of my favorite locations comes towards the end
when the kids are being chased through an abandoned theme park.
It's a fun rummage through the 80's and
it doesn't forget plot either. The tension that builds between the
five kids and the bank robber, whose name we find out is Rebeca,
falls heavily on the side of the kids as they uncomfortably hold
Rebeca's fate in their candy distributing hands. Rebeca is the only
adult whose face is shown in the film, using a Charlie Brown effect
to describe the relationship between the group of five kids and the
adult world. Definitely watch this one until the end, the final scene
will surely have you pump your fist and twist a Rubix cube.
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