By Geno McGahee
I love holiday horror movies, for the most part. The classic Christmas horror was SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, concerning a killer Santa and a scene with a grandfather telling his grandson that Christmas is the scariest day of the year and that Santa punishes those that are naughty. This is revisited in Dave Campfield’s CAESAR AND OTTO’S DEADLY XMAS, a horror/comedy hybrid that just didn’t work, unfortunately.
A comedy is the most difficult sort of film to make and what appears funny to the cast and crew while filming doesn’t always translate well to the audience. Caesar (Dave Campfield) and his half-brother Otto (Paul Chomicki) live together. Otto is holding a flame for a woman that he knew years ago and Caesar is a struggling actor, looking for gigs. When an opportunity to become Santa arises, Caesar initially turns it down, but when challenged, he relents and auditions. Otto tries out as well to prove that he has some worth.
We see a flashback scene with Caesar and his grandfather (Lloyd Kaufman) re-enacting the classic grandfather scene from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, and I know that Kaufman is a god to some horror fanatics, but he is terribly unfunny and abrasive and it is on display here in this scene.
Meanwhile, there is a killer Santa on the loose, leading to some twists and turns and decent conclusion, but getting there proved difficult. It was trying to be a slapstick, sort of Three Stooges sort of comedy, but it just didn’t work for me. It was packed with cameos from some D list celebrities, and if you follow people like Kaufman and Linnea Quigley, then you will probably want to watch this just to see them.
I do want to give credit to those that are marketing this film. I have heard a great deal about this before I actually sat down and watched it. So, I assume that this will sell well and it may be one of those movies that you either love or hate, find funny or don’t, and sadly I’m in the latter group. It has won some awards and some people seem to really like it. So, maybe I’m just missing the joke here.
CAESAR AND OTTO’S DEADLY XMAS gets an A for effort, but that’s about the best I can give it. I found it really unfunny and many of the cameos from the notables proved distracting and separate entities from the film itself…almost like they were forced in just to have the cameo and name value. The name value may have been why the film is getting the attention but it doesn’t make it a better film. It probably takes away in the end. I can’t recommend this one people.
Rating: 2.5/10
