Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)

Somebody with very little Christmas spirit is killing anyone in a Santa suit one London holiday season, and Scotland Yard has to stop him before he makes his exploits an annual tradition.

Director:

Edmund Purdom

Writers:

Alan Birkinshaw (additional scenes written by), Derek Ford

Stars:

Edmund Purdom, Alan Lake, Belinda Mayne

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Edmund Purdom	...	Inspector Ian Harris
Alan Lake	...	Giles
Belinda Mayne	...	Kate Briosky
Mark Jones	...	Detective Sergeant Powell
Gerry Sundquist	...	Cliff Boyd
Kelly Baker	...	'Experience' Girl
Kevin Lloyd	...	Gerry
Wendy Danvers	...	Housekeeper
Nicholas Donnelly	...	Doctor Bridle (scenes deleted)
Pat Astley	...	Sharon
Laurence Harrington	...	Kate's Father
Ken Halliwell	...	Restaurant Commissionaire
Ray Marioni	...	Maitre d'hotel
Wilfred Corlett	...	'Experience' Santa Claus
Ricky Kennedy	...	Theatre Santa Claus

Storyline

A murderer is running loose through the streets of London, hunting down men dressed as Santa and killing them all in different, and extremely violent, fashions. Inspector Harris has decided to take on the unenviable task of tracking down the psychopath, but he's going to have his work cut out for him. Only the suspicious reporter, Giles, seems to offer the Inspector any promising leads.

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Plot Keywords:

inspector | running | scotland yard | cut | christmas | 

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Taglines:

The Gift of Terror That Just Won't Wait

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fröhliche Weihnacht

Filming Locations:

Café Royal - 68 Regent Street, Piccadilly, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Spectacular Trading International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the character of Dr Bridle (played by Nicholas Donnelly) is referred to in the script he has never appeared in any print of the movie. Due to the films many production difficulties his scenes were probably filmed but deleted.

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Goofs

When the inspector visits Kate's apartment to discuss the attack on Sharon, Kate asks what happened, but her mouth does not move.

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Connections

References Flashdance (1983)

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Soundtracks

"I'm the Warrior of Love"
(uncredited)
Sung by Caroline Munro

User Reviews

Another Christmas Holiday Slasher

"Another Santa is slain," is the quote one person says early in this movie and that about sums it up for the outline. Set in London, England during the Christmas holiday season, someone killer is going around killing anyone dressed as Father Christmas, while two astonishingly stupid Scotland Yard detectives track him down and dither. Most of the abundant splatter is nothing new here as we see one Santa after another get either shot, stabbed, speared, burned, cleaverd, electriuted and even castrasted. Gore and splatter fans will not be disappointed. But here the victims are not the sympathetic bunch as every Santa victim is either a derelict, drunkard, drug user, or loser we most wish the killer would get. Edumond Purdom who directs and stars as the lead detective, Inspector Harris, who's in charge of investigating the murders, serves up some potential suspense and a fair amount of black humor, but the script plays it very straight.

As for the rest of the plot, although we know that Inspector Harris is not the killer, he appears to know a lot more of what's going on with the killings than the other characters, one of whom is a woman who wants the killer brought to justice since her own father was one of the many victims. The rest of the movie is not as amusing as it sounds, but one can't completely dismiss a horror film like this that piles up more victims than a room full of attorneys. Pop star Caroline Munro even makes a musical cameo appearance as herself during one of the stalking/killings which adds a fairly nice touch to such nonsense.

Contents: 14 killings; lots of messy looking corpses; a masked psycho; costumed victims; slight suspense; mediocre mystery; not bad as usual. With Pat Astley as the model who keeps removing her top.