aka X-Mas Tale
A group of children (5 to be more precise) stumble upon a woman dressed like Santa Clause trapped in a hole in the middle of the woods. Two of the kids discover she’s a thief when they swing by the police station for help and when they realize she stole two million pesetas from a bank (and that they basically hold all the cards) they hatch a plan. The sole girl in the group really seems to be the only one who has a conscience, with her “boyfriend” only seeming to protest because she is. On the other end is the Karate-Kid-loving weirdo and two brothers who just may be sociopaths. They decide to deprive the woman of food to get the location of the loot and the two brothers get the idea from their favorite movie, Zombie Invasion, to perform a voodoo ritual on the woman and make her their undead slave. They eventually get her to give up the cash (hidden on her in place of Santa’s legendary large tummy) but when they go back to let her out they find her dead. At least they think so. They come back with a police officer to collect on the prize money and find the hole empty. Well, soon a woman dressed as Santa, driven insane by the torturous situation, exasperated by the greedy kids and brandishing an axe is after the group of shitty children. They fight back in a shutdown theme park and things get a bit bloody. The kids are mostly unlikable (but I feel that way about most children) but pretty realistic in their portrayal. They do manage to build up some sympathy for the trapped woman but you also get the sense that she is usually in the position of apex predator. There’s some cringe-inducing violence and a nice balance of humor and nastiness. The sting in the tail is fantastic and knocks this one into the realm of greatness.
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