Deadly Games (aka Dial Code Santa Claus)
Directed by Rene Manzor
Thomas is nine years old. He is a little genius and he believes in Santa Claus. December 24th, midnight. Hidden, Thomas waits for Saint Nick, but he is about to experience the most frightening night of his entire life. Previously only available via bootleg, this Christmas horror gem made a year before Home Alone is stylish, bloody and now fully restored.
Nine year-old Thomas waits for Santa Claus. But he's about to experience the most frightening night of his entire life.
Cast: Patrick Floersheim, Alain Musy, Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, François-Eric Gendron
Member Reviews
People going on about how Home Alone ripped it off, when it started with a Rambo spoof and some crappy song ripped straight from Eye of the Tiger! lol. It was worth a single viewing but nothing special.
How did this get such good reviews and become known as a Christmas horror classic? This is one of the worst written, acted, and edited movies I've ever seen. The main kid has to be among the most unlikable protagonists ever put to film. I desperately hoped he would be killed. . . Sadly, no luck. Home Alone may have ripped off the premise of this movie, but it is about 1000x better than this piece of garbage. Just watch Home Alone! It even works better as a horror film than this crap.
For what early on disguised itself as a childish misadventure, '36. 15 Code Père Noël' went hard into trauma inducing horror. Never knowing this existed, finding an eighties classic to watch for the first time is a treat. This probably hit harder thanks to the focus on the young lad, caring for his elderly grandfather, but it certainly mixed enough childish wonder and offensives to make any real violence that much worse. Home Alone has a lot of explaining to do; not the same film, but somebody didn't keep their eyes on their own production as as the least this clearly provided inspiration. Also amusing to note Everything is Terrible took a rather brutal clip from this film for their Christmas special, but luckily I didn't recognise the source until it occurred.
Everyone here keeps talking about how Home Alone ripped this movie off, but tell me if your Christmas home invasion movie has the Wet Bandits, and then we'll talk about derivativeness.
I enjoyed how messed up this was