Despite my reservations about the ridiculousness of the premise (and it was) and finding the cover looking like most cheap-looking family film covers, watched 'Santa Claws' anyway because of my love of Christmas films/specials, anything Christmas and finding kittens cute and usually very difficult to dislike.

Actually sort of wanted to like 'Santa Claws' in a guilty pleasure sort of way, but unfortunately it is as awful as the rating and reviews say and as far as Christmas-themed films go it is down there as one of the worst. Should have trusted my reservations, but wanted to be fair on the film as is intended with every film viewed. Can't find much redeeming about it, other than perhaps the odd nice soundtrack choice. There is no warmth or charm at all, lots of mean spirit and what should have been easy to like actually grated.

'Santa Claws' is a cheap-looking film, with colours that are both drab and garish, less than slick and sometimes gimmicky photography and tacky editing that indicated it was all hastily put together. At best the effects are slapdash and again indicative of very rushed and under-budgeted production.

The script fails completely at being tongue-in-cheek, is full of cheese and awkwardness and is very childish and lacking in wit. The story is paper thin and padded while also being very jumpy and rushed structurally, which made the excessive over-familiarity less forgivable. The Christmas spirit just isn't there, there is no charm or warmth, the cute parts are a mix of saccharine and annoying and some of it is mean-spirited and distasteful. Detected no enthusiasm in the direction.

None of the characters are engaging, with the kittens being more obnoxious than cute when there were signs of proper personality going on, their resourcefulness never being sincere or well-intentioned and making for head-scratching moments. Even worse is one of the most despicable bullying mother figures in any family film and the kid is annoying. The acting generally has no energy and some of the actors, especially with the mother, over-act in almost pantomime fashion.

Concluding, awful catastrophe of a film. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Note: I streamed this from TubiTV on a 4K TV. Blurry image. Alright Film.

"Santa Claws" is a family-friendly Christmas movie from The Asylum and not a horror film! What we get is a kitties save Christmas movie for the 40-somethings you know who are obsessed with Santa. That particular character has set security cameras around his residence just in case the jolly elf makes an appearance. We also have a very single parent who is pathologically opposed to Christmas and all who celebrate it. She even takes away her son's mini Christmas tree which he bought himself! These scenes attempt to thread the line of pathetic and funny. One joke wears out as another one begins. It's so unusual for a film like this to be this cynical so you won't change the channel.

Santa in this film is apparently allergic to many things, especially cats. At one house in California, Santa opens a present left by Tommy and is rendered unconscious. Hairball, Mittens, and Patches set out to deliver all the presents to the 5 children, including Tommy, and his 40-something werido neighbor who live on our planet. The kittens are all voiced by Asylum production crew regulars. The voices seem to be intentionally cheesy and the kittens only "speak" occasionally or maybe you just look past their mouths moving. This is the one joke that does wear thin.

The script has a few clever ideas that subvert many tropes of Christmas movies. Santa's reindeer speak like Ninja Turtles and have no regard for Santa who appears to be hired help. His sleigh has a built-in OS that anticipates that "Santa" may be out of commission which the kitties use to assume his role. Santa himself is anything but kid friendly when Tommy accidentally touches him in a way his wife shouldn't....

It doesn't stop there. The neighbor kidnaps one of Tommy's pets to help him look for Santa. Best of all, Tommy's mother and the neighbor grew up next to each other and saw Santa when they were children which apparently made the neighbor ostracized from other kids and made Tommy's mother disagreeable (she's single for a reason). For some reason the neighbor is an adult who still appears on Santa's list. Tommy's mother doesn't. Maybe Santa is a genie?

As I prepared this review, I came to like the movie more and more. I think the intended audience of children and parents can both enjoy it for what it isn't: a sappy Christmas pastime.

In the tradition of Shaun of the Dead or Fido, the humour is campy and the effects deliberately annoying.

The cats are a wondrous mockery of those endless puppies-save-Christmas movies.

The kids universally can't act 'realistically' and the adults are B-move standards, but there are some wonderfully over-the-top freak-outs.

This is absolutely not a movie to be taken seriously, just to be enjoyed for its send-up of pretty much every Christmas movie trope out there.