Black Santa's Revenge is a short I've meant to catch up with for years, but it took doing this series of Christmas Shorts to remind me of it. Starring Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) and based on a 6 page comic that appeared in the magazine BadAzzMofo, Black Santa's Revenge is as close as anyone will ever come to blaxploitation for Christmas. Foree stars as the titular Black Santa, a guy who may not be so nice all year (as evidenced by his playing of dice in the opening scene), but takes time out to play Santa at the community rec center. When a group of thugs steals all the donated toys, Black Santa is both distraught at the thought of all the children who will not get the presents and furious at the cops who think he's involved. While having a drink in a strip club (still wearing his Santa suit of course), he spots one of the thugs that stole all the toys. Naturally, from there, Black Santa takes his revenge.I really like this short, and I wish director David Walker had continued to work in this vein (he instead directed the navel gazing bummer My Dinner With A.J.), but at least he added this special piece to Holiday film lore. Foree is wonderful to see and perfect in the part, and what's even better is the 20 minute running time. Extending this into a feature length would have killed the joke, but as it stands it's a sweet, delicious Holiday treat.
This is only the trailer for Black Santa's Revenge, but you can get the whole film for only $3.99 as a digital download at Black Santa's Homepage. So check it out, it's the perfect digital stocking stuffer.
Holy fuck. Thank you so much for this post. This is ridiculous, insane, and now I MUST see it! Thus far the best holiday gift ever.
ReplyDeleteI've always been curious about this one, but figured it would be completely terrible. Glad to know it's not. I actually thought it was a feature length film, so it being a short is another good selling point. Thanks for reviewing this one, and now I can stop avoiding it and give it a whirl!
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