Slay Belles - Super Fun Christmas Monster Movie

"Slay Belles" (2018) is the most fun I've had watching a movie that wasn't made by me in a long time.  Seriously, I don't think I knew anybody involved with this one and yet I could see how much fun the cast was having as I watched the film.  To me, for an independent movie, that's a big thing that has been lost.

This movie has everything.  A trio of heroic women (Sounds like "Jack vs Lanterns" ), a monster (check box two for my kind of movie ) , a van, and Barry Bostwick as Santa Claus!

Let me jump in and say that I have no idea what audience this movie was targeting demographically.  Too many curses for kids.  Too absurd for serious adults.  It was basically made for me.  I guess there are other people out there like me after all.  An illusive group to be sure, but we exist.

The movie has gore, a very brief moment of nudity and enough F-bombs to embarrass a trucker.  It also has tons of comedy, ridiculous situations and what appear to be tribbles with teeth.  Then there's the Krampus that goes around murdering children.  Not teenagers having orgies in the woods, but actual, little, still believe in Santa Claus kids.  That was a bit disturbing and unexpected in what is otherwise a very lighthearted film.

Somehow I didn't realize that a Krampus was a main part of this movie.  It was achieved through practical F/X (as many of the f/x shots in the movie appeared to be ) and the suit was pretty darn cool.  He had all of his implements and characteristics.  The basket, the switch and his overly long horns.  In the daylight it played a lot like a man in a suit, but in the controlled lighting of the night scenes it was downright impressive and intimidating.

The movie takes place on Christmas eve, so about half of the screen time is dedicated to daytime action and that has trouble getting the creepy feel they likely wanted to create.  Most of the night scenes  however were beautiful, with the exception of a sequence or two that looked like they either had to shoot without power for lights or had a second unit doing the work and lacked the experience of the main crew.  Either way, even I thought the scenes were bit dark, and I'm known for ignoring lighting in my early days. (Mostly out of a lack of power sources when we were "stealing shots".)

Aside from those few scenes, the production values were high.

The acting was, as it often is in these types of films, uneven.  Bostwick, Kristina Klebe, Susan Slaughter and Hannah Minx made up the core crew and everyone of them was spot on with just enough camp and overacting at the right moments to keep things fun and remind you that you're watching to have a good time, not educate yourself on how the magic of Christmas works.  The rest of the cast has its highs, but it also has a few characters who come across as day players who only learned their lines and really didn't think about what their role in the story was.  It happens.  ( Especially if you only send people pages for their respective scenes because you're still doing rewrites.  Not that I know anyone who would do that. )

The plot is a bit out there, even for a Christmas movie, but it serves its purpose of creating a monster, and making an action hero of Santa and the Belles.

I look forward to their next adventure.  Maybe something around Halloween?

And in case after you watch t his you have a desire to see another trio

of women fight holiday themed monsters...