Butler's Cinema Scene

“SAINT” My rating: C

85 minutes | No MPAA rating

Those who prefer their holiday cheer with a bracing dose of bad temper have an ally in Patrick Matthews, operator of the Screenland Crossroads.

Recognizing his establishment as the home of young, hip, thoroughly unsentimental moviegoers, he has in recent years made a point of booking anti-Christmas movies in December.

Last year it was the Finnish “Rare Exports,” a very black comedy which postulated that Santa Claus was actually an ancient demon with a voracious appetite for the flesh of young humans.

This year the Crossroads brings us “Saint,” which through a dark glass views Danish images of old St. Nick.

Dick Maas’ effort is an amalgam of teen slasher film, supernatural horror and cop/crime flick, played absolutely straight but filled with subversive twists guaranteed to tickle the sardonic funny bones of Danish moviegoers.

Whether it will play as well with American audiences, who have no reference point for this distinctly Scandanavian slant on the holidays, is an open question.

The film begins in 1492 with peasants rising up against a red-cloaked, white-bearded churchman who with a gang of rapists and killers is terrorizing the countryside. The evil Nicholas dies when his ship is set on fire.

But apparently he returns every four decades with his evil assistants — the Black Peters — to maim and kill. This happens whenever a full moon occurs on Dec. 5.

“Saint” then cuts to 1968 where a farm family is butchered by St. Nicholas and his minions. The sole survivor is a young boy who grows up to be…

Goert (Bert Luppes), a police detective in present-day Copenhagen. Goert is  viewed as a mental case by his fellow cops because of his obsession with Dec. 5. He duns his superiors with thick reports about the supernatural Nicholas and the impending full moon.

Meanwhile teenager Frank (Egbert Jan Weeber) and a couple of his friends have landed a gig portraying St. Nick and his Black Peters at a college bash. But on their snowy way to the party they encounter…the real St. Peter atop a snorting stallion with his crew of zombie-like henchmen.

Heads, as they say, will roll.

Eventually the obsessed Goert and the resiliant Frank team up to take on this evil.

“Saint” is diverting without ever really adding up to much. Some of the deadpan jokes score, but overall we’ve seen this all before.

The only thing missing is a voluptuous naked coed being killed while showering. Actually that might have improved the movie.

| Robert W. Butler