David Steiman makes a satanic Santa surprisingly cheerful company in Santa’s Slay. We like his affection for festive imagery more than his reliance on bad behaviour, but the broad comedy earns a qualified recommendation.
Fi1m perspective
The stop-motion in Santa’s Slay (2005) gives David Steiman’s satanic Santa the sort of cosy treatment usually reserved for reassuring Christmas stories. We laughed because the familiar festive style makes the premise seem almost respectable. It is a useful indication of what Steiman does well: he finds comedy in the way a scene looks, before adding profanity. For a director working with such a blunt idea, he has an unexpected fondness for the season’s pleasures.
Before directing, Steiman worked in production and editorial roles, then as Brett Ratner’s assistant, including on Red Dragon (2002). Ratner produced Santa’s Slay, Steiman’s sole credited feature as writer-director. That is a narrow basis for judging a director, and we would not pretend it establishes a settled style. What it does establish is an ability to handle broad comedy without becoming embarrassed by the material, or insisting that we ought to be frightened by it.
Bill Goldberg’s Santa gives that broad comedy a dependable centre. The bright, storybook look, with Matthew F. Leonetti as cinematographer, makes the violence cheerfully out of place rather than threatening. Nudity, swearing and bloodshed do surprisingly little to spoil the Christmas mood. The film is at its most likeable when Steiman lets the seasonal surroundings remain inviting, rather than treating every familiar Christmas detail as something to sneer at. There is enough affection here to make the bad taste companionable.
His writing is less resourceful once Santa’s bad behaviour has registered. Further nudity and profanity add little to the idea, and occasionally make the film seem rather pleased with its own rudeness. The 85-minute running time helps, though it cannot supply the extra substantial joke that Steiman needs. We would recommend Santa’s Slay to anyone planning an evening of festive bad taste, with no expectation of much fear. If Steiman returns to directing, a script with more comic possibilities would give us a better reason to follow him.
Biography
David Steiman is a writer and director whose only feature credit is Santa's Slay (2005), a Christmas black comedy slasher film that he also wrote. The film was produced by Brett Ratner, to whom Steiman had previously served as an assistant.
Prior to directing, Steiman worked in production and editorial roles on several films, including as a production assistant on Inspector Gadget (1999), Cast Away (2000) and What Lies Beneath (2000). He also assisted Ratner on The Family Man (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Red Dragon (2002).
