If you’re looking for a fun holiday slasher movie, The Naughty List of Mr. Scrooge isn’t a bad choice. Though the film fumbles its ending, it still has some solid kills and a creepy looking villain who dresses up as Scrooge and slices his way through a group of friends. This is a decent entry into the ever-growing Christmas slasher subgenre.
Written and directed by Jake Helgren, the film stars Skye Coyne as Tabby Banks. She ditched her small town years ago and found success in Los Angeles. She also has a handsome boyfriend, an aspiring actor named Jonny Rose (Colin Koth). A decade after her ex-boyfriend committed suicide during a production of A Christmas Carol, Tabby reunites with her college friends and Jonny tags along. The friends include the rather stuck-up Liz (Liz Fenning), Tucker (Adam Bucci), Julian (Ali Zahiri), and Tabby’s former best friend Kelsey (Kim Whalen). As a credit to Helgren’s script, a lot of these characters do feel fully realized. They’re not mere one-note characters, unlike a lot of slashers. They’re given some substance and afforded more to do than just die.
The reunion, however, isn’t exactly a happy one. When they partake in what’s essentially a Secret Santa gift exchange, each of them opens a macabre gift with an eerie note tied into the suicide of their former friend. This pits them against each other, pointing fingers at who’s to blame for such a twisted game. Again, it’s a pretty clever concept and a highlight of the film. The group starts to suspect the property’s caretaker Marty (Benedikt Sebastian), despite a lack of substantial evidence other than the fact he’s kind of strange. The film escalates once the killer Scrooge locates them and the body count rises. The film also has a pretty decent opening kill. Though none of the murders are outlandishly gory by slasher standards, they’re still entertaining. Scrooge is also an imposing killer with an unsettling mask.
The film struggles in its last act, once the killer unmasks. Some viewers will likely guess the identity by the movie’s halfway point, but the motivation doesn’t really work. It’s one of the only truly weak points in the script and the explanation the killer gives comes across as quite absurd. It’s a shame because about two thirds of the film is quite entertaining. Still, the poorly constructed ending doesn’t mean the movie isn’t worth a watch. Overall, it’s still a bloody holiday affair.
With the Christmas season about to enter full swing, The Naughty List of Mr. Scrooge warrants a watch. Though the feature has a poorly written ending, it still contains a creative concept, a chilling villain, and plenty of holiday mayhem. We’ve seen plenty of iterations of Scrooge before, but never one so murderous.
