Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) on Netflix
R19841h 27mHorrorMysteryThriller
London, days before Christmas. A killer stalks men dressed as Santa Claus. After Kate Brioski's father is killed at a party, Chief Inspector Ian Harris and Detective Sergeant Powell investigate.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix2.4/5
- IMDb4.7/103,643 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
London is days away from Christmas when a person in a grinning see-through mask stabs a man in a Santa suit and the woman with him in a car in an alley. Another Santa, at a party, takes a spear through the head; his daughter Kate Brioski sees it happen. Chief Inspector Ian Harris and Detective Sergeant Powell of Scotland Yard go over the killings and question Kate and her boyfriend Cliff. A further Santa dies that night, his face pushed down onto the grill where he was roasting chestnuts. A gift labeled Don't Open Till Christmas is delivered to Harris, Powell gets a phone call from a man giving the name Giles, and another Santa is shot in the mouth.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director-star Edmund Purdom quit Don't Open Till Christmas mid-shoot; the producers hired the writer Derek Ford to replace him, but Ford was fired after only two days, and the film's editor, Ray Selfe, took over direction while Alan Birkinshaw rewrote most of the script.
- The London Dungeon sequence was filmed twice to add more gore, and the attraction's management was so upset by the crew's behavior that it banned all future film productions from shooting in the location.
- A planned death scene in which a Santa is electrocuted with Christmas lights was scrapped when the set caught fire.
- Alan Lake, who plays Giles Harrison, died by suicide two months before the film's release, after the death of his wife Diana Dors earlier in 1984; it was the last film role for both Lake and Gerry Sundquist, who also died by suicide in 1993.
- Edmund Purdom agreed to star in Don't Open Till Christmas solely on the condition that he be allowed to direct it; he had played the killer in the Spanish-shot slasher Pieces for the American producers Dick Randall and Stephen Minasian.
SPOILER
The film's final girl, credited only as 'Experience Girl', was originally a stripper who appeared in a single kill scene; she was recast twice with different actresses before Ray Selfe expanded her into the final girl.- Caroline Munro, who was filming Slaughter High for the same producers at the time, was brought in for an extended cameo to pad the film's running time; her scene was shot in a single day.
- The making of the film was chronicled in the behind-the-scenes documentary The Making of a Horror Film, and the experience turned Edmund Purdom off directing for good; he returned to Rome to resume his acting career.
