Christmas Cruelty!

Name: Christmas Cruelty!
Released: 2013
Duration: 96 min

33/100Festive FactorWhy it scores 33 ↓

Not BBFC rated96 min
Horror

A Norwegian no-budget slasher that spends an hour watching a group of friends drink, bicker and buy a tree…

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Explore this film 4 sections

The CineClaus Christmas score

Festive Factor

A different kind of Christmas.

Two paper elves inspect a miniature red block of flats. A tree glows behind curtains in one window, and a single trail of footprints leads through snow to the entrance. — A little magic in the making.

Five ingredients make the Festive Factor.
Open an ingredient to find out more.

Christmas in the storyChristmas is the deadline.15/30

What we ask: Take Christmas out. Does the plot survive? Worth up to 30 of the 100 points.

A world dressed for ChristmasVisibly Christmas for about half.10/20

What we ask: How much of the running time is visibly Christmas? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

The little seasonal details3 of the 10 kinds of Christmas icon we count turn up on screen.5/15

What we ask: How many kinds of Christmas icon turn up on screen: trees, lights, snow, carols and the rest? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

A Christmas heartHow far the ending rests on goodwill, family and belief: not at all.0/20

What we ask: Does the ending depend on what Christmas means: goodwill, family, redemption, belief? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

A returning traditionNiche at Christmas (under 25,000).3/15

What we ask: Is it actually watched at Christmas in the UK? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

10/100

Cosiness Rating Rating

Cold or hostile in tone. Genuinely frightening. A bleak ending.

How we score →

What do these scores mean?

Festive Factor measures how Christmassy a film is. Five ingredients add up to 100: story (30), setting (20), seasonal details (15), emotional heart (20) and returning tradition (15).

Cosiness is a separate score for warmth of tone, sense of safety, visual comfort, a reassuring ending and how easily you can settle into it.

How the Festive Factor works →

The story

About Christmas Cruelty!

In the run-up to Christmas, a quiet, middle-aged office worker with a wife and a young child spends his spare time online, researching the people he means to kill. Intercut with his routine is a group of twenty-something friends getting ready for the holidays: drinking, bickering and buying a tree. The two stories meet on Christmas night, when he arrives at their flat dressed as Father Christmas. A no-budget Norwegian slasher, original title O'Hellige Jul!, made by its two directors partly as a way to learn film-making, and among the most graphic Christmas horror films there is.

The CineClaus verdict

A Norwegian no-budget slasher that spends an hour watching a group of friends drink, bicker and buy a tree, then hands the last half hour to a killer in a Father Christmas suit. The violence is as extreme as the genre gets, and the cheerful music laid over it only makes it nastier.

The slow middle tests patience, and the killer's tidy home life is the most unsettling thing in it. Strictly for seasoned gorehounds.

The family desk

Can the kids watch?

Not BBFC rated

Our take: no. An infant is killed in the opening and the last half hour is extreme torture and sexual violence, so this is for adults only.

Content advice & accessibility

Not BBFC rated: The BBFC has no classification for this film, so it has no UK certificate. Our age guidance above is editorial, not an official rating.