Pssst, want to check out 36.15 code Père Noël in our new look?
Information
- A.k.a.
- Deadly Games
- Year
- 1989
- Runtime
- 92 min.
- Director
- René Manzor
- Genres
- Action, Thriller, Horror
- Rating *
- 6.4
- Votes *
- 383
- Checks
- 169
- Favs
- 10
- Dislikes
- 1
- Favs/checks
- 5.9% (1:17)
- Favs/dislikes
- 10:1
Top comments
-
Siskoid
36.15 Code Père Noël (AKA Dial Code Santa Claus AKA Deadly Games AKA Game Over) is essentially the French version of Home Alone and indeed came first (there was a bit of legal action attempted and everything). Hard not to see it - It's about a precocious kid who's a bit of a MacGyver and fights off a home invasion on Christmas. The mom even looks like Catherine O'Hara. The main difference is that instead of Keystone thieves, we get a psychotic killer Santa who, in Thomas' imagination, has come to punish him for doubting his existence for the first time (he's not called Thomas for nothing). Thomas likes to dress up as a cross between Rambo and a cyberpunk street samurai, and the film is very much steeped in 80s action tropes. And is quite a bit darker than the cartoonish Home Alone, so much so that it crosses a line with its portrayal of violence towards kids and animals. This is quite at odds with the kid's movie atmosphere set up in the first part of the movie, with its fantastical house, giant toy room, and cute relationship between the kid and his grandfather (and mother). The sense of wonder doesn't really go away after the killer shows up, but is rather twisted into mad horror that's magical to the child, if not for us. I give it points for originality, but I'm not always sure who this was for. 9 months 3 weeks ago