I don’t know about you, but I have a real soft spot for Christmas horror. It’s a subgenre that runs the gamut from truly awful (I’m looking at you, Bill Goldberg) to the unsung gems like Await Further Instructions and Sick For Toys, finally ascending all the way to the truest and greatest of all Christmas horror movies, Gremlins. In between, there’s cheese, cheer, and children getting what’s coming to them.

It’s the best part of the season, really.

In the sub-subgenre of the killer Santa, however, the bar is set pretty high for butchery thanks to films like Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 and the twice-adapted Tales From the Crypt classic segment, “…And All Through the House”. Don’t worry, though – this year’s killer Santa is more than just a mortal man. In fact, he’s a literal Terminator.

Christmas Bloody Christmas centers on Tori Tooms (Riley Dandy; Interceptor), a record store owner and uber-nerd who just wants to get drunk and get laid. She doesn’t like Christmas, so she plans to spend it with her employee and BFF, Robbie Reynolds (Sam Delich; Spiderhead) and a bottle of whiskey after he warns her away from her married Tinder date. Unbeknownst to them (but knownst to us, as the expression goes), the government prototype robot-turned-Santa has blown a fuse and decided to revert back to its original programming. Luckily, there’s a fire axe nearby and a town full of naughty people just itching for some punishment. At the end of that trail of destruction are Tori and Robbie, just trying to get drunk and have a good Christmas.

Joe Begos has already given us the thoroughly badass VFW and the deliriously unhinged explosion that is Bliss, so there’s an expectation of quality that thankfully is delivered upon in spades. Christmas Bloody Christmas takes the killer Santa template up a couple of notches by breaking its 81 minutes runtime into two distinct halves. The first half is pure slasher structure (and done damn well at that). The frequent cuts back and forth between Tori and Robbie’s Christmas evening festivities and the garishly lit murders of an entire family and some assorted unfortunate souls are paced masterfully, keeping the tension nice and high. Every kill is a violent highlight as Robo Santa chops heads clean in half and kills indiscriminately.

The second half is a holiday-themed homage to The Terminator. When the film turns on its ear, it does so in a rapid but seamless fashion. The stunt work and explosion are first-rate, and that makes a huge difference in selling an unstoppable robot Santa. He really takes a licking and keeps on ticking to an almost ludicrous level. It’s frankly more intense and action laden than I was expecting after the slasher chops displayed in the first half.

Speaking of intense, Riley Dandy portrays one of my favorite characters in years. She is intensity in every sense of the word – her musical and film opinions (which are eerily similar to my own), her appetite for partying and sex, and even her physical presence. At one point she opines about the trouble men have with women who can outdrink, outfight, and outfuck them. As someone who married that kind of woman, I can say Tori Tooms is the kind of chick you’d want on your side in a deadly situation. The character is true to life, and Riley Dandy plays her that way. Hell of a showing by someone to watch.

Sam Delich is no slouch either as Robbie. He’s a wonderful counterpoint and perfectly portrays the friend zone employee who really wants to be out of that zone. The semi-romantic element is a nice touch. And I’ll never complain about an appearance from Jeff Daniel Phillips (3 From Hell) as Sherriff Monroe (great last name!), an all-around decent guy who’s just trying to do his job and protect the town. He has the toughness and the humanity balanced out equally in a key supporting role.

Christmas Bloody Christmas has all the makings of not just a holiday horror classic but a series as well. Bursting with potential, it’s Begos’ best film to date. I know there’s direct killer Santa competition this year that has a bigger budget and bigger stars, but Christmas Bloody Christmas is a fast-paced and unapologetic horror-action film that fills the need for yuletide violence in a more visceral way while sustaining Kevin Smith-esque banter throughout that speaks the language of the music and film nerd in just the right dialect.

I couldn’t ask for more out of my Christmas horror.