Christmas 2021: December 4th

Dial Code Santa Claus (1989)

3615 code Père Noël / Deadly Games

Many years back, I was informed that “Home Alone,” considered by some to be a holiday classic, was in fact a rip-off. That Chris Columbus/John Hughes' beloved film was an unofficial remake of a French film called “3615 code Père Noël.” For years, I read about the movie but actual copies of it were hard to find. On the rare occasion that an edition cropped up, it was always in unsubtitled French. That was the state of things until a few years back, when the American Genre Film Archive restored it and organized screenings at festivals. A Blu-Ray release – carrying the official international title “Deadly Games,” though the literal translation “Dial Code Santa Claus” is still how the movie is best known – would follow soon afterwards. This cult obscurity has now been brought to light and it's pass due for me to include it in my December watchlist.

Thomas lives in a mansion with his sickly grandfather and his mom, the top exec of a chain of French toy stores. Thomas is a technological prodigy and obsessed with war games. He's also at that age when kids begin to question if Santa Claus – or his French counterpart,  Père Noël – is real. He contacts Father Christmas on Minitel, a European predecessor to the internet... But the jolly old elf he's talking to is, in fact, an unhinged older man. After the same man is fired from his job as a Santa, at the store Thomas' mom runs, he tracks the boy down on Christmas Eve. Practically alone in the huge house, as mom is stuck at work and grandpa is ill, the kid will have to fight the dangerous Claus off by himself. 

Director René Manzor opens the film with a close-up inside an idyllic holiday snow globe, which is then smashed under a truck tire. This is a not exactly subtle nod towards the film's main theme, of the loss of innocence. Thomas' snot-nosed friend assures him that Santa Claus isn't real, that the man he's talking to in a chatroom is just a bot. Thomas is unsure himself, pestering his mother and grandfather with obsessive questions on the topic. When he sees a man in a red suit come down the chimney, it seems to validate the sense of child-like whimsy the young boy is still holding onto... Until this Santa Claus stabs his beloved dog to death with a cake server. Tommy is forced to grow up fast after that, even burying his dog and bandaging his own leg during a weepy montage. (Set to a weepy Bonnie Tyler song.) Even by the end, after the threat is defeated, “3615 code Père Noël” makes it clear that the boy is utterly traumatized for life. 

This set-up certainly leads the way for lots of grim tension. There's several moments of crackling suspense in “Dial Code Santa Claus.” Tommy and his granddad are cornered in the garage by Santa, hiding in a car as the windows are smashed and broken. This proceeds another tense chase through the corridors of the mansion, the camera pulling back and making Thomas look like a rat in the maze. His childish games, from earlier in the movie, are given a grim reprise when the boy has to climb along the outside ledge of the mansion's roof. The movie even generates thrills from a scene of a toy train rolling across the room or some missing insulin. These scenes are made all the more tense because the film constantly plays with the idea that this Santa Claus isn't just crazy. There's this lingering implication throughout that his fascination with children is unwholesome in a number of other ways as well. 

As tense as “3615 Code  Père Noël” can be, describing it as just a “thriller” undersells how weird this movie really is. Little Tommy isn't Kevin McCallister. He's an even more cartoonish figure of childhood wish fulfillment. He's a technical genius, capable of fixing a car or mastering a computer all by himself. This allows him to pull off implausible tasks, like designing a digital security system that connects wirelessly to the monitor on his wrist. In 1989! Did I mention that he's built complex booby traps into the house, like a trap door or steel barriers over the window? The boy is introduced dressing up like Rambo, while a sound-alike “Eye of the Tiger” plays, and tossing toy shurikens at his dog. He rocks a truly hideous mullet the entire movie too. “Dial Code Santa Claus” is a grim thriller, bordering on horror, but it also feels like a weirdo kid's movie too. 

Cementing the film's off-the-walls atmosphere is some truly surreal production design. Thomas sleeps in a blasted out fighter jet. A suit of medieval armor is an important plot point. The most notable scenery is an underground tunnel, a rope bridge across it, the area littered with old toys. Did I mention that the kid lives in a fucking castle? These unusual sights are more all-the-more poetic by the film's gorgeous photography. A soft bluish color washes over the entire film, bathing these unusual events in a nostalgic, snowy ambiance. Manzor's camera often frames moments from off-beat angles, furthering the feeling that “Dial Code Santa Claus” takes place in its own, weird little world. 

“Dial Code Santa Claus” wouldn't run very long in French theaters but became a cult favorite on VHS. Presumably, that cult has grown now that the film has finally been officially released on this side of the ocean. “Dial Code Santa Claus” is a wonderfully weird Christmas thriller, a unique mixture that blends action, horror, kids' fantasies, and holiday cheer in fascinating ways. As for whether or not “Home Alone” ripped it off,  René Manzor felt strongly enough about it that he nearly sued Fox. He says an American producer approached him at Cannes and that “Home Alone” only came out after the deal fell through. I think it's probably a coincidence, as the differences in story and tone far outnumber the similarities. But I am way more likely to rewatch Thomas fighting a crazed Santa than I am Kevin batter the Wet Bandits again. [8/10]

VR Troopers: Santa's Secret Trooper

After “Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers” became a pop culture phenomenon and a massive money-maker, the show's creator – Haim Saban and Shuki Levy – would essentially try the exact same thing a second time. That would be taking footage from Japanese tokusatsu superhero shows and building a new program around it. Footage from three separate Japanese shows – “Choujinki Metalder,” “Dimensional Warrior Spielban,” and “Space Sheriff Shaider” – would be combined with goofy American footage to create “VR Troopers.” The name was chosen, presumably, because it was 1994 and “virtual reality” was a marketing buzzword that was everywhere at the time.

“VR Troopers” followed the “Power Rangers” formula to a tee. It was three high-kicking teenagers, instead of five. Their superhero counterparts had massive vehicles, instead of smaller robots that combined to make a bigger robot. Instead of aliens and ancient magic, gobblygook about virtual reality put the plot in motion. Otherwise, the general outline was the same. The kids – Ryan, Kaitlin, and J.B – hung out in a dojo, instead of a juice bar. They took their orders from a digitized copy of Professor Hart, instead of a a floating head in a tube. Their comic relief was a talking dog with a Jack Nicholson voice, instead of a glitching robot. Their enemy was Grimlord, the leader of a race of evil monsters who hung out in a VR alternate universe. (As opposed to living on the moon, like Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd did.) Naturally, the high-kicking teen heroes had to transform into their superpowered alter-egos to fight off the various minions and colorful monsters sent by Grimlord. 

Also like “Power Rangers,” “VR Trooper” had a lame Christmas episode. “Santa's Secret Trooper,” from the show's second season, had the three teen heroes discovering a real life Christmas elf while searching for mistletoe in the woods one day. The elf, named Otto, promises to grant the kids three Christmas wishes. That's when Grimlord – who operates in the human realm as a cackling businessman with a pet lizard – kidnaps Otto. He wishes the teens into his lair, where the villain and his minions threaten the kids. That's before the elf humiliates the villains and teleports everyone back to the dojo, where Santa appears. There's barely any Japanese footage this episode, certainly no superhero action, and almost no fighting at all. (This might be because “Santa's Secret Trooper” was produced late in the show's life, when it had already exhausted most of the Japanese footage.)

You'll need the ability to tolerate kiddie show bullshit to get through this half-hour. What most amused me about “Santa's Secret Trooper” is that, despite how intimidating Grimlord and his posse of weirdos are, they are easily defeated by a goofy Christmas elf. I'm glad the tradition of intimidating but utterly incompetent kids show villains – otherwise known as The Skeletor Effect – continued into the nineties. There's also a lot of singing in this episode, which makes me wonder if Haim Saban wanted to launch a pop career or something. (I'm also amused that, much like on “Power Rangers,” the very Jewish Saban made sure a Menorah was included among all the Christmas festivities.) This episode is very dumb and pretty lame but the whole program is such an oddity, I can't help but be intrigued. I might be tempted to revisit more of “VR Troopers” someday, to see if the attempts to blend three different Japanese shows together is as awkward as I remember it being. [5/10]